OSMOSIS JONES A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): 1/2
In OSMOSIS JONES, the Farrelly brothers, co-directors Bobby and Peter, turn their outlandish and frequently disgusting brand of adult humor (ME, MYSELF & IRENE) to the world of kids' movies. The result is a film that is just as repulsive and awful as its vile trailers. Mostly a cartoon set inside the human body, the movie cuts back periodically to a live-action outer world dominated by Bill Murray, who has never sunk so low. Expect to be ready to run for the exits whenever humans show up on the screen. Walking out could be one of your smartest moves of the year.
Frank Pepperidge (Bill Murray), who works at an animal park, is one of the crudest and most revolting people that you're ever likely to meet. He throws up on the teacher (Molly Shannon) of his sweet daughter (Elena Franklin) and later pops his volcano-sized zit onto the teacher's mouth while trying to make amends for the vomit. In another scene, he puts his filthy foot which has a puss-filled and bloody ingrown toenail on the table at a restaurant and claims to deserve handicap privileges. And when his equally nauseating coworker (Chris Elliott) points out that Frank has a monster sized piece of snot hanging out of his nose, Frank just sucks it back in. In short, Frank is the type of character that you hope to forget as quickly as possible but fear that you won't be able to.
The animated part of the picture has a certain amount of imagination but just isn't funny. Comedian Chris Rock (POOTIE TANG) is the voice of the cartoon character named Osmosis Jones, a white cell who takes on the big germs. Cartoon figures say things like they are going down to the kidneys to see the stones, you know, as in The Rolling Stones. But the boredom of the animated portion is much preferable to the fear that the movie will cut back to Murray. If you go, one piece of advice: BYOBB. Bring your own barf bag.
OSMOSIS JONES runs a very long 1:25. It is rated PG for "bodily humor." Since the movie was originally rated PG-13, one wonders how it escaped the PG-13 rating. Besides its illustrated bathroom humor, the movie has some sequences that could disturb kids under 7, including the realistic death of a parent and a frightening cartoon villain.
My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave it just 1/2 of a star, saying that it was one of the very worst movies of the year. He found it disgusting and boring. Only some tolerable music kept him from giving it zero stars.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 10, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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