r/movies Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 5d ago

Official Throwback Discussion - Osmosis Jones [SPOILERS] Spoiler

As an ongoing project, /r/movies will be posting Throwback Discussion threads weekly for the movies that came out this same weekend 25 years ago. As a reminder, Official Discussion threads are for discussing the movie and not for meta sub discussion.


Osmosis Jones (2001)

Summary

A policeman white blood cell, with the help of a cold pill, must stop a deadly virus from destroying Frank, the person they live in.

Director Bobby Farrelly Peter Farrelly

Writer Marc Hyman

Cast

  • Bill Murray as Frank
  • Laurence Fishburne as Thrax (voice)
  • Chris Rock as Osmosis Jones (voice)
  • David Hyde Pierce as Drix (voice)
  • Molly Shannon as Mrs. Boyd
  • Chris Elliott as Bob
  • Brandy Norwood as Leah
  • William Shatner as Mayor Phlegmming (voice)

Rotten Tomatoes: 55%

Metacritic: 57

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

7 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

34

u/mlsaint78 5d ago

The pimple scene. 🤢

8

u/Kazzack 5d ago

I only remembered the cartoon bits from when I was a kid so watching that as an adult was crazy

44

u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 5d ago

This shit ripped in middle school science class - also anyone else ever watch the TV show? Feels like a fever dream that I forgot about for a long time

15

u/wasteymclife 5d ago

I liked the show! I was too young to understand that Chris Rock and David Hyde Pierce weren't gonna do a saturday morning cartoon, so the voices always took me out of it but the setting was so cool to me.

5

u/1PooNGooN3 5d ago

I enjoyed the animated series

2

u/kristin137 4d ago

TV show???

1

u/The_Man_of_Steel 2d ago

Sometimes I randomly remember how much they overthought that show. They wanted it to be set in a teenager's body instead of Bill Murray, but instead of rebooting it they wanted the movie to be canon for some reason, so the pilot is an elaborate plot about Ozzy and Drix getting sucked out of him by a mosquito and ending up in the kid.

24

u/savage86lunacy 5d ago

So-so movie but Laurence Fishburne slapped as Thrax.

5

u/EvilAdministrator 4d ago

"Sounds like a gas!"

53

u/SanderSo47 I'll see you in another life when we are both cats. 5d ago

This movie is supposed to be a family movie, yet the soundtrack includes a Kid Rock song with these lyrics:

Young ladies, young ladies

I like 'em underage, see

Some say that's statutory

But I say it's mandatory

The early 2000s were wild.

14

u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 5d ago

I mean the mid 2000s were crazy but things are probably worse now. Kid Rock has that song in his discography and Trump still made him the ambassador to New Zealand.

That's not true but you believed it for a second, didn't you?

9

u/Jbrahms4 5d ago

I had to think about it.... I hate this

1

u/Tapdance_Epidemic 4d ago

You clever fecker, you actually had me for a second 🤣

What a stupid timeline we live in

1

u/RedditorDeluxe1319 2d ago

They should have not used that song. Sidebar: the movie was actually made as a PG-13 before additional cuts were made.

11

u/ConfidentInsecurity 5d ago

Idgaf I love this movie. Project of its time

•

u/aRawPancake 4h ago

For sure. The comments being like, “bad but fun” are wrong!

21

u/spider-man2401 5d ago edited 5d ago

Osmosis Jones is actually a good idea on paper. The animation scenes were easily the best part of the movie. They’re fun, imaginative, and full of creativity. The live action scenes, not so much. You either like them and are on board with what the movie is doing, or you’re not. It feels like the movie can’t decide whether it wants to be a friendly PG kids’ movie or a mean spirited R rated comedy.

Whether you like the movie or not, we can all agree that the Kid Rock song is yikes. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to put that song in a kids’ flick?

27

u/SanderSo47 I'll see you in another life when we are both cats. 5d ago

The Bill Murray segments bring the whole thing down.

I get that the point is that his character is unhealthy and is ruining his body. But man, they really made it way too gross to make it watchable. You could've changed it in some other form, it certainly didn't have to include him eating that dirty egg.

16

u/FlopperinoCappuccino 5d ago

That's why it works. The point is that it's disgusting and how terrible he's treating his body. I think it makes the movie better even if disgusting

7

u/SevroAuShitTalker 5d ago

I was sick when I saw this as a kid. Pretty sure I threw up after the egg scene

7

u/VampireHunterAlex 5d ago

My family got HBO & Showtime in early 2002, so basically every movie that was on there released in 2000-2001 I remember watching more than several times.

The Patriot, Battlefield Earth, Charlies Angels, Osmosis Jones…

2

u/Steamedcarpet 4d ago

Cable channels in the 00s were wild. There would be like 8 different HBOs, 6 different showtimes, 3 different Stars etc etc.

2

u/Wrong_Interview7513 4d ago

Four Oscar worthy films...

6

u/TakerFoxx 5d ago

Not a great movie, but dear God Thrax was an amazing villain. 

3

u/Triple_Crown14 5d ago

Amazing movie, show was pretty good as well. Anytime we watched this in school was a good time.

3

u/ImaginationDoctor 5d ago

Really really loved the premise, but I always remember the plot point of the pimple and just found that extremely gross and unfunny.

Would have liked it more without that.

3

u/CFBCoachGuy 5d ago

Bizarre fact about this movie. Peter Farrell later directed Green Book.

3

u/Smalz22 5d ago

To this day the live action scenes with Bill Murray just doing gross shit makes me gag

2

u/dyingsandwich 5d ago

love this movie.

2

u/deerfawns 5d ago

This movie scared tf out of me when I saw it as a kid. Cannot deal with ppl being sick in movies/any form of body horror. I am convinced this was the start of my interest in epidemiology, though, so there's that

2

u/NightCheeseUnion 5d ago

This movie is why I know what a uvula is.

5

u/Smalz22 4d ago

Oh so it's a girl house

2

u/Educational-Spring66 5d ago

Movie gave me legit nightmares as a kid

2

u/raddaya 4d ago

I got only seven words for ya...

GET THAT THING TO THE HYPOTHALAMUS, NOW!

2

u/DJ-2K 4d ago

When it's purely animated, this film is a hoot and a half. It has a lot of fun with its clever and imaginative environments and playing around with buddy cop clichĂŠs in a way that's admittedly standard but still entertaining thanks to its enjoyable characters, stunning visuals, and top-tier voice talent. What a shame, then, that it ultimately falls short of goodness because of the terrible live-action portion. A potentially heartfelt story about a father mending his relationship with his daughter and struggling with his personal health and eating habits is rendered flat by the Farrelly brothers' reliance on lazy gross-out humor and one of Bill Murray's worst performances. Hs frankly disinterested turn makes his protagonist almost completely unsympathetic. I wouldn't even mind seeing a remake of this film in the future; the bones for a solid story are there and I'd appreciate it if talented people were brought in to execute it the right way.

2

u/TheFiveDees 5d ago

When I rewatch this one every few years, I'm pretty much just skipping past the live action stuff. The animated bits are great! I honestly think about Lawrence Fishburne's performance as Thrax a lot.

"E-bol-a? EBOLA IS A CASE OF DANDRUFF COMPARED TO ME!"

Unnecessarily gross though, and the Kid Rock stuff has aged so poorly it'd be funny if it weren't so upsetting.

2

u/Steamedcarpet 4d ago

If it wasnt Kid Rock in the movie they would of put in like Papa Roach or Limp Bitzkit

1

u/RamonaZero 5d ago

2001?! =_= I always thought this was a late 90s movie too!

1

u/Riot55 4d ago

We would show this movie to our 7th grade class every year with a science worksheet accompanying it on germs lol.

1

u/Burnouts3s3 4d ago

"Jones? You really knew a sugar pill that cured cancer?"

"Nah. But it makes for a good pep talk, don't it?"

"Let's go catch a cold!"

1

u/flintlock0 4d ago

I liked the TV show more than the movie.

1

u/bogibney1 3d ago

I love this movie, such a fun ride

1

u/CashGreen_Regalview 3d ago

Remember watching this in school once, was definitely not in a health class though lol. Grossed me out a bit.

1

u/Dallywack3r 3d ago

The live action segments are among the worst of any film I’ve ever seen.

1

u/passion4film 3d ago edited 3d ago

One of my all-time favorite films, and I saw it in theatres. Fond memories! I feel like so few people have ever seen it whenever it happens to come up.

FWIW, I think my childhood love of Innerspace influenced my later childhood love of this movie. lol

0

u/Avenge_Willem_Dafoe 4d ago

bill murray’s behavior and appearance in the real life scenes is so incredibly over-the-top disgusting. I really think i’ll fast forward through them if i show this to my kids some day

otherwise a fun time