The body is a funny and interesting masterpiece of nature. The fact that mankind has still not been able to crack every single secret that there is to know about the human body is insane. Bodies themselves have been the focus of movies forever. From films like John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) to Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man (1999), various life forms including our own want a piece of the human body. Whether that be for good or bad reasons. Bodily humor has also been the focus of many comedies too, but not one that can be thought of that goes about it in this manner. The weird thing is, one would have thought perhaps this would have gotten a sequel film, but it literally showed up and left as quickly as it arrived.
The narrative is about Frank (Bill Murray), a single down on his luck father to his daughter Shane (Elena Franklin). He tries to make good on being a decent father but fails because of his poor habits. Adding to that is Bob (Chris Elliot) who only enables his behavior. One day though, after eating food that fell on the ground applying the “ten second rule” does he begin to find out it’s not a great rule. Regrouping down inside the “city” of Frank, audiences find Frank’s underappreciated white blood cell cop Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock) under orders by the lazy Mayor Phlegmming (William Shatner). Arriving in Frank’s system is the deadly Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) who looks to make a new record killing. Thinking his ailments is just a cold, Frank takes a pill containing Drixonol where Osmosis meets his temporary partner Drix (David Hyde Pierce).
Conceptually, the story is very creative. Because Frank’s body is essentially a government run entity by its own sentient organisms, it makes sense that it would operate like a country, state and/or city. White blood cells are the cops and bacteria are seen as illegal immigrants because they technically are foreign. It all makes logical sense. Blood vessels are the travel highways while power lines represent the nervous system. Writing the script was Marc Hyman who would later pen Meet the Fockers (2004). Not sure if he was the one who came up with the inventive puns and thoughts on it, but it’s clever. Directing the feature was Bobby and Peter Farrelly, the same duo who headed Dumb and Dumber (1994), Kingpin (1996) and Shallow Hal (2001). Surely they had some input as well.
The voice acting is all commendable. Chris Rock as Osmosis Jones is a fun lead, he doesn’t come across annoying. Just loud and enthusiastic. David Hyde Pierce as Drix plays a good foil to Osmosis Jones since he is very scientific and literal. Brandy Norwood plays Leah, the secretary to Mayor Phlegmming of which Jones has a crush for. Even William Shatner is pretty entertaining as the Mayor. The most surprising and entertaining talent though is Laurence Fishburne as Thrax. Normally Fishburne doesn’t play bad characters, so to hear him voice one is different and fun. Sadly, that’s kind of where the fun ends. For whatever reason, the live-action segments on the outside focusing on the human cast just isn’t that interesting. It’s not that the actors aren’t good but they just don’t have much to do and it kind just comes off as boring. Seeing Bill Murray just be a bum the whole time isn’t much to look at.
The same could be said for the live-action camerawork shot by Mark Irwin. This is also a shame because Irwin has worked on good films too like Scanners (1981), The Fly (1986), The Blob (1988) and RoboCop 2 (1990). Jumping back though, the animation is colorful and zippy. The characters are all very expressive and fluid in their movements making them far more fun to watch move about. Not to mention again the way the environment is set up to resemble the real world but in a human body. Finally, the film score composed by Randy Edelman wasn’t too bad either despite no official score has been released which is sad. There doesn’t seem to be main title but the music is appropriate for the settings put to screen and they do have emotional substance when required.
The overall story is cool to watch while being creative as it gets inside the body. For some reason though the real world just isn’t as entertaining to watch. All acting is fine, the animated parts grab your attention and the music works too.
Points Earned --> 7:10
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