In theaters

OSMOSIS JONES, 98 minutes, PG, directed by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, written by Marc Hyman.

In “Osmosis Jones,” the dynamic duo of flatulence, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, want audiences to know they’re still on top of the cinematic dung heap.

This time out, in a supreme effort to up the ante for scatological humor, the poster boys for Beano take audiences inside the body – Bill Murray’s body, to be exact – a vile place where wet-sounding rips, braps, pffffftttsss and honks are, not surprisingly, in ample supply.

The film, from a script by Marc Hyman, is a bawdy mix of live action and animation for the PG crowd. Because of its family-friendly rating, it doesn’t have the absurdly raunchy edge of other Farrelly films, especially “There’s Something About Mary” and “Me, Myself & Irene.” But as family fare goes, some parents of young children might find themselves cringing at the film’s infatuation with Murray’s business end.

The film follows Frank (Murray), a hygienically challenged zookeeper who abides by a peculiar rule: Any food that hasn’t been on the ground for longer than 10 seconds is good enough to eat, even if that food is a hard-boiled egg previously sucked on by a chimpanzee before being spit out onto the bottom of the chimp’s cage.

Yes, this is that sort of movie.

Clinging to the egg are all sorts of nasty germs, but none worse than the virus Thrax (voice of Laurence Fishburne), an evil, sneering menace that “makes Ebola look like dandruff,” and which intends to wreak havoc on Frank’s gastrointestinal tract.

In a film filled with its share of small moments, the big question is: Will the white blood cell, Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock), and the stuffy 12-hour cold capsule, Drix (David Hyde Pierce), be able to rid Thrax from Frank’s body? Not without loads of vomit, exploding zits, wayward boogers and other unmentionables.

As anyone who remembers Joe Dante’s “Innerspace,” Richard Fleischer’s “Fantastic Voyage” or even Woody Allen’s “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)” can attest, traveling inside the human body is hardly new, so what do the Farrellys offer?

Unfortunately, not much. In spite of a handful of clever moments, all of which revolve around Piet Kroon and Tom Sito’s excellent animation, a good deal of “Osmosis Jones” is curiously flat, particularly the live-action scenes, which are in such sharp contrast to the inventive animation, the film would have been lifted considerably if the Farrellys had just picked their script as carefully as they ask Murray to pick his nose.

Grade: C-

On video and DVD

JOSIE AND THE

PUSSYCATS, 95 minutes, PG-13, written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan.

In what’s essentially a 95-minute commercial for dozens of products, the corporations that make those products and the retailers that sell them, Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan’s live-action remake of the 1970s cartoon “Josie and the Pussycats” is a sham.

The movie wants audiences to believe it’s using its rampant product placement as a satirical means of commenting on corporate America’s influence on teens, but don’t be fooled. The film is never anything more than a blatant advertisement for all that it drags across the screen – from an AOL hotel to a Target-sponsored plane to never-ending cameos from Coke, McDonald’s, Hostess, Cheer, Starbucks, Kodak, Nike, Ivory soap, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Motorola.

And I’m naming just a few.

Sandwiched between the parade of products is the story of Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Valerie (Rosario Dawson) and the brain-dead Melody (Tara Reid), a group of girls suffering the usual pitfalls of fame when their band, Josie and the Pussycats, hits it big in the world of pop music.

With Parker Posey, Alan Cumming, Missie Pyle and Paulo Costanzo wasted in weak supporting roles, the film never escapes the irony at its core. If it’s supposed to be an attack on corporate America’s eagerness to do anything to get a piece of the all-important teen dollar, then how do Kaplan and Elfont explain the existence of the film’s soundtrack? Or the Josie and the Pussycats dolls, toys, key chains, bubble gum and trinkets that cluttered store shelves just days before the film’s April release?

They can’t. But what’s more curious is the film’s insistence that it empowers girls, which is ridiculous. If Hollywood is truly interested in empowering young women, perhaps it should try doing so in a film that not only respects them, but which isn’t stacked to make a buck off them.

Sound radical? It will to Hollywood.

Grade: F

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO CORNER

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Blow Dry ? C+

Enemy at the Gates ? C

An Everlasting Piece ? B+

Get Over It ? B-

Josie and the

Pussycats ? F

Say It Isn’t So ? D+

Tomcats ? F

Chocolat ? A-

The Mexican ? C-

3000 Miles to Graceland ?D

The Brothers ? B

Head Over Heels ? D

The Trumpet

of the Swan ? C+