Frank Detorri (BILL MURRAY) is not a healthy guy. He knows it, his young daughter Shane (ELENA FRANKLIN) and her teacher Mrs. Boyd (MOLLY SHANNON) know it, his buddy Bob (CHRIS ELLIOTT) knows it – pretty much anyone who looks at Frank knows he’s no fitness poster boy. Frank eats junk food, abstains from exercise, and treats his body like anything but a temple, particularly since the death of his wife, Shane’s mother.
This unhealthy approach to life makes the inside of Frank’s body a bacterial battleground that festers until the day he invokes his ten-second rule ("If food hits the ground and you pick it up within ten seconds, you can eat it") on a hard-boiled egg he scoops off the ground at the zoo where he works. As he opens his mouth to ingest the dirty egg we follow right along, travelling down into his swampy insides to discover… thanks to the magic of Hollywood’s top animators, colorists and CGI artists…
The City of Frank: a pulsing, organic living metropolis that is home to an entire society of characters – cops, crooks, government officials, deadbeats, villains, and femme fatales. Frank’s got it all, and he’s got it bad.
Fortunately for Frank, one of his internal inhabitants is Osmosis Jones (CHRIS ROCK), a young white blood cell and an officer of the FrankPD. Jones sees an opportunity to make good on his troubled past when he senses the stirrings of a fatal illness spreading through Frank – a villainous virus that goes by the name of Thrax (LAURENCE FISHBURNE). But to bust Thrax, Jones will have to bypass Mayor Phlegmming (WILLIAM SHATNER), a fat-cat brain cell who gives the citizens what they want, not necessarily what’s good for them – like the upcoming Buffalo Wings Festival trip. "A fat Frank is a happy Frank," is the mayor’s motto.
Luckily, the Mayor’s assistant, a sassy little red blood cell named Leah (BRANDY NORWOOD), does want what’s best for Frank, even if her only hope rests with the bumbling Osmosis Jones. And Jones finds another unlikely ally in the visiting Drix (DAVID HYDE PIERCE), a Drixenol cold tablet with twelve hours of time-released germ-fighting power.
Meanwhile, Frank himself does nothing to help from the outside. He’s too busy trying to be there for his daughter as she adjusts to life without Mom, even though he’s clearly not feeling so hot. Unaware of the germ warfare being waged inside him, he feverishly plods along until Thrax and Osmosis clash in a deadly battle that brings them to the brink of the outside world, perched precariously on Shane’s eyelashes. As the virus brings Frank down, the two worlds – inside and out – collide in a final battle for Frank’s life, and for the lives of the citizens of Frank!
2.
He's One Cell Of A Guy!
From the producers of Space Jam and There's Something About Mary comes a film that will have your entire family reaching for the tissue. Live action, 2D animation and computer graphics are combines to create a timeless tale of good vs. evil.
3.
After the stiff attempts at realism in many recent features, it's a treat to see broad cartoon-style animation on the big screen in Osmosis Jones, a spoof of cop movies set inside the human body. The title character (voice by Chris Rock) is a street-smart white blood cell, working for Frank's immune system. He and Drix (David Hyde Pierce), an over-the-counter cold capsule, are reluctant partners fighting what appears to be a minor infection. Osmosis discovers Frank has really contracted a fatal virus, Thrax (Laurence Fishburne): he battles a corrupt body politic led by a venal mayor (William Shatner) to save Frank's life and win the affection of the mayor's aide, Leah (Brandy Norwood). Rock's motor-mouth delivery can get annoying, but it contrasts nicely with straight arrow Drix (imagine a fussy Buzz Lightyear). Excellent drawing and a powerful vocal performance make Thrax a genuinely frightening villain.
Osmosis Jones is about two-thirds animation and one-third live action, which is why two-thirds of the film is entertaining and funny, and one-third is not. The life Osmosis and Drix save belongs to Frank, a slob played in live-action sequences by Bill Murray, who's undercut rather than supported by Chris Elliott and Molly Shannon. Shamelessly over-the-top performances make the human characters seem flatter than the two-dimensional cartoons. The live action was shot by the Farrelly brothers and features lots of gross-out gags about zits, flatulence, vomit, etc. The audience endures these leaden segments, waiting to get back to the animation--and the real comedy. Suitable for ages 9 and up: profanity, violence, bodily function jokes. --Charles Solomon, Amazon.com
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