Release Date: August 10, 2001
The Voices of: Chris Rock, David Hyde Pierce, Laurence Fishburne, William Shatner
Also Starring: Bill Murray, Molly Shannon, Elena Franklin
Directed by: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Written by: Marc Hyman
Distributed by: Warner Brothers
MPAA Rating: PG (bodily humor)
Peter and Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary) have made gross-out comedies a standard, household genre in contemporary cinema -- rare is the moviegoer today who hasn't seen Mary or Dumb & Dumber or Me, Myself & Irene. With Osmosis Jones, though, the Farrellys decided to lower the age of the target market by incorporating animation with live action. Brilliant marketing tactic, perhaps, but when the brothers begin to work their product, as childish as it gets, it's definitely not for children.
As far as loyalists are concerned, in Osmosis Jones, the sight gags and ramblings of Chris Rock are hardly up to the caliber at which the brothers Farrelly and Chris Rock have operated at in most of their films. There were few laughs from a poorly albeit creatively written script, and the run-of-the-mill family themes bring the innovative idea to shame.
The idea centers around Frank Pepperidge (Bill Murray), a slob of a zoo worker whose daily living values include Twinkies for lunch and no exercise. His daughter Shane (Elena Franklin) is desperately trying to change his ways before he suffers the same fate as her mom -- who died from poor health. But Frank's real troubles begin after he consumes an egg that was, well, less than clean.
The egg, you see, brought on a deadly virus, Thrax (voiced by Laurence Fishburne), whose only agenda is to kill Frank, so his name will be one for the medical books. And it's up to Osmosis Jones (voiced by Chris Rock), a white blood cell cop, and Drix (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), a cheap over-the-counter cold tablet medication, to track down and eliminate Thrax. Their mission takes them throughout the City of Frank (Frank's body) to such diverse locations as Frank's runny nostrils (Booger Dam) and a bar called the Zit.
While this all sounds imaginative enough, first-time screenwriter Marc Hyman should have gone through a couple more drafts on his script. Similar, if not recycled, bodily humor runs rampant from beginning to end, and though this is to be expected from any Farrelly film at this point in their collective careers, there was potential for more depth.
For instance, the animation techniques incorporated into the film and the interesting concept of a city inside a human body gave more promise than the typical Mary-esque humor that's becoming older than leftover egg salad. But listening to the dialogue alone makes you wonder if Hyman tested any of the jokes with anyone sober -- it seemed to me that all he had to work with was your average made-for-Hollywood screenwriting template, a medical dictionary, and a six-pack. Worse, most children won't get the medical jargon or obscure references made.
Emphasizing his lack of creative skill, Hyman also had no shame in parodying The Godfather, Titanic, and The Matrix, and these references hardly seem justified other than to get a cheap laugh (The Matrix spoof was probably present because of an equally shameless plug from infamous action producer Joel Silver, who had a special voice appearance as the Police Chief -- like there weren't enough Matrix spoofs in Hollywood already).
Besides the laughs that were missing from star Rock, Hyman decided to write in the well-trod moral family theme: a father and daughter are torn a part by the death of the mother. It's a mistake, foremost because it sounds all too familiar but more importantly because it has no place in a gross-out comedy marketed for children.
Despite the lack of true laughs and solid themes, though, Peter and Bobby Farrelly did balance the animation and live action sequences well. Cinematographer Mark Irwin (Say It Isn't So) helped out in mixing the shots from inside Frank's body to the outside world, and he managed to get a tennis match system into place rather early. And actually, that much is surprising considering how many things went wrong in this picture and how much potential was wasted (especially the voices of Rock, Pierce, and Fishburne). While Osmosis Jones certainly isn't worth the lump sum required to see a first-run movie nowadays, it should be highlighted in your TV Guide in a couple of years -- if only to remind yourself why you skipped it the first time around.
all contents © 2001 Michael J. Eiff