I was only a middling fan of the original Analyze This, so my expectations for this second installment were practically nil. However, the first fifteen minutes or so of this movie just blew me away I was rolling on the floor laughing, and contemplating with glee all the various subplots that had been set in motion. This was, I felt, going to be a great comedy surpassing its predecessor by far.
And oh, how it could have! The original pretty much got by on the one-joke premise of a gangster seeing a shrink (already passé at the time, incidentally not only because [as so many have pointed out] HBO's The Sopranos had just recently introduced that same theme, but also because another *DE NIRO* movie had even mined this territory before; anyone remember the Bill Murray character from Mad Dog and Glory?). Crystal and DeNiro worked well together, there were no major gaffes, and the whole thing had a certain low-key charm but it was no big whoop.
By comparison, the opening of Analyze That promises a movie of so many different clever plot strands that the only seeming danger is that none of them will be developed completely. There's the fact that the DeNiro character has to pretend to be crazy in order to get out of prison (the ways DeNiro finds to do this are all admittedly over the top, but hilarious nonetheless); there's the fact that he's released into Crystal's custody and is forced to stay at the latter's house as a LIVE-IN (promising culture clashes abound); there's the corresponding fact that the cops, the Feds and even other gangsters have Crystal's house staked out and under scrutiny for just this very reason; then there's DeNiro's various ill-fated attempts to get jobs in the respectable 9-to-5 world that, as a gangster, he's been insulated from his entire life (seeing him as a pushy used-car salesman is a hoot: `Look at this trunk space, it's big enough to fit *two* bodies in there!'); then, when DeNiro's Paul Vitti character gets brought on as a `technical advisor' to a very Sopranos-like mob TV show, one begins to feel that this thing has inspiration enough for three or four different movies.
However, none of those movies made it to screen. For, as fast as any of the above-listed concepts are introduced, they are either dropped or relegated to the back-burner. What the film becomes instead, inexplicably and intolerably, is a third-rate hack job mob revenge film, with Vitti working to put the pieces together of who was trying to kill him in prison, and to hunt down and bring to justice the bad guys. This is all done without a trace of wit or intensity and, even if it was, what's it doing hogging center stage in a supposed *comedy*? For, one thing this movie clearly is not (after those hysterical first 15 minutes) is a comedy. It's not just that things are not funny, it's that the filmmakers literally don't seem to be trying for jokes; they seem to want to involve us completely with the action and intrigue elements of the story. Since these are not in any way interesting, novel or inventive (and would not be even if the movie had been done as a drama), there's simply nothing to hold your interest. Nothing.
Once the film reveals its hand, not even DeNiro and Crystal can save it (as they did the first one). Their relationship in this one is tangential at best: DeNiro is mostly on his own, pursuing his own agenda, while Crystal hangs back out of the way, alternately fuming or obsessing (a sub-strand about his father's recent death and his backlog of grief and resentment toward the old man, which could have provided yet another rich vein of material, is handled so shallowly and incompetently as to make Crystal's character particularly annoying and ineffectual).
It's a shame. This movie could truly have been a comic masterpiece. And, if not that (realizing that masterpieces are tough to pull off even with the best ideas in the world), then at least solidly decent. The fact that it falls so far off the charts after such a promising beginning is a big disappointment indeed. My recommendation: if this is ever on television, watch up until the first commercial break, then turn sharply away. And if you're in a rental mood and have got a DeNiro-Crystal jones going on, rent the first one. Even if you've already seen it, and can recite all the lines by heart it will still be a fresher and more invigorating experience than watching this.
And oh, how it could have! The original pretty much got by on the one-joke premise of a gangster seeing a shrink (already passé at the time, incidentally not only because [as so many have pointed out] HBO's The Sopranos had just recently introduced that same theme, but also because another *DE NIRO* movie had even mined this territory before; anyone remember the Bill Murray character from Mad Dog and Glory?). Crystal and DeNiro worked well together, there were no major gaffes, and the whole thing had a certain low-key charm but it was no big whoop.
By comparison, the opening of Analyze That promises a movie of so many different clever plot strands that the only seeming danger is that none of them will be developed completely. There's the fact that the DeNiro character has to pretend to be crazy in order to get out of prison (the ways DeNiro finds to do this are all admittedly over the top, but hilarious nonetheless); there's the fact that he's released into Crystal's custody and is forced to stay at the latter's house as a LIVE-IN (promising culture clashes abound); there's the corresponding fact that the cops, the Feds and even other gangsters have Crystal's house staked out and under scrutiny for just this very reason; then there's DeNiro's various ill-fated attempts to get jobs in the respectable 9-to-5 world that, as a gangster, he's been insulated from his entire life (seeing him as a pushy used-car salesman is a hoot: `Look at this trunk space, it's big enough to fit *two* bodies in there!'); then, when DeNiro's Paul Vitti character gets brought on as a `technical advisor' to a very Sopranos-like mob TV show, one begins to feel that this thing has inspiration enough for three or four different movies.
However, none of those movies made it to screen. For, as fast as any of the above-listed concepts are introduced, they are either dropped or relegated to the back-burner. What the film becomes instead, inexplicably and intolerably, is a third-rate hack job mob revenge film, with Vitti working to put the pieces together of who was trying to kill him in prison, and to hunt down and bring to justice the bad guys. This is all done without a trace of wit or intensity and, even if it was, what's it doing hogging center stage in a supposed *comedy*? For, one thing this movie clearly is not (after those hysterical first 15 minutes) is a comedy. It's not just that things are not funny, it's that the filmmakers literally don't seem to be trying for jokes; they seem to want to involve us completely with the action and intrigue elements of the story. Since these are not in any way interesting, novel or inventive (and would not be even if the movie had been done as a drama), there's simply nothing to hold your interest. Nothing.
Once the film reveals its hand, not even DeNiro and Crystal can save it (as they did the first one). Their relationship in this one is tangential at best: DeNiro is mostly on his own, pursuing his own agenda, while Crystal hangs back out of the way, alternately fuming or obsessing (a sub-strand about his father's recent death and his backlog of grief and resentment toward the old man, which could have provided yet another rich vein of material, is handled so shallowly and incompetently as to make Crystal's character particularly annoying and ineffectual).
It's a shame. This movie could truly have been a comic masterpiece. And, if not that (realizing that masterpieces are tough to pull off even with the best ideas in the world), then at least solidly decent. The fact that it falls so far off the charts after such a promising beginning is a big disappointment indeed. My recommendation: if this is ever on television, watch up until the first commercial break, then turn sharply away. And if you're in a rental mood and have got a DeNiro-Crystal jones going on, rent the first one. Even if you've already seen it, and can recite all the lines by heart it will still be a fresher and more invigorating experience than watching this.