Home :: DVD :: Musicals & Performing Arts  

Ballet & Dance
Biography
Broadway
Classical
Documentary
General
Instructional
Jazz
Musicals
Opera
World Music
Analyze That (Widescreen)

Analyze That (Widescreen)

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $13.47
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Funnier than the first...
Review: one. I laughed so hard at this. If I had to say something negative it would probably be the ending was a little slow. but overall DeNiro and Crystal are a great combination!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terrible movie
Review: After 12 minutes and the "F" word some forty times I turned the movie off and took it back to the rental store. Wanted to burn it. De Niro and Crystal have run out of gas and now resort to sexual and profane script to attempt humor. You know when a comedian doesn't have it when they resort to this kind of "humor". I was a guest in someone elses' home not realizing the R-Rating. It deserves an NG-rating for "No Good".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funnier than the First
Review: To fans of Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro - you do not want to miss this film. On a scale of 1-10 it comes in at 10 plus! The gags are absolutely hilarious and one can tell that these two lead characters are really enjoying themselves immensely! Lisa Kudrow's sarcasm quips were priceless! Sure it looks like a takeoff on the Soprano's but with more of a comedic theme. It being a matter of choice - my husband and I agree that this was superb!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: AN UNFUNNY SEQUEL...
Review: My twenty one year old son is home from college for the summer, and, as it was raining out, he decided to rent some films from the local video place. Being a huge Robert De Niro fan and, having really enjoyed "Analyze This", the prequel to this film, he rented it, expecting a very funny film. We hunkered down to watch it together, waiting for the film to make us laugh. We had a very long wait.

It is hard to believe that Harold Ramis, the same director who successfully directed the very funny "Analyze This", as well as other successful comedic gems, such as "Groundhog Day" and "Bedazzled", could turn out such an unfunny clunker of a film. Ham handed, leaden, and obvious would best describe this effort. Of course, he is hampered by the material with which he had to work. There is only so much one can do with a script that is torpid, stupid, and just not funny. The director is lucky that he had such an excellent cast with which to work. Who knows how much worse this film would have fared in the hands of less talented and skillful actors.

Reprising their roles in "Analyze This", Robert De Niro, as Mob boss Paul Vitti, and Billy Crystal, as his reluctant shrink, Dr. Ben Sobel, do all they can to raise the material with which they had to work to another level. In the final analysis, they are unable to do so, and the film fails to deliver. In fact, the viewer ends up feeling almost embarrassed for them, so forced and contrived are their performances. They are simply not very funny.

The actual premise of the film is simple. Paul Vitti is in prison, on the cusp of completing his sentence, when he realizes someone is trying to kill him. He feigns insanity by singing show tunes and being seemingly catatonic, at times. The Feds call in Dr. Sobel, who is forced to take Vitti out of prison into his care and custody, with orders to get Vitti in shape for his parole board hearing and onto the straight and narrow. Once free, however, Vitti reveals to Dr. Sobel that his actions were merely part of a ruse to get out and discover who is trying to kill him.

Moving in with Dr. Sobel, Vitti disrupts the doctor's life. He fails to take to holding down a regular job, as he has socialization problems. When Vitti finally hooks up with a gig he can tolerate, as consultant to a TV series about a mob boss, he uses the job as a front for bringing his old crew together and finding out who is trying to ice him.

Lisa Kudrow, as Dr. Sobel's wife, is not given much with which to work, and the little material with which she has to work is not particularly funny. Cathy Moriarty, who once played De Niro's wife in "Raging Bull", the film about boxing great, Jake LaMotta, is teamed up with De Niro again. Looking none the worse for wear, she appears here as a rival mob boss. She, too, does the best she can do with the hand that she has been dealt. In fact, the only person in this film who is remotely funny is Anthony LaPaglia in the role of the mob boss on the television series for which Vitti is a consultant. Unfortunately, his is but a small role.

Still, this is a film that devoted Robert De Niro or Billy Crystal fans may wish to see. In that case, rent it rather than buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bobby And Billy Acting Silly
Review: The humor in "Analyze That" is much more over the top than in the first film, which ended with Paul Vitti (Robert DeNiro) going to prison. This movie starts out with inmates and guards trying to kill Paul. He calls Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) for help, but Ben is at the funeral of his father and hangs up on him. Desperate to get out, Paul fakes insanity to get released early. He does so by alternately singing show tunes from "West Side Story" and acting catatonic. Robert DeNiro's attempts to dance and carry a tune are hilarious. Even funnier is when he's acting catatonic and Dr. Sobel is trying to prove he's faking by slapping him and acting like Curly of the three stooges. No sooner does Paul get released from prison into Dr. Sobel's custody than he reverts back to his normal self. Paul's first night in the Sobel household involves him having a hooker in his bedroom and making enough noise to wake the neighbors.

Paul's later attempts to go straight and get a regular job provide some of the funniest lines in the movie. "Look at the size of that trunk," he tells prospective buyers of a car. "You could put three bodies in there!" No matter what job he tries, he can't adjust to the straight life. Paul Vitti finally ends up getting a job on a Sopranos-like TV show as a consultant. Billy Crystal's funniest scene takes place in a Japanese restaurant where they're celebrating this. Dr. Sobel has mixed antidepressant pills with alcohol, which causes him to talk funny and dribble food. The more Paul threatens him to stop acting funny, the more he laughs about it. Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal have a great chemistry together onscreen. They manage to make a heart to heart talk about the death of their fathers both touching and humorous. Without spoiling the ending of this movie, keep an eye out for a hilarious series of out-takes as the end credits roll.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointed with the sequel....could have been better
Review: This is a great cast with a poorly written script. The humor is ok...I laughed pretty hard in a couple of scenes but overall it was pretty [bad].
I am a big fan of De Niro and I think he gave a terrific performance and that goes to everyone in the cast as well. But I believe that the story could have been better developed and more well thought out. I didn't think a sequel was necessary. Sorry to say...two thumbs down.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Painfully Obvious Retread
Review: "Analyze This" was somewhat amusing but not a film that stands up to repeat viewings. Especially since the freshness of the idea has been completely dampened by the successful & far superior HBO series "The Sopranos".

The sequel, and I don't know why they bothered(actually I do - $$$$$$$$), is depressing viewing simply b/c most of it is just a re-hash of the first film. The brief out-takes provided are funnier than the entire film.

With "Analyze That", we have Crystal's Dr. Sobel grieving the loss of his own father at the beginning of the film and we're treated to Sobel saying at least 5 times throughout: "I'm grieving. It's a process." We got it the first time you said it. And it wasn't very funny to begin with. We also get to go over the whole assassination of Vitti's father thing, with the requisite flashbacks, and how that has scarred him. This territory was mined in the first film and they didn't need to go there again. But they do. The only difference in this film is that we have Vitti faking lunacy(this is where we have to sit through the painfully unfunny scene of Deniro doing a few Broadway show tunes in prison) and being entrusted to the care of Crystal's Sobel with much hilarity ensuing. Not even close.

One of the best things about the first film was the character Jelly and some of Crystals reactions & line readings. I didn't find Deniro funny at all in the first film. But in "Analyze That", Jelly has hardly anything to do at all and isn't remotely funny. Crystal has a couple of lines I laughed at and Kudrow is again wasted along with Cathy Moriarty, whom I usually love. Vitti & Sobel get to cry again. Ugh!!! Why is it so often necessary to weigh down comedic films with mawkish sentimentality. And believe it or not, they have Vitti again pointing his finger at Sobel: "You.....you're good. You got a gift." This was something that brought a wan smile to my face in the first film but director/co-writer Harold Ramis must think we all find this a scream because they do it several times here. And if that isn't enough to put you off watching this, the film ends with Vitti, Sobel & Jelly entertaining us with a final show tune. YUCK!!! And not funny!!!

That said, if you LOVED the first film and have very low expectations and aren't too picky you may find yourself entertained for 90 minutes. Certainly possible considering some of the positive reviews here but if you're like me, and find that a sequel need not be the same-old same-old, don't bother with this by-the-numbers, playing-it-safe sequel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good film...weak DVD
Review: This sequel to the comedy hit, 'Analyze this', doesn't come close to the magic that the first one had. It's not as funny as that one, lacks its freshness and kills the fun of some of the jokes by repeating them too much (DeNiro's 'you...you, you're good you' lines).

The situations are not as clever as they were in the first one, there's really no growth in the characters, and the story seems trivial at best.

As for the DVD, not much to see here, only an OK documentary and a very weak trivia game. Even the menus aren't that good!

Definetely a rental, but not really worth owning...if you ask me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not as good as the first one
Review: I had high expectations when I watched the first 10 to 15 min.
of this movie. I liked the first one, Analyze This. However,
I felt betrayed because it wasn't as funny as the first one.
The story even [stunk]. It looked like the producers of this
movie wanted to leverage the growing demand for "series" but
appears to be a failure.
I won't recommend buying the DVD, it's just a waste of time and
money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A typical sequel
Review: There is little doubt that Analyze this was one of the funniest movies to have come out in a long while. The basic premise that DeNiro is spoofing the mafia roles he has done in the past while Billy Crystal is trying to help him get over his anxiety was pure genius. Then came the sequel, and well it treads on familiar territory but doesn't do much else.

The story here is that DeNiro is still in jail after 3 years (wasn't the sentence only 18 months) and he is up for parole in a few weeks. In the mean time Crystals father just died. In jail some one is out to kill DeNiro. From there he fakes a mental illness to get out. When he first arrives in Crystals custody immediatly it is revealed that it was all a hoax. Then for the first 24 hours at his place things go not quite as planned. Soon after DeNiro goes job hunting while trying to figure out who is trying to kill him. He eventually gets a job on this TV mob story (think Sopranoes) and he adds a little moer realism to the show. Eventually he figures out who is out to get him and he sets up this huge gold heist to frame the family that is trying to rub him out.

For the first half of the movie it is truely a funny piece of work. Especially DeNiro singing West SIde Story as part of his hoax. However after he goes job hunting the movie starts to lose something as the comedy goes stale and there seems to be to many physical jokes revolved around Crystals groin. SO over all the movie gets a strong start, but the story goes flat rather quickly after the first half and quite frankly it could of been better.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates