Rating: Summary: If you like the sopranos, you need to watch this one Review: When I first heard of this movie, I was very skeptical about the quality and humor of this film. But when I finally saw it on dvd, I was in stitches. Billy Crystal had been a let down in his previous films, only being good at hosting the Academy awards. And I didn't know De Niro had a funny bone in him. But they pulled it off with a great supporting cast. Crystal plays a psychiatrist, Dr. Sobel, who is about to get married to that Pheobe girl from "Friends". His life seems fairly normal until he accidentally rear ends a mafia car with a guy in the trunk. De Niro, Paul Vitti, checks him out because he's been having some mental distress which is making him a little too soft. And as the head of an organized crime syndicate, that aint no good. Dr. Sobel is really reluctant to take Vitti on as a patient, but he finds out it's hard to say "no" to the man. Their sessions together have so many classic lines like "you turn me into a fag, I kill you." As the plot thickens with Chazz Palminteri trying to snub out Vitti, audiences are treated to probably the best telephone conversation in the whole mafia film genre. While Palminteri's character uses as many four letter expletives as he can, Vitti is talking about the need for "closure". Dr. Sobel unknowingly gets deeper into the "family" then he would like and ends up as a consigliere at a big mafia meeting. The part where he tries to fast talk the heads of mafia families with confusing psycho babble in his best mafioso impersonation is one of the most funniest scenes. And De Niro's fat sidekick, Jelly, is wonderful in his scenes with Crystal. I could go on, but you should see it for yourself. Plus, on the dvd edition, you get some hilarious outtakes. My fiance and I always quote from this movie and most people don't get it and feel left out. Don't be left out. Buy this movie, rent it, do what ever its takes to watch "Analyze This."
Rating: Summary: Not That Funny If You Analyze It Review: If you analyze this movie, you find the very stereotypical character played by De Niro, wasting his time doing God knows what. The psychiatrist played by Crystal spouts some Fruedian nonsense that is neither humorous, nor serious. At the movie progresses all actors seem to conspire to overplay their roles--they almost compete against each other as to whose mannerisms will be more pronounced. The end is contrived, which is probably the logical conclusion for this lame movie. It symbolically self-destructs, having managed only a few laughs along the way.
Rating: Summary: Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal are HILARIOUS! Review: Comedies don't get much better than this. I think others have described the story line well enough, but they forgot to tell you how many belly laughs this movie will get out of you. If you happen to know a very Italian family, you'll laugh even harder. De Niro did an excellent job portraying a mobster with a panic disorder ... "do *I* look like a guy who panics!!" I didn't expect such comic genius from him. He holds his own and is perhaps even a bit funnier than Crystal (who is always pretty darn good). I own this movie and will take any opportunity to watch it. This move is right on from conception to casting to editing. It's a must have for anyone who loves a good comedy and especially for Crystal and De Niro fans. You'll be cracking up for days thinking about this one. I know I do!
Rating: Summary: "The Sopranos" it ain't by a longshot! Review: "Analize This" was a big hit based upon a great concept and a couple of yuks. And that's about all this film has. The theme is somewhat similar to "The Sopranos" with the big time gangster seeing a psychiatrist. But any five minutes of "The Sopranos" has more wit and imagination than this entire movie. Robert DiNiro does a good job playing his stereotypical gangster role for laughs, and he does manage a few. Billy Crystal, on the other hand, is yet again playing the same character he plays in just about every movie he's in. That wouldn't be so bad if the script didn't completely take plausibility for a ride. "The Sopranos" is so good (and funny) because it seems so real. "Analyze This," especially the horrendously unbelievable and unfunny climax, scene rings so hollow and so false that it becomes nearly unwatchable for any true fan of gangster movies. Bottom line, if you are a gangster buff, fughettaboutit!
Rating: Summary: Funny and B R I L L I A N T! Review: Oh yes this movie is not to be missed if you are after good commedy which is very rare these days! The story is one of kind (a mafia boss going to a shrink), and Robert De Niro with Billy Crystal both did an amazing job... forget about the actres, she was not all that! But still it is good. If you want to enjoy this movie don't think of it as it can be real or not... instead swallow it as a light funny meal.
Rating: Summary: Somewhat disappointing Review: What are the two most empty, tired, passé, pathetically dead clichés of twentieth century American cinema? (Duh, I don't know, boss.) How about the mafia and that old Freudian rag? (Huh? So?) So we SATIRIZE them. (Ah...) Together. (Sudden illumination: We make 'em clean?) Yo, stupido, SATIRIZE, not SANITIZE. Thus another in a long, very long string of "sure-fire" Hollywood ideas is born. God knows where and God knows why, but a director of comedies, who has had some success (but it's been a while), Harold Ramis, Caddyshack (1980), Groundhog Day (1993) is gotten on board. Two past their prime, but not yet knowing it, marque stars are sucked in to play the leads. You'll have fun with this. It can't miss. You and De Niro together, you and Billy Crystal--wasn't he a gas at the Oscars, I mean a friggin' gas! You get to cry, you get to laugh, everybody has fun and we all make a lot of money. You don't even have to rehearse. You can do this stuff in your sleep. Some writers are hired. Producers are tripping over themselves to front the funds. Sure the mafia's been done to death, they're told, but people love it. Look at The Sopranos. They're Italian, aren't they? And hey, what's the greatest film every made, number one on everybody's top ten list? The Godfather, and you wanna know why? Because the mafia family is Everyone's family, every immigrant that ever had to go outside the system to make a living identifies, and we're all immigrants. Sure they're crude and fascist, and not always too bright, but when the chips are down they stick together like real family, and in their primitive way they love one another, and that's what warms our hearts. And yes Freud has been dead for sixty years and sure psychoanalysis is BS. But that's just the point. Look at Fraser on TV. How long has he been doing that gig? Since Cheers, and that goes back nineteen years. People love to laugh at shrinks. Okay, I admit that I thought this might be good, and I admit some resentment at getting sucked in along with Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro. I mean, it COULD have been good. I mean, a mafia boss with a shrink...that could play, couldn't it? And anyway a lot of people liked this movie. I only wish they could have gotten somebody beside Lisa Kudrow (who raised boredom to an art form here) to play the girl. How about Reese Witherspoon and give her some LATITUDE. Now THAT would be funny. I think Nicolas Cage could have played the shrink in goatee and pipe (yo! be creative!) and Eddie Murphy with slicked back, straight black hair, the mafia boss. I think a little electro shock treatment and a straight jacket or two could have enlivened the proceedings. How about people foaming at the mouth and various crazies climbing the walls with the D.T.'s? Kudrow and Crystal could get married lying on couches with the minister (Danny DeVito, say) reading from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) instead of the Bible. They could honeymoon in a padded cell. How about a lobotomy for Kudrow? Billy Crystal could have a multiple personality disorder and think he's little red riding hood and alternatively, Ronnie Reagan... Maybe Madonna as a mafia boss... The mind boggles... Bottom line, I am disappointed, VERY disappointed.
Rating: Summary: Analyzing This Bad Movie Review: You know, real mobsters don't even swear as much as the fictional one's in "Analyze This" do. Profanity in the movie is taken to a new level. You'll hear four-letter words in this movie in people's vocabulary more than a, and and the. The swearing is so terrible that it makes the movie just sick and almost impossible to watch. There are a few very funny parts: when Paul Vitti(Bobby De Niro) cries when he sees a tv commercial about life insurance; when Vitti offers his psychotherapist(Billy Crystal) action from one of his mermaids; when Lisa Kudrow mocks Bobby De Niro with a voice that makes you think: that was funnier than anything she ever said on friends; and when another mobster points a gun at a cow for standing too close to his car. Those limited funny parts give me a reason to give it 2 stars.
Rating: Summary: "De Niro + Comedy = Gold" Review: In the dark comedy "Analyze This", Robert De Niro plays an aged mob boss who begins to feel the symptoms that are endured in the second half of most people's lives, and Billy Crystal costars as a quiet, soon to be married, successful psychotherapist who runs into a lot of non-legal trouble as a result of a minor fender bender. Robert De Niro's character, Paul Vitti, dishes out a lot of the laughes within "Analyze This" by simply being himself. His character is a very well-known member of the mafia who possesses some personality traits that wouldn't be descriptive to nine out of ten mobsters. For example, he does cry in several hilarious instances, in addition to showing common politeness while at formal get-togethers, which conflicts with his bad reputation. He does, however, bring all of the remaining mobster qualities to the table: Paul Vitti blends in with the rest of the mob very well, and, he looks just like a real mobster. No offense, Robert De Niro, I am just inquiring that you were cast perfectly. Billy Crystal does a so-so job as the frightened businessman doing his best to keep his relationship with Paul Vitti on a business only basis. But, Ben Sobel(Crystal) was a complete pushover through the entire movie, and he easily adhered to Vitti's requests. When he didn't agree so easily, he'd change his mind when his life would be threatened by the typical gun, or, and this is a new one, being thrown into a shark tank. Lisa Kudrow from "Friends" does a wasteful job as Sobel's chirpy, squeaky, and annoying fiancee who wants him to stay away from Paul Vitti. Her character really makes "Analyze This" harder and harder to watch as she gets in the way of the clever, enjoyable story. Also on the negative side, it seemed to me that Vitti was the only mobster that stood out. Even though he was the mob boss, everyone working under him looked like a bunch of "yes men", imitating his every move, somewhat similar to the music video for Eminem's rap tune "The Real Slim Shady". All in all, Harold Ramis did a moderately decent job in turning this into something more than "just another mob spoof" by having an actor who has portrayed a mobster several times before poke fun at himself. In my opinion, Robert De Niro is 1/1 in comedies, with more to come.
Rating: Summary: I only watched it for De Niro Review: whose crying really annoyed me. I actually had to fast forward through it. I liked Billy Crystal more in this movie than I did De Niro.
Rating: Summary: Hilarious movie, good packaging on DVD Review: I couldn't agree more with Heather Mann's review of this DVD. She's right on the money about the movie itself and the features on the DVD. Like Heather, I found the commentary by Crystal and DeNiro completely uninspired and flat. While I can understand Billy Crystal's awe over working with DeNiro, he just goes on and on about it and doesn't really offer us much about scenes or lines, etc. And, it was more than obvious that DeNiro wasn't actually watching the film as he made his comments. There's no question that DeNiro is a remarkable actor (and one of my all-time favorites), but I'm sorry, the man is boring as all get out in the commentary section. When Billy isn't gushing about "Bob," then we get commentary about how there was this massive search for a director over and over. I really expected that the commentary section would have lots of great behind-the-scenes stories and tidbits, but there weren't any. The gag reel is cute, but not nearly as funny as you might expect. Combine the gag reel and the commentary and you'd swear that the actual filming required very few retakes. The movie itself is very funny and actually pokes a little fun at the gangster stereotype that DeNiro and others have played so well in films. My favorite part invloves Dr. Sobel and Paul's discussion about hitting a pillow when you're angry to relive the tension. Paul pulls his gun and shoots several rounds into a throw pillow, and you can see Dr. Sobel's stunned expression as he recalls that "hit" doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. Highly recommended, and I took off one star only because the commentary section should've/could've been better.
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