Aug 23, 2001 07:58 PM
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It really isn't fair to say that Osmosis Jones is heavy on bodily humor: Most of the film takes place within the body!Plus there are live action sequences involving a puking Bill Murray and the spontaneous of a zit with so much projectile force that its contents land on Molly Shannon's bottom lip. Before this, I had never been to a movie that made me both gag and cry within a 20 minute time span. But I digest.
Frank Detorri (Bill Murray) is the poster boy for bad eating and health habits. He consistently consumes anything fried, fatty or from the candy aisle, and his daughter, Shane (Elena Franklin), has had about enough. Her mother recently died from ''getting sick''-no one nails down an affliction in this film-and Shane's afraid the same is going to happen to her father.
Frank's eating habits are so bad that he fights a caged monkey over a boiled egg and wins, subsequently eating the spoils after it's been inside the monkey's mouth and on the ground. That little egg, aside from being dirty, is carrying a villainous virus named Thrax (Lawrence Fishburne), whose main aim is to kill Frank in the next 48 hours. The action starts as Thrax takes down a spit-bubble helicopter en route to its mission to clean up lunch in Frank's mouth.
Did I forget to mention that nearly 80 per cent of this film is animated?
Inside Frank's body, a city is running, amoebae are going to work in microscopic cars and phlegm is out drinking at the newly opened Zit Club.
In the thick of it all is Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock, a white blood cell cop out to atone for his previous indiscretions on the FrankPD. Teamed up with Drix (David Hyde Pierce), a twelve hour cold tablet, they battle Thrax to reclaim Frank's health. Jones has the hots for Leah (Brandy Norwood), a red blood cell and Mayor Phlegmming's (William Shatner)assistant. Phlegmming is a brain cell in the middle of a campaign, and his platform is to give the ''people'' what they want, ignoring what's best for Frank. His only opponent is Tom Colonic from the Bowels, who promises ''to get things moving again.''
The story is indeed clever, despite the live action parts falling below par even for the Farrelly Brothers. It's sickly comforting to think of all the stuff inside you working together for one united cause-your overall health-although this treatment has its propagandist underpinnings, like a school health film gone awry. Perhaps that is part of its charm, but whenever you start making things that aren't supposed to talk converse freely in a narrative, there's always going to be a weird current of morality woven through.
The double plot line of live-action versus animation didn't accomplish its goal of keeping the audience emotionally involved with the story, what with the live-action parts looking like a better rehearsed Saturday Night Live alumni skit. These sequences, though gross, are ultimately boring. What shines is the animation and its attention to detail. From billboards on Red Vein Highway to earthquake like cramps that devastate Downtown, every aspect of city life and pop culture is covered. It is amazing and entertaining, if not informative.
