WE ALL LOVE THE ONION, not just because of its on-target irreverent observations and truth-imitating-life subject matters, but because they write the things we all wish we had the nerve to write.
But according to one reviewer, The Onion's attempt to break onto the big screen brought people to tears. Stephen Silver of North Star Writers Group gave "The Onion, Unpeeled" DVD one star out of four for a film that he said, aside for a few funny moments, wasn't up to the paper's high comedic standards.
"A front page newspaper article about a guy losing his socks can be funny; a five-minute sketch about it is considerably less so," he wrote. "Other jokes, meanwhile, are lifted directly from years-old bits from the newspaper. ... In all, The Onion Movie is much like a Saturday Night Live sketch on a night when the host sucks, the sketches are lackluster and none of the "Weekend Update" jokes are hitting."
To be fair, Silver noted, The Onion publishers weren't thrilled with the effort back in 2003 and had put the whole project on the shelf. It was rescued by a different distributor with no ties to the newspaper and sent direct-to-DVD without much promotion. The original director even removed his name from the project.
"The Onion brand remains strong on the newspaper, book and Web sides," the review concluded, "but if The Onion Movie is any indication, the movies are one medium for which America's Finest News Source is not quite ready."*