osmosis jones ( 2001 ) . 1 1/2 stars out of 4 . starring bill murray , chris elliott , elena franklin and molly shannon , plus the vocal talents of chris rock , david hyde pierce , laurence fishburne , brandy norwood and william shatner . written by marc hyman . directed by peter farrelly and bobby farrelly . animation directed by piet kroon and tom sito . rated pg . approx . 100 minutes . the idea for osmosis jones is most imaginative : a live action-animation feature about a slovenly man and the battle his body rages against an invading virus . it's a shame the execution of this concept falls very short of its premise . the movie is lacking and most unsatisfying . osmosis jones is crude , gross , disgusting , and was directed by the farrelly brothers - the twisted siblings behind there's something about mary , me , myself and irene and a couple of other movies in which the humor is mostly targeted below the belt . not that there's anything wrong with scatology . i bet even cavemen appreciated bathroom humor - such as it was . it's merely that with osmosis jones , the farrellys humor is too juvenile , too predictable . you can almost foresee the puns just by viewing the part of the inner anatomy a sequence is drawn . osmosis jones looks like one of those old health class movies gone psycho . the trouble is , the animation may please the very young , but the jokes may be over their heads , while the teen-age audience may find it too tame for their tastes . adults ? well , let's just say most will find it unappetizing . osmosis jones plays like a 100-minute infomercial for the eat healthy foods lobby . the live action sequences revolve around frank ( bill murray ) , who seems to be the grungiest human being in the universe . he continually looks as if he needs a shave and a shower . frank , much to the consternation of his daughter , is a fast-food addict , eating anything - and everything - that can kill you . he works at a zoo where the animals look cleaner - and presumably smell better - than he does . frank's body is invaded by thrax , a lethal virus , after frank eats a hard-boiled egg that had fallen to the ground . it's not gross enough that frank picks the egg up from the dirt and plops it into his mouth . nope , the farrellys pile it on by first having frank wrestle a chimp for the egg , wresting it from the primate's mouth . like i said , the gross meter tips the scales on this one . after ingesting the egg , the movie begins its animated sequences . here , osmosis jones ( voiced by chris rock ) , a renegade white blood cell is teamed with drix ( voiced by frasier's david hyde pierce ) , a 12-hour , painkiller cold capsule to battle thrax ( smoothly voiced by laurence fishburne ) . basically , what we have is a cliched cop-buddy movie , rife with all the clichés of that genre . and this is why osmosis jones doesn't click . it merely falls back on tired , familiar conventions instead of creating new and exciting situations . the jokes and puns are lame : osmosis searches out a snitch , a former flu virus . after pumping him for information , drix tells osmosis , " funny , he doesn't look fluish . " and the jokes don't rise above that level . the live action scenes are no better . frank is such a slob , so unappealing that it is difficult to fathom how he ever married or even sired a child . he's almost a bigger cartoon than the animated characters . osmosis jones is a movie that may be too violent for young children as thrax burns and dissolves blood cells right and left . the animation is rather two-dimensional and flat . it lacks scope and depth . it is an unappealing movie that will leave you scratching your head , and maybe leaning toward a shower after you walk out of the theater . bob bloom is the film critic at the journal and courier in lafayette , in . he can be reached by e-mail at <a href= " mailto : bloom@journal-courier . com " >bloom@journal-courier . com</a> or at <a href= " mailto : bobbloom@iquest . net . " >bobbloom@iquest . net . </a> other reviews by bloom can be found at www . jconline . com by clicking on golafayette . bloom's reviews also can be found on the web at the internet movie database : <a href= " http : //www . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? bob + bloom " >http : //www . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? bob + bloom</a> 
