Analyze That (2002)

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) is attending his hated father's funeral with wife Laura (Lisa Kudrow) when he gets a call from Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) in prison. Ben is brought in to treat Paul. Apparently, Paul has gone temporarily insane after a few assassination attempts. The authority releases him into Ben's care. Of course, Paul is faking it and the cops are not actually buying it. They released him to get at the warring mob families. Jelly is back to serve Paul who suspects mob black widow Patti LoPresti (Cathy Moriarty).The premise is unrealistic at best. Even if the cops are in on the release, it's crazy that Ben would not run away screaming. The premise is bad and it goes down an even worst avenue as Paul tries to find a job. It's stupid. I can think of a myriad of different paths to go with a sequel. This is not one of them. Ben could have gone to prison for something and this could be a prison movie. Paul could escape and take Ben hostage. This movie is bad concept from the start and none of it is funny. I'm not a big fan of the first movie. I do like Niro and Crystal as performers but it's sad to see them in this.

Although this sequel isn't as good as the first pairing, Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal have good chemistry, and the supporting actors, especially Joe Viterelli in his last film, are great. It's funny how casting becomes so important in Mafia films (there's even a sort of parody of this in the film, when Paul gets a job as a consultant on a film set). Pretty good script. Considering DeNiro and Crystal could have dialled it in, they seem to have made an effort to show that their on-screen relationship has evolved from the first movie. Lisa Kudrow's considerable comedic talents are wasted here, however, and Cathy Moriarty could have had a much larger role, she's that good. I don't want to give anything away, but the ending is relatively weak. Also, DeNiro's hair colour seems to change with each scene. Despite this, watch. Enjoy.

I was a big fan of Analyze this. That is why I was really disappointed with Analyze that, a film that could've been a lot better. Trust me, it's not as bad as Be Coll or anything. I was a big fan of Get shorty and I was disappointed with that movie's sequel also. Trust me, this ain't Be cool though. Years after he was put away, Paul Vitti comes out of Sing Sing prison, where he sang sang. He comes back to his therapist Ben Sobel(played by the great Billy Crystal), where he causes even more chaos than before. I loved the original film, but this film has a Whole ten yards thing going with it where it's just a little silly. I give both films(Analyze that and The Whole ten yards) the same rating though. Does this film come close to being as good as the original? No. But the film still works in some sort of way. I'll agree that it was a disappointment, but I still liked it.Analyze that:***/****

In case you are wondering about my one line summary... it's based on a gag in the film. And it's so much of a running gag that they must've had that thing training for a *marathon* before they made the movie. I'm not kiddin', it's said the better part of a dozen times, in a 90-minute movie. Now, I grant that the first was hardly a work of art. By all means, it was perhaps good for a few laughs on a slow night with nothing else or better to do, but this, my gosh, this "film" takes everything the first was and takes away what charm there was to it. The characters are reduced to stereotypes. Tons of jokes and scenes are recycled, and any merit they may have is all from having appeared(and possibly worked) in the first film. Someone compared this to Men In Black 2... and I would have to agree that this is a sequel in that same vein. More or less everybody comes back, some simply to reference their character in the first, and everything is, supposedly, taken up a notch. Scenes are pushed further into the extreme. Any humor that could have existed in this film is lost due to everything being so forced. The plot is written around how to shove Crystal and De Niro together again, and it only goes downhill from there. Was there any point to making this sequel other than the anticipated profit(which apparently did not come to be)? Analyze This did not need a follow-up. La Paglia isn't terrible. I suppose the film is watchable, and not as bad as others out there, but you ought to ask yourself: "Is this something I need to spend my time and/or money on?" I recommend it only to those who simply must see more after watching the first... and even those should take care, because opinion seems evenly divided between those who enjoy it and those who regretted watching it. 5/10