*** Official "ANALYZE THAT" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Orr]

Just returned from another free sneak preview of a new movie at our local military base theater. This time, we had the pleasure of enjoying ANALYZE THAT, the follow-up to the last Billy Crystal/Robert DeNiro teaming, with Harlod Ramis directing. If you enjoyed the first one, you'll love the second. As the film opens, Crystal's character is dealing with the death of his father, and is at the funeral when he receives a call from Paul Vitta (DeNiro), who wants Crystal to get him out of Sing Sing. Seems someone is trying to kill the former mob kingpin. Vitti fakes a number of mental problems and is released into his shrink's custody. After a serious of funny bits involving Vitta trying to get a job, adjusting (or not adjusting) to life in his doc's home, the mob boss lands a job as a technical consultant on a "Sopranos" style TV show. At the same time, two rival mob families are trying to woo Vitti to their sides.

Analyze That is loaded with gags, both verbal and visual. Crystal is very funny as the shrink dealing with his own father/son issues as he helps Deniro deal with his. The audience we saw the movie with was laughing so loud at times we may have missed some of the jokes. As the credits roll, we get to see Deniro and Crystal screw up lines and crack up in a series of pretty funny outtakes.

Like I said, this film is pretty much cut from the same cloth at the first one -- very funny. It's always good to see Crystal on the screen, and DeNiro is geniunely enjoying his little comedy outings.

I'd give it a solid 3 out of 4 stars.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Analyze That". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.
Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!
If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.
Crawdaddy

 

[Nicholas Vargo]

I just saw a sneak preview of "Analyze That" at the Camp Pendleton Base Theater outside of Oceanside, California last night and although the audience was small (I thought it would be packed), everybody was laughing, including my father. It is one of the funniest films of the year, ranking up there with 'Death to Smoochy', 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', and 'Austin Powers in Goldmember'. A lot of jokes just made me laugh and the film on the whole was a great time.

My rating:

***1/2 out of ****

 

[Patrick Sun]

This film is sideways funny. What I mean is that you can't really take the characters for real, but they are funny given the situations they get into in this film. If you are into mob comedies, this is a film you'll get some mileage out of because it mines that territory well enough to produce some good laughs.

De Niro has some really good bit in the opening hour of the film, Crystal has somehow started channelling Woody Allen in his performance. But there's good chemistry between the 2 main leads, and by the end of the film, you'll be thinking about seeing West Side Story.

Don't leave the theater early because there's a gag reel when the credits start rolling, and it features some good gags too.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

 

[Kristian]

I guess I should thank all the bad reviews for lowering my expectations, but I enjoyed Analyze That. The chemistry between DeNiro and Crystal worked well and there were enough funny moments to make it all worthwhile. I haven't seen the first one, though, so I can't say which of the two is better.
:star: :star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[Dean Kousoulas]

I laughed till I cried, then I laughed some more. For the first half of the film, it is non-stop comedy. The plot was above-average, but the scene when

Spoiler

DeNiro kicks the whore out of the house, then flashes the family was priceless.

I'll give it a B+, and I can only hope for a part 3.

Dean

 

[EricW]

wow, there is no accounting for taste - mine or anybody else's. i went into this with the least of expectations and if it weren't for my friend who i went with, i'd have left after 30 minutes. (i felt like leaving after 15, but you have to give a film its due). i thought the Analyze This was okay, but this movie was just pointless - even worse than Showtime, and i'd have thought that was impossible. the gags were just incredibly ridiculous and insulting to my intelligence (and i'm not that smart). it's like the situations were so outlandish they shouldn't have even bothered explaining it. for example, a scene where the FBI co-ordinator explains why he lets De Niro into the custody of Crystal - why is it necessary when the situation is so stupid in the first place? just leave it out to tell the audience not to bother making sense of anything. or better yet, come up with a better situation before even making the movie.