Directed by Harold Ramis

Written by Peter Tolan, Harold Ramis, and Ken Lonergan

Starring Robert DeNiro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, and Chazz Palmintari

As Reviewed by James Brundage

We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen Bobby DeNiro as a gangster in Godfather, Part II, in countless Martin Scorcese films, as Al Capone in The Untouchables. But, what we haven’t seen before is the humor. Never before has Robert DeNiro tried to parody himself, to make fun of his own standards and stereotypes. Sure, we don’t get a parody of the monologue from Taxi Driver (“You talkin’ to me?”), but we get a steady does of mob film spoofs, including a shot-by-shot parody of The Godfather.

Harold Ramis takes the helm of this risky project about the original risky business. Paul Viti (Robert DeNiro) is a mobster with issues. His best friend has just been killed, and, to be honest, he’s conflicted about being his harsh old self. He’s having panic attacks, he’s not willing to beat information out of someone. Let’s face it, it’s crimpin his style. So, taking advantage of a run-in (literally, Billy Crystal hits the back of a sedan with a person on his way to be killed in it) with psychiatrist Ben Sobol, he starts going to a shrink.

Sobol is just your garden-variety shrink, leaning a little too much towards the “Fraiser” side. His son’s a smart Alec, his fiancée (Kudrow) is a bimbo. He listens to the problems of neurotics all day long. Of course, when a gangster steps in the door, everything changes.

Viti starts following him everywhere. He becomes his only client because he need to have a therapeutic breakthrough before a meeting of the heads of all the families in two weeks.

The fact is, though, that we have seen this before. This was the plot of The Don’s Analyst, with Robert Loggia. It’s also the plot of the HBO Series "The Sopranos". However, Analyze This does it’s job much better than The Don’s Analyst, which was dry and unfunny, ever could.

Despite the fact that the script was plagued by last-minute rewrites and a director who’s only product that I’ve seen and respected was the moderately creative (although now hackneyed) Groundhog’s Day, it actually doesn’t seem as openly contrived. It does its job: mix humor with a serious plot fairly well, and it’s fun to see Robert DeNiro break into tears at a Prudential commercial. Robert DeNiro, too, does his job. He turns out a performance that’s good… for him, a man who has won two academy awards and is one of America’s finest living actors.

The real disappointment in the film, despite a lack of originality in plot is Billy Crystal. Crystal turns out a lackluster performance as the psychiatrist, and seems to merely sit around and be glad he landed a role with DeNiro at all. He delivers a few good scenes, such as the one where he tries to act like the consillieri. Lisa Kurdrow also does a good job as the bimbo fiancée.

As I’ve said, there aren’t that many holes in the script. One little thing that bothers me is that, considering how much Kudrow seems to hate Crystal, she ends up with everything honky-dory with him at the end. Once again, idiotic characters are constructed, but that’s the price that is paid for a funny movie, and it is a funny movie.

Analyze This isn’t really quality cinema, but it’s fun. It’s fun to see people parody themselves. It’s fun to watch someone admit that they’ve been doing to same part for so long (albeit, doing it great). It’s also fun to watch this film, and is one definitely worth heading out to the theatre to see.