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Analyze That provides a few good laughs, but mostly it's just Robert De Niro playing the same tough guy.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 5, 2002
One might add that a story about a dangerous Mafia kingpin facing down his insecurities for comic and dramatic effect remains a story about a dangerous Mafia kingpin facing down his insecurities for comic and dramatic effect, all the way. That holds true for De Niro's latest, its predecessor, 1999's Analyze This, or HBO's The Sopranos. Given the choice, I'd go with Tony Soprano.
The been-there-done-that vibe of Analyze That is due in part to De Niro's recent career strategy: The tough guy now loves to poke fun at his old image, or to have others do the job for him. Check out Showtime or Meet the Parents.
Director-writer Harold Ramis, too, refers to De Niro movies including Awakenings and Raging Bull. (That movie's co-star Cathy Moriarty-Gentile is back in Analyze That.)
De Niro and co-star Billy Crystal, as psychotherapist Ben Sobel, nevertheless mine several moderately funny situations and a handful of laugh-out-loud lines from this familiar material.
Analyze That opens with Vitti and Sobel in various crises. The mobster, imprisoned at Sing Sing for crimes committed in the first movie, fears that he's about to be murdered by inmates hired by enemies on the outside. So he does what needs to be done, singing I Feel Pretty and other tunes from his favorite musical to convince captors that he's ready for release to a mental hospital.
Sobel is a wreck, deeply conflicted about the death of his father. One of the film's best dark-comic moments has the therapist, mid-funeral, fantasizing about the tribute he'd really like to give his dad.
Vitti is released to the custody of Sobel, thanks to a twist of the law known only to the screenwriters. "I handle neurotic soccer moms and alcoholic gentiles," Sobel protests, weakly, before accepting an offer he can't quite refuse.
The mobster tries to go straight, punching the clock at a car dealership, a restaurant and a jewelry shop, but can't resist physically and verbally abusing customers. A legitimate business opportunity finally comes Vitti's way when he's asked to serve as a consultant on crime drama Little Caesar, starring an uncredited Anthony LaPaglia as clueless Australian-Italian actor Anthony Bella. Soon enough, Vitti's old gang is reorganized, and Sobel gets involved in a plot to hijack an armed car packed with gold bars.
Ramis, the SCTV-schooled director of Analyze This, Groundhog Day and guilty pleasure Caddyshack, reteams with De Niro, Crystal, reliable character actor Joe Viterelli and underused Friends stand-out Lisa Kudrow, only to turn in a movie as uninspired as this? The funniest bits are saved for the outtakes, during the closing credits? De Niro, giddy and way over the top, does a song-and-dance routine atop cafeteria tables at Sing Sing, and it's not worth more than a titter? Analyze that.
Grade: C-plus
Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, Joe Viterelli, Anthony LaPaglia
Screenplay: Peter Steinfeld, Harold Ramis, Peter Tolan
Rating: R; profanity, sexual content
Running time: 98 min.