Osmosis Jones

Okay, I think I've found the Sadly Underrated Movie of the Year.

I think that, between this and "the Iron Giant", Warner Brothers Animation has GOT to spring for a better promotion department. Really, all they'd have to say is something like: "We just let the creators of 'Something About Mary' and 'Dumb and Dumber' make their own cartoon. Brace yourselves."

All complaints aside, and none of them are really the movie's fault, this is one of the most inventive animated films I've seen in a very long time. The characters and backgrounds are allowed to look and move in ways that are downright refreshingly bizarre. The visuals are very imaginative. The humor, while funny, is still very much what you'd expect from a Farelly Brothers movie that takes place inside a very sick man, so I wouldn't recommend it to little kids or the weak of stomach. If you have a little future A+P major, however, this is going to blow their mind. Give it a look!

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.

Whoever made this has a big imagination about what goes on inside the human body. It's very witty and smart. The whole rookie cop cliche who messes up and is THIS close to being pulled off the force and has a hunch a teams up with an unlikely buddy and ends up being right (for example, Rush Hour) is being given a whole new twist. The Farrley Brothers have done it again- and made a solid B+ stand out comedy. B+, 8/10

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.

OSMOSIS JONES / (2001) ***1/2 (out of four)

By Blake French:

Consider the Farrelly brothers. The majority of a crowd would think of adjectives like shocking and envelope pushing, to describe them, but the most shocking thing about "Osmosis Jones," is the PG rating. Originally warranted a PG-13 rating, still a surprise from filmmakers whose credits include "There's Something About Mary" and "Me, Myself, and Irene," the film finally earned the family friendly PG rating after it was subjected to a re-rating. Peter and Bobby Farrelly are known for their crude, rude, and disgusting sense of humor. Breaking free of their traditional styles, their focus is now on something a little more entertaining than gross-out humor-imagination.

Directing a wildly amusing script by Marc Hyman, the Farrelly bothers are really on to something here. This is arguably their best film to date. Only "There's Something About Mary" stands up against "Osmosis Jones," a film that jumps between live action and cartoon animation. It calculates each moment with the perfect timing. This is not a movie just for this kids, although it's perfectly appropriate for everyone in the family. This is a feast for anyone's imagination. "Osmosis Jones" creates a world we seldom see in the movies-inside the human body.

"Osmosis Jones" is not an extremely funny movie. Only a handful of plentiful laughs occurs in the film. None of the gross-out humor works; the ideas are too jumbled within other ideas to payoff. "Osmosis Jones" does play with a lot of different humor types-from a clever "Titanic" joke that practically winks at the audience, to a laugh out loud performance by SNL veteran Molly Shannon. In "Superstar" Shannon proved to be a nuisance. However, in this film she is a very welcome screen presence.

Bill Murray needs to be in more movies these days. He still has the comic connection with the audience that carried "Scrooged," his best film, to my list of all time favorites. He stars as Frank Detorri, a lazy, slothful zoo worker who would get life behind bars if hygiene was a law. His wife passed away because of a sickness that their young, but healthy and intelligent, daughter (Elena Franklin) believes evolved from poor eating habits.

Frank eats something that contains a deadly virus, and it's up to his immune system to fight back. Osmosis Jones (voiced by Chris Rock) is one of those white blood cells who serves as a cop and must capture various villainous germs and viruses inside Frank. Although not a popular individual among the world of Frank, especially with the Mayor (voiced by William Shater), who is running for re-election very soon, he does have a crush on his assistant, Leah (voiced by Brandy Norwood). After the virus, named Thrax (voiced by Laurence Fishburne), accumulates villainous help and starts on a plan to kill Frank in a record time of forty eight hours, Osmosis must work with a cold pill named Drix (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), to stop this monstrously powerful germ before it's too late for Frank and his daughter.

The movie has some very clever material-various parts of the body represent neighborhoods in the City of Frank. For instance, the stomach is the airport with frequent departures to the colon. The Mafia relaxes in a steam room located in the armpit. Lawyers hang out in a hemorrhoid. When a zit pops up, it's seemingly the party room for the entire body, complete with a dance floor and strippers. Just simple content like that makes "Osmosis Jones" worth a watch. Even adults will enjoy the live action humor, as well as the film's zest, energy, and irony.

In a time when summer movies are at an all time low, "Osmosis Jones" is here to save they day. It's one of the most clever films of the year.