167 - The Onion Movie

    There isn't too much of a plot to this movie.  It's a collection of sketches, and gags, loosely following a story about two fictional nations nearing war, a terrorist cell plotting an attack, and the Onion's news anchor being annoyed that his program has ads for the parent company's forthcoming movie interrupting the news.
    I would say that this is similar to Kentucky Fried Movie or The Groove Tube.  Except both of those have less of a plot.  But this has a similar vibe to it.  If you don't care for the joke, it will be over soon.  And some of the jokes that don't seem worthwhile actually pay off much better down the road.
    This is actually the real benefit of the movie.  Most of the sequences have a layered reality to them.  We see references to gags in unrelated stories.  In some cases, it's something trivial, like seeing an ad on a TV in the background.  But this approach gives a peculiar sense of an alternate reality.
    You see, in Kentucky Fried Movie or The Groove Tube, each sequence is mostly self-contained.  We never see an ad for Catholic High School Girls In Trouble later in the movie.  The only thing I can think of that repeats in Kentucky Fried Movie is the director's name that is attached to every project.  Since everything ties together in this picture, the world building gives everything an extra sheen of being strange.
    I also have a deeper appreciation for Steven Seagal's role in this movie.
    I'll leave you with some enjoyable Melissa Cherry.