Osmosis Jones

The Farrelly brothers are dipping into the animation pool. It's colorful and primitive animation. It's pretty good, but that's not really the problem. Surprisingly the problem is Bill Murray and live action stuff.

Frank Detomello is a slob. He eats a hard boiled egg covered with a deadly germ. And we travel inside Frank to see white blood cell policeman Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock) battle evil virus Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) with the help of Drix (David Hyde Pierce).

Bill Murray looks awful as he gets sicker and sicker. I have to ask if we're supposed to laugh at Bill? It's just gross. Not the gross out humor that the Farrellys are known for. It isn't funny at all.

The animated sections are much better. In fact I prefer they cut out the live action stuff. Chris Rock does a good voice. He has good chemistry with David Hyde Pierce's Drix. They need a few more jokes, but I like the City of Frank.

When you mention the title of this film to someone, they just look at you and say "What?".

Yeah, nobody went to see this film when it came out. I think it's because how do you market a film like this? Since this takes place in the human body, there's all kinds of gross out humour in it. Some of it is too much for a PG rated film.

That's my biggest problem with this film and why it wasn't marketed very well. It's gross. The scene where the nose dam breaks and a giant tidal wave of snot comes out is not what you're mean to see in a family film. Especially on the big screen. The scene where Frank vomits on the teacher and it is shown in a newspaper headline, we actually see the vomit. You don't show people vomiting in a PG film. Not only that, but it's part of the story. Making gross out gags part of the story is not a good idea.

Also, the scene where the zit is ready to pop, we get a big giant close up on it which is enough to make anyone cringe.

It's almost like Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. A show loaded with gross out humour. But that was for adults. This is meant to be a family film.

Now, the stuff I do like about it; the animation is great, it's very creative, (making the stomach the airport, the brain is city hall, the armpits are the steam room, I could go on)Laurence Fishburne was fantastic as Thrax. I kept forgetting it was him. Even if you don't like this film, you have to admit, Thrax is awesome. The music's great too. I like all the body puns as well.

Not a film for everyone, but has gained a cult following on DVD.

How does the body work?

I've always wanted to know exactly what goes on inside my body, and I must say I had a pretty fair idea thanks to my Biology class in school.

Then I saw Osmosis Jones, which completely threw me off.

The way Frank's body works and the cause/effect situations in this movie are hilarious! Frank is seen as a huge city, such as New York or Los Angeles, and blood cells live out their daily lives. The creative abilities of the creators of this movie seems endless even though it is limited to Frank's body.

The characters are well drawn-out, and we even learn some of Jones' background (he lived in a certain area of the body and had hardly any education). Drix is a product of a cold pill and assigned to help out around the place, and we learn much about him as he explains it all to Jones.

The music in this movie isn't bad, but some of it didn't really match with the scenes. Randy Edelman is the composer, and he doesn't do a bad job. Even the rap and R&B music fit in and didn't sound too bad.

All in all, Osmosis Jones is a great movie if you like animation (especially quick-action animated fighting scenes) and imaginative adventures such as these.

As an aesthete, this movie goes against everything I stand for, but I found it nonetheless very entertaining. It was like a peculiar yet satisfying mix between the Incredible Journey, Toy Story, and Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour (the whole loose-cannon, loner cop with a new partner bit).

I found the idea rather original: the human body is like a body of government, the cop is a white blood cell, the "president" was the cell whose will was that of the man (Bill Murray), the villain is a virus who hangs out in seedy areas of the body with shady characters, the bladder is a sort of train station/airport... clever stuff.

I did have issues with the "What a zit- I mean, what is it?" part, though: it landed on her lip! Wrong! I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing that. Molly Shannon is quite a sport. 7/10

Osmosis Jones is a comedy of human proportions, I guess. It works enough and when it works well it's a good movie. Although when you think about it the plot-line inside Frank's body (frank is played by Bill Murray with no shame in great form) is rather routine and for me was the only thing keeping this from being really good.

Still, it might be a worthwhile movie, more for kids than adults, but it it watchable for all. Various voices include Chris Rock, Brandy Norwood, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce and William Shatner. Pleasant most of the way and sometimes cool. B