Review by Jim Chastain II
Norman Transcript

Like most comedies, Analyze This, the latest offering from Warner Brothers, has what sounds like a funny premise. Mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) begins suffering panic attacks during the course of his “job” and therefore seeks professional psychiatric help from Ben Sobol (Billy Crystal). Ben wants nothing to do with this notorious client, but Mr. Vitti is not one to take no for an answer. So Ben begins helping the mobster work through his “father issues.”

We can all name dozens of comedies that had a funny premise but never moved beyond the idea itself. Place Analyze This in the same category. What we have here is a one joke movie that never really takes us anywhere particularly clever. Even the one joke (tough guy repeatedly breaks down and cries) is not really all that funny.

This film is laced with stereotypical gangsters. You know the type. They wear black suits both day and night, their I.Q.s are no higher than one hundred, and every other word out of their mouths rhymes with duck. To humor myself, I began keeping track of the profanity, but I lost interest somewhere after I got to fifty.

Analyze This provides a few funny moments here and there, but not enough to make it worth your while. I did laugh, however, at Billy Crystal’s beard. I also laughed when we were asked to believe Laura (Lisa Kudrow) would leave her cush job at a Florida television station to marry Ben, a whiney, unmotivated New York psychiatrist with father issues of his own (none of which are ever resolved).

You might expect more from director and co-writer Harold Ramis. He has had plenty of success in the past (Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and Groundhog Day). But then again, Ramis has also had his share of misses (Back to School, Club Paradise, and Multiplicity).

As far as performances go, De Niro is pretty good, except perhaps in the “Tears on my Pillow” crying scenes. Crystal is mediocre (my opinion may be negatively influenced by a particularly bad scene toward the end of this film when Ben Sobol has to stand-in for Vitti during a mob meeting). Lisa Kudrow is good, but she has very little to do. The best performance, in my opinion, is turned in by Joseph Viterelli, who plays Vitti’s mob sidekick, Jelly.

In the end, Analyze This does have a positive message, but we sure do have to endure a lot of garbage before we get there. And getting there is not half the fun.

© 1999 Jim Chastain II