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Osmosis Jones
Warner Bros.


7.4

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for bodily humor

Starring Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood, William Shatner, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott, and Bill Murray

A cutting-edge, live action/animated action adventure comedy about one white blood cell's (Rock) race against the biological clock to hunt down and destroy a lethal new virus (Fishburne). Bill Murray stars as Frank, in whose body the action unfolds. (Warner Brothers)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Marc Hyman
DIRECTED BY:	Bobby Farrelly Peter Farrelly
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 13, 2001 Video: November 13, 2001 Theatrical: August 10, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Gets under your skin with laughs that are fast, slick and slippery and with visuals as vivid as anything this side of Demerol.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Oscillates between streaky black comedy and sanitary instruction.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Surprise of surprises, it's a blast.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

Warts and all, Osmosis Jones is the year's ultimate bodily functions comedy.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A genuinely eccentric comedy that explodes with funny ideas and expresses most of them in wildly original animation.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Resuscitates the filmgoing summer with a vital jolt of pure piss and vinegar.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Should you take the kids? Boys 8 to 11 are the target audience for this gross-out film. A better question might be, should they take the parents?

Boston Globe Jay Carr

In a dismal summer for movies, Osmosis Jones is a fresh breath of foul air.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Likely to entertain kids, who seem to like jokes about anatomical plumbing. For adults, there is the exuberance of the animation and the energy of the whole movie, which is just plain clever.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Often very smart about being silly.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Often wickedly funny, but about halfway through, the premise becomes -- shall we say? -- intestinally overextended.

Variety Robert Koehler

The most extensive interplay of live action and animation since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

David Hyde Pierce is hilarious as Drix, a take-charge dose of medicine. No performer is better at wringing laughs from an unflappable --- make that semi-flappable - delivery.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

When we're outside Frank's body, Osmosis Jones drags. When we're inside him, it zooms.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The animation sequences -- the movie's best moments -- hurtle by at breakneck speed, while the live-action portions are a bit sluggish.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The flat, gross-out live-action bits, directed by (surprise!) Peter and Bobby Farrelly, don't jive with the zippy, Tex Avery-style animated segments, directed by former storyboard artists Piet Kroon and Tom Sito.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Too crude for the kids and not crude enough for connoisseurs of the "Something About Mary" school of hair jism and balls caught in zippers, Osmosis Jones seems doomed to fall between the cracks.

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

Osmosis is really an occasion for the brothers to take their culture- debasing scatology to a PG crowd.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

That Osmosis Jones plays like a sloppy hodgepodge is no surprise: The live-action scenes were done by the Farrellys, the animation by Sito and Kroon (whose names sounds like bodily functions), and the script was penned by another first-timer, Marc Hyman. Nobody seems to be on the same page.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Young viewers may guffaw, but seasoned fans of "There's Something About Mary" will be disappointed.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

While there's no denying that the film's animation is technically impressive and is sometimes quite clever, its inventiveness is frequently at the service of gags so distasteful that gag is the operative word.

Miami Herald Chris Hewitt

Classy voice work (intriguingly, the hero, heroine and villain are all voiced by black actors -- Chris Rock, Brandy and Laurence Fishburne)

Salon.com Bill Wyman

Remains stubbornly one-dimensional. The gags are so resoundingly and innocently pre-adolescent that it's really hard to see how the film managed a PG rating.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The ideas are there, hints of genius, but no one ignites them. Add Osmosis Jones to that list of universal enigmas, and, more specifically, how the Farrelly Brothers could have done so little with so much.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

More than a bad movie, it's an anti-movie.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It's no funnier than your average grade-school biology lesson and less pedagogically useful than your typical Farrelly brothers comedy.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Cathartically disgusting adventure movie.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Should never have been released, not even on video. It should have been placed in a hazardous waste container, encased in concrete and dumped into the Farrelly brothers' septic tank.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jamal h. gave it an8:
To be seen by people who can distinguish the scientific truth for more clarification.

Dave W. gave it a9:
Great fun, interesting idea plays out very well. Animation sequenceds are very well drawn and have very clever gags. Has a lot of personality, both the voice actiong and the live-action. Not for all tastes; but very entertaining if you can handle it.

Sophie H H. gave it a 9:
It's cool but when you first listen ozzy sounds like nails on a chalk board well to me it did live action sceens are duds in their way.

Jeannette J. gave it a 7:
Osmosis Jones is funny, very well acted, full of action and has enough biological truth to be called moderately educational. The gross moments are no more than the reality associated with a guy getting sick. The immune system is portrayed very colorfully, and though much is not good analogy (viruses are not lone wolfs, they, in fact, reproduce prolifically, white blood cells don't get approval from the brain, and so on) the framework is there: bad stuff enters the body and the immune system musters many defenses against it. I think kids will use this fun mental framework when studying the immune system in school and the real trick in education is to get their attention first. All ages will enjoy it. Little 'uns like the action and the characters, big uns get the knowledge-based jokes (which really go by too fast): the bus, destination "BLADDER" leaving the station, etc. and appreciate the story line.

Ashlee H. gave it a 9:
Osmosis Jones reminds me of...well...me. On the personal basis I worship this movie, but on the flat-headed basis it was sick and wrong. I watched it with my mother for the very first time about a month ago and now she says I'll get Thrax if my fork drops on the floor. It's contagiously funny in good and bad ways.

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Osmosis Jones Warner Bros.

Osmosis Jones
Warner Bros.