Arts & Entertainment
 

De Niro and gang return with laughs

By Ken Fountain
The Daily Cougar

When Analyze This opened in 1999, audiences took to the moderately entertaining film largely because of the interplay between comedy veteran Billy Crystal and intensely scary actor Robert De Niro. The chemistry generated between the pair was enough to keep aloft the film's essentially one-joke premise about a mobster so overwrought by the stresses of his life that he seeks help from a psychiatrist.

Who knew then that the same premise could form the basis for a critically and commercially successful television series, HBO's The Sopranos?

So now we have Analyze That, the perhaps too obviously titled sequel. The film reunites Crystal and De Niro with co-star Lisa Kudrow, playing Crystal's wife, and director Harold Ramis. The film, while not really breaking new ground, will more than satisfy fans of the first movie.

It opens with De Niro's character, conflicted mob boss Paul Vitti, dodging assassination attempts in prison. The pressure seemingly sends him into a psychotic state, alternatively sitting in a catatonic stupor or bursting into song, specifically the tunes of West Side Story.

The FBI, concerned about how Vitti's imminent release might impact a new mob war between two New York families, calls in Crystal's character, suburban psychiatrist Ben Sobel. Unfortunately Sobel is dealing with issues of his own, the recent death of his father and tensions with his wife Laura.

The feds strong-arm Sobel into taking Vitti into his own custody, a prospect that frightens the nervous Sobel ("I'm grieving. It's a process.") and infuriates the disapproving Laura.

In the first film, the comedy was derived from watching a murderous character like Vitti go all verklempt when he was forced to deal with his anxieties, while nice-guy Sobel was suddenly thrown into the "law of the jungle" world of the Mafia.

The sequel essentially tries to reverse the formula with Vitti suddenly having to deal with going straight, while Sobel goes through his own psychological crisis.

The film is reasonably well plotted, if somewhat predictable. But, much like the first, the story is really just an excuse to allow the actors to have a great time.

De Niro, in particular, attacks his part with gusto. It's ironic that while he seems to be coasting through his most recent dramatic movies ("Am I playing a cop or a crook this time?"), he's created a virtual second career in comedies, lampooning the roles that made him a legend. Believe me, you haven't lived until you've heard the De Niro rendition of "I Feel Pretty."

Crystal does his usual thing, slinging zingers in the midst of chaos, but he does it with his usual impeccable flair. Kudrow also has a lot of good moments in her small role. Cathy Moriarty-Gentile, De Niro's Raging Bull co-star, does a nice turn as mob matriarch Patti LoPresti.

Special mention needs to be made of Joe Viterelli, one of the ugliest actors around, as Vitti's lunk-headed pal Jelly, and Anthony LaPaglia, who does a nifty cameo as himself, playing the lead in a Sopranos-esque TV show for which Vitti is a consultant.

Is Analyze That an offer you can't refuse? No, not really. But if you enjoyed the first movie, you can be assured of having a good time with this one.

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