Osmosis Jones

“Osmosis Jones,” released in 2001, is like the dark side of those animated educational films showing what goes on in the bowels. It takes us inside the human body for a tour of such unknown areas as the Lower East Backside, and such useful organs as the Puke Bottom. Roger Ebert described in his review, “These sights are depicted in colorful, gloppy, drippy animation, and then we switch to live action for the outside of the body in question, which belongs to a man named Frank (Bill Murray).”

Frank follows the Ten-Second Rule, which says that if food is dropped and stays on the ground less than 10 seconds, it’s still safe to eat. In the case of the hard-boiled egg in question, he might also have thought that before the egg dropped, he had to fight it from the mouth of a monkey. The egg is filled with germs, sending the inside of his body into immediate emergency.

At the cellular area, we meet Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock), a maverick cop, always being called into the chief’s (Joel Silver) office for a lecture. In the first animated cell version of a buddy movie, he teams up with Drix (David Hyde Pierce), a fearful-release cold capsule, to fight the viral invasion, which threatens to kill Frank after Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) introduces a new and deadly infection.

Ebert noted, “The live action scenes, directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly ("There's Something About Mary"), use Bill Murray's seedy insouciance as a horrible object lesson in what can happen to you if you don't think all the time about germs.” His second, potentially lethal, infection comes when he visits a science fair where his daughter Shane, played by Elena Franklin, is displaying her project. Talking with another contestant, played by Will Dunn, he learns that the kid’s experiment has polluted oysters being cleaned. Assured that the oysters are cleansed, he eats one.

The animated scenes, which takes up two-thirds of the movie, were directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito. Ebert noted, “Imagine the journey through the human body undertaken by Dennis Quaid in "Innerspace" (1987), as if it were drawn by Matt Groening ("Life in Hell") on acid, and you will have an approximation. I especially liked the way various parts of the body represented neighborhoods in the City of Frank (the stomach is the airport, with regular departures to the colon; the Mafia hangs out in the armpit; lawyers can be found in a hemorrhoid).”

Inside Frank City, the Mayor (William Shatner) tries to maintain the status quo when he is campaigning against his opponent, Tom Colonic (Ron Howard), a “regular guy.” Outside, the unshaven Frank embarrasses his clean daughter with his uncivilized behavior, and really offends the science teacher, played by Molly Shannon, by purging on her after eating the wrong oyster. (Ebert said, “I am reminded of Dr. Johnson observing to Mr. Boswell: "Sir, he was a brave man who ate the first oyster."”) Back inside Frank, Osmosis Jones worries that he acted too quickly when he pushed the Puke Button.

Who is the movie for? Ebert said, “Despite my descriptions, it is nowhere near as gross as the usual the effort, and steers clear of adventures in the genital areas. It was originally classified PG-13, but was upgraded to PG after some trims, and is likely to entertain kids, who seem to like jokes about anatomical plumbing.” For adults, there is the excitement of the animation and the energy of the whole movie, which is just really smart.

I saw this movie in the theaters with my siblings and I really enjoyed the movie. I don’t know what my siblings thought of it, but I personally had a fun time laughing throughout the movie. Maybe the animated parts were what I found most amusing, but the live-action scenes were also funny and did have some emotion in it later on. Check it out if you haven’t because I think you will have an enjoyable time watching this movie.

Next week, we will be ending “Bill Murray Month” with one of the best movies ever made.