Osmosis Jones

Tom Sito, Piet Kroon and the Farrelly brothers directed a hybrid comedy in 2001 known as Osmosis Jones. Starring Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood, William Shatner, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott, and Bill Murray, the film was a massive box office bomb. Of the $70 million it cost, the film only grossed $13.5. It did, however, get a television show called Ozzy & Drix from 2002 until 2004.

Osmosis Jones (Rock) is a white blood cell inside the body of Frank (Murray). He’s paired up with Drix (Pierce), a cold pill to fight what they believe to be a common cold. Instead, they find Thrax (Fishburne), a virus intent on killing Frank.

This movie is all over the place. It’s got a fun story, but it’s just so full of mostly bad puns and lame jokes centering on the weirdness of the human body that it really takes you out of the story. Some jokes are actually pretty funny (like finding a good lawyer in the hemorrhoids), a couple are clever (like a cell dividing by himself) but the rest are just bad and painful.

The music also dates this movie pretty hard, since its mainly early late 90s, early 2000s rap and hip hop. It makes sense for the movie, but they really could have chosen other songs or maybe earlier selections that would have withstood being forgotten by the sands of time.

As for the live action parts, Bill Murray is hilarious as always and he actually does well in  regards to the secondary plot. Chris Elliot as his brother is also pretty good. But despite it being acted so well, the secondary plot feels to much like a sledgehammer to the face about the merits of living well and eating right.

It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s not great either.  

Doesn't pass the Edge of Satisfaction and becomes #4 for Comedy.