Analyze This (1999)
Directed by Harold Ramis

Film Review

The phenomenal worldwide success of this hopelessly formulaic gangster comedy is hard to account for, although the prospect of Robert De Niro parodying himself into early retirement may have been one of the factors behind the film's popularity.  Analyze This (1999) has some decent gags, but these are desperately few and far between and most of the best jokes manage to get lost in all the tedious flotsam and jetsam.  The scenes that work well are those with De Niro and Crystal slugging it out in the psychiatrist's consulting room - both actors have great fun at their own expense and their interaction is often blisteringly funny.  When the film opens out and turns into a full-blown gangster parody it loses both its direction and its charm.  It's a pity that the film's makers didn't have the foresight or the courage to make this as a predominantly two-handed piece for its two highly capable lead performers - in a similar vein to De Niro's earlier comedy successes The King of Comedy (1982) and Midnight Run (1988).  That way, it could have been something far more interesting and enjoyable, a chance for De Niro to show he can do some real comedy.  As it is, Analyze This is a somewhat lacklustre variation on a familiar theme, a missed opportunity for all concerned.  Still, it's far better than its 2002 sequel, Analyze That, which is simply too awful for words.

Film Synopsis

Paul Vitti is a New York gangster boss who fears that his reputation as one of the city's most notorious hoodlums may be undermined when he starts to suffer from panic attacks.  He turns to Ben Sobel, a successful society psychiatrist, expecting to have his inner demons exorcised in time for a big gangster conference in a few weeks.  Sobel reluctantly agrees to treat Vitti after he has returned from his vacation in Miami, where he is planning to get married to his fiancée Laura MacNamara.  Sobel is somewhat disconcerted when Vitti shows up in Miami and demands his immediate attention.  What neither of them knows is that they are being monitored by the FBI.  By manipulating a recording of one of Vitti's conversations with another hoodlum, FBI agents persuade Sobel that he must help them to arrest Vitti and his gangster associates...