Whether you're a religious soul or not, there are definitely signs of the Apocalypse around you.  I'm talking about harbingers like earthquakes, fires and volcanic eruptions, not to mention a hayseed becoming the leader of the free world (Dubya really put the "goober" in gubernatorial back in Texas).  Toss in a PG-rated movie directed by the Farrelly brothers, and even I'm ready to start in with the Hail Marys.

The sicker folks out there will be happy to learn that Osmosis Jones is a "hard" PG and the Farrellys' (Me, Myself and Irene) penchant for gags involving bodily secretions is left largely intact.  The film was toned down from a PG-13 to be a bit more family-friendly, although the deleted scenes would be perfect for the DVD.  Whether Jones is any good is hardly relevant; the real question has become "How suitable is this film for my sweet, precious children that I drop off at daycare while I go to work to make the $600 minivan payments?" Well, here's your answer:  I don't know.  I don't have kids.  But I do know jokes about puke, exploding zits and blow-drying your hair with a fart make me giggle like a third grader.  Feel free to base your decision on my intelligence level.

Jones is a modern blend of the Oscar-winning Fantastic Voyage plus animation to portray the goings-on inside the body of a regular Joe.  Our Joe is Frank Detorri (Bill Murray, Charlie's Angels), an employee of the New England Memorial Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island (like the Farrellys would set a film anywhere else).  Frank is a slob, not only in appearance but in his eating habits, as well.  In the opening scene, we see him prepare a hard-boiled egg, top it with mayonnaise and about a tablespoon of salt, only to have it yanked away by a caged monkey.  The two wrestle, and although the egg lands in the chimp's mouth and then on the bottom of his feces-ridden cage, Frank downs it like it ain't no thang.

But wouldn't you know it, the egg is carrying a virus, and the majority of the film shows Frank's animated innards trying to wipe the intruder out before it's too late (the cartoon parts were helmed by a pair of animated storyboard artists – Shrek's Tom Sito and The Iron Giant's Piet Kroon).  Not exactly an original idea, but Jones stays interesting by making Frank's guts into The City of Frank, a bustling place complete with a Mayor (voiced by William Shatner, Miss Congeniality), traffic, a police force (of white blood cells) and everything else you'd expect to find in a densely populated metropolis.

Chris Rock (Down to Earth) voices the titular Osmosis Jones, a cop assigned to partner with a cherry-flavored, time-release, Buzz Lightyear-esque cold pill named Drix (David Hyde Pierce, Frasier) to fight the diabolical Thrax (Laurence Fishburne, The Matrix), who wants to take Frank down in 48 hours. And when I say, "take Frank down," I mean kill, not send to bed with the sniffles.  Thrax is like the King Midas of germs, quickly infecting everything he touches with his red, glowing finger.

What follows is the basic buddy/cop-flick routine, with the unconventional Jones trying to convince the straight-laced Drix to think outside the box. There's a big battle (including another frigging spoof of the slo-mo fighting in The Matrix, but it's funny here because of Fishburne's involvement), music (Kid Rock and the late Joe C. contribute) and a lot of very funny signs that probably require a second and third viewing to fully appreciate (like "Mouth Open; Epiglottis Closed" when Frank yawns).

Instead of having its animated and live-action characters share the screen at the same time (like the awful Space Jam and Cool World), Jones is broken into two distinct pieces.  The majority of the film takes place in the City of Frank, but the funniest (and grossest) portions involve Frank interacting with his worried daughter (Elena Franklin), his equally disgusting best friend (Chris Elliott, Scary Movie 2) and a schoolteacher (Molly Shannon, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas).  Some people seemed to think the live-action stuff was thrown in as an afterthought, but I thought it worked a lot better than the animation (at least laugh-wise) and wished there was more Murray.  As is, Jones is entertaining, but would have been a lot better if it wasn't geared toward families – it doesn't go far enough for adults, but probably steps over the line a few times for a kiddie pic.

1:32 –

for bodily humor