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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
If the Farrelly brothers taught Anatomy & Physiology in school, no
one would cut ever class. This hip, live action/animation story begins as a
monkey snatches a hard-boiled egg from Frank, a zookeeper (Bill Murray), who
grabs it back, drops it, then gobbles up the contaminated morsel, explaining,
"If it hits and ground and you pick it up within 10 seconds, you can eat it."
Like "Fantastic Voyage" (1966), the pseudo-science animation then
takes over when his body's immune system contacts traffic control as an ingested
virus hits the digestive system: "Be on the alert for illegal organisms!" Eager
to right "a stomach evacuation mistake" he once made, a cocky, clever,
courageous white blood cell (Chris Rock) declares, "This is a crime scene!" and
teams up with a conscientious "Phi Beta Capsule" 12-hour cold remedy called
Drixenol (David Hyde Pierce) to chase down and destroy the deadly "Red Death"
virus (Laurence Fishburne) that's determined to take Frank down in 48 hours,
beating Ebola and E. coli to a medical record. Watch out for mucus mudslides,
chaos in Cerebellum Hall and the detritus from Booger Dam (runny nose), along
with comic turns from Molly Shannon and Chris Elliot, plus the voices of William
Shatner and Brandy Norwood. Peter and Bobby Farrelly, along with writer Mark
Hyman and animation directors Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, have turned their
penchant for gross-out comedy, encompassing flatulence, festering sores and
"popping a pimple without a permit," into a funny, Farrelly-funny family film.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Osmosis Jones" is a wildly imaginative,
original, explosive 7. And perhaps, as they're laughing, kids will learn where
to find their uvula, along with nuggets about nutrition and hygiene.
Copyright © 2001 Susan Granger
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