Osmosis Jones

Written 18 August 2001

Warning: This film review reveals most of the plot of the movie.

Have you ever watched a movie where you're hoping the bad guy wins? For me, Osmosis Jones was one of those kind of movies. Now, I love Bill Murray in many of his other roles, most especially Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters. In this film, however, his "humor" is flat and his role is so wooden as to completely restrict his natural talents.

Chris Rock is one of those Actors that I just cannot stand, and, in my opinion, he was not the correct actor for this role. I would have preferred an actor such as Sinbad, Eddie Murphey or even Whoppie Goldberg, all of whom are better at both comedy and feature length films. I just find Chris Rock's style so annoying that I want to rip my ears off rather than listen to another minute of his whining voice.

I didn't realize that William Shatner played the mayor until I read the credits a few minutes ago. He did a particularly good job, being one of the few characters in this movie which I enjoyed - besides the bad guy, Thrax, of course.

All right, quickly now. Frank (Bill Murray) is a disgusting pig with absolutely no redeeming qualities. At the very start of the movie, Frank eats everything in sight, including a hard-boiled egg which has fallen on the ground after getting chewed by a monkey. The man is so gross and horrible that had I been watching the video I probably would have turned it off at this point.

Anyway, the egg gets into Franks mouth where it is "cleansed" by Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock). Osmosis is an incredibly whiny, pig of a man (uh, cell), with so few good qualities that before the movie was ten minutes old I was hoping the bad guy would show up and kill him off to put the audience out of it's misery.

Before long the bad guy, a very fatal disease named Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) shows up and starts causing trouble. One of the first things he creates is cold-like symptoms, which prompt Frank to take a cold tablet. The tablet shows up in the stomach much like a huge boat, and the character Drix (David Hyde Pierce) disembarks.

Drix and Thrax are the only things that make this movie worth sitting through. Drix is delightful as the incredibly naive twelve-hour cold medicine, running from place to place in the body attempting to combat the illness. Sometimes I felt like Drix sympathized with the audience regarding Osmosis Jones - I hoped so, anyway - so he might kill the disgusting little cell so we could get on with the movie.

The scene in the pimple bar is very funny, especially when Drix learns to dance - Drix has no legs so it's very amusing to watch.

To make a long, somewhat dull story short, Drix and Osmosis chase Thrax all over the body, literally from head to toe, and finally have a fight on an eyelash. Osmosis wins (unfortunately as the Frank character has no value to society at all) and save the day.

Would I recommend this movie? Well, wait for the video. Be sure you rent it - don't purchase the thing, and keep your finger on the fast forward button.

Update (June 15, 2003)

I saw this film recently on cable, and I must admit either my tastes have changed or the movie plays better on subsequent viewings. Upon rewatching it, I now feel the film is somewhat better than my previous review indicated.