Would you pay good money to see Robert De Niro sing favorites from “West Side Story”? That is ultimately the question you should ask yourself before you dole out $7.50 in hard earned Christmas money for a ticket to Analyze That.
The sequel to the sharp-witted 1999 comedy Analyze This again stars Billy Crystal and De Niro. But like so many of its sad, labored comedy-sequel predecessors, Analyze That is unable to recreate the dry humor that made the first one good.
Incarcerated mob boss Paul Vitti (De Niro) and his former psychotherapist Ben Sobel (Crystal) are reunited when Vitti devises a plan to get out of prison. He fakes a nervous breakdown, alternating between catatonic lethargy and musical outbursts. Sobel is brought in to make a professional diagnosis, and based on his recommendation, the authorities let Vitti out of prison. In a cruel twist of fate, they release him directly into Sobel’s care.
A high-strung Jewish mental health professional and a criminal Italian sociopath once again try to work out there differences. Let the comedy begin! Only it never really does begin. It sort of halfway jells into silly mush, like a batch of bad jell-o. Then it just sits there for 90 minutes.
While one has to admit that it’s semi-amusing to watch Robert DeNiro belt out “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way,” it’s equally distasteful to watch him get downright juvenile while crooning the lyrics to “Tonight.”
When the “West Side Story” gags are finally up, screenwriter Peter Steinfeld takes in a whole new direction, though this one isn’t any better. At Sobel’s urging, Vitti had decided to pursue a “real” career and leave behind his mob antics. So Vitti winds up as a consultant on a mob drama called “Little Caesar.” If the re-enacted balcony scene in prison weren’t oafishly silly enough, now you have the contrived tough-boy-dismayed- by-pink, fluffy, disconnected-world-of-Hollywood storyline.
For director Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Analyze This), this film appears to be an exercise in boredom. It isn’t horrible. It’s just that there’s no life to it. Lack of enthusiasm for the project all around is a problem, from Lisa Kudrow’s lackluster turn as Ben Sobel’s wife to Crystal’s own role, which bored him so badly that he felt the need to inject a drug overdose scene in which his upper lip goes numb in a restaurant. So we are treated to a Billy Crystal routine in which the highlight is seafood hanging out of his mouth as he talks like a baby.
If you can appreciate a film full of forgettable gags that will linger in your mind about as long as it takes to empty a tub of popcorn, you might enjoy it. But cheap laughs are a dime a dozen at the movies, and Analyze That fails completely to stand out among comedies.