This is the News!

Introduction

News Movie aka The Onion Movie comes from those lovable people at theonion.com, who have been providing us with comedy news for many years (if you're a fan of course).

If this is your first encounter with The Onion, then think of them as a toned down American version of Chris Morris, Charlie Brooker and co, producing the kind of parodies and subtle satire that you didn't think that Americans were capable of. Well they are and The Onion have been doing it for years.

Their skits and sketches have evolved from simple website pages "back in the day" to a site bursting with audio and video to complement their traditional roots.

And now there's a film which is basically an extended series of sketches loosely tied together with a simple narrative, which is about the best way to do something like this.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which all looks fine. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to complain about.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack, which doesn't exactly make your ears bleed, but certainly does its job well enough.

Extras

A few minutes of out-takes (briefly amusing) and another few minutes of deleted scenes.

Conclusion

A very funny film. If you like things like Brass Eye, Nathan Barley, The Day Today, People Like Us or similar comedies, then you'll laugh at this. Similarly, if you've ever visited The Onion web site, you'll know how their minds work and want to check this out.

There are some obvious and ancient targets here (a sketch where a magazine is so full of inserts that they take over the room), some cheap Alzheimer's gags, and the blatant Britney Spears parody (who's blatant songs and videos are really not about sex honest).

And if the Steven Seagal film featured within ("Cockpuncher") didn't exist inside of this film then you just know that it would probably exist in the real world at some point soon. But it's proof that as well as cheap gross out gags, Americans can do subtle comedy too. There is still some hope left for the world!

Recommended for comedy fans everywhere.