Product Description

They locked up mob boss Paul Vitti in Sing Sing and that's where he sang sang - bellowing West Side Story tunes and convincing officials he's more suited for a nut house than the Big House. Better yet, the Feds say, let's release Vitti into the custody of his therapist Ben Sobel. ROBERT DE NIRO (Vitti) and BILLY CRYSTAL (Sobel) reprise their Analyze This roles and reteam with filmmaker HAROLD RAMIS (Caddyshack) and co-star LISA KUDROW.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Documentary
Full Screen Version
Other
Theatrical Trailer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58311 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
Analyze That has more bada bing than its lukewarm reception would lead you to expect. Analyze This (1999) had the advantage of a then-fresh idea--Robert De Niro as a neurotic mob boss seeking therapy with reluctant shrink Billy Crystal--but that idea's stale (and has been handled more authentically in The Sopranos), so this sequel relies on established chemistry and zesty dialogue that matches the original. There's nothing wrong with a retread when it's this funny, and De Niro's latter-day penchant for comedy suits him well when, as kingpin Paul Vitti, he lures Dr. Sobel (Crystal) into a prison breakout scheme involving faked catatonia and West Side Story show tunes. The contrived plot involves Vitti's criminal comeback. Unfortunately, there's little room for Lisa Kudrow as Sobel's sarcastic wife, but De Niro's Raging Bull costar Cathy Moriarty-Gentile is welcomed as a rival mob queen. You want a comedy masterpiece? Fuhgeddaboudit. You want 95 minutes of easy fun? It's right here... and don't miss those obligatory outtakes. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, along with the director Harold Ramis, return with this unimaginative sequel to their 1999 mobster-in-therapy hit. This time, De Niro's gangster shtick is embarrassingly stiff (at one point he flounces around singing a tune from "West Side Story"), and Crystal is unable to produce anything witty from his rapid-fire psychobabble. The film, sloppy and joyless, even strands the great Lisa Kudrow, with her perfect comic timing. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Hysterical!
Mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) is about to be released from Sing Sing after serving his term, but the FBI agents who have been monitoring him are confused. New York's most notorious Mafia figure walks around his cell in a semi-catatonic stupor, occasionally breaking into songs from West Side Story. Is Vitti having a nervous breakdown because of the recent threats on his life by a rival family or is his odd behavior merely a ploy to get out of jail early? The FBI isn't sure and neither is his former shrink Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), who gets called in to consult on the case.

The last time Dr. Sobel treated Paul, he attempted to get to the source of his anxiety attacks, but barely scratched the surface. It will take time to examine Paul's mind and help put him get back on the right track, but Ben has problems of his own. His psychiatrist father has just died, plunging him into an identity crisis in both his personal and professional lives. Furthermore, he knows his wife Laura (Friends' Lisa Kudrow) will be furious if he allows Paul back into their lives. But when Paul is granted a release into Ben's custody, becoming his patient again and his house-guest, the reluctant Ben finds that he has no choice. In order to get peace back in his life, he must help the troubled gangster sort out his life and find gainful employment.

The sequel to 1999's hilariously funny Analyze This is a must see movie! The great news is that Joe Viterelli (Jelly) is back to play Paul Vitti's bodyguard. You may have to watch it twice to catch the dialogue overshadowed the first time by the continuous laughter.

AN UNFUNNY SEQUEL...
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.

A Most Pleasant Surprise
Before going to see "Analyze That" I described it as a "lousy sequel to a good comedy". I'm very glad to say I was wrong. Although not as good a movie as Analyze This, the return of De Niro as the troubled mobster, and of Crystal as the neurotic shrink is a welcome comedy which is far funnier than the original.

If 'Analyze This' was a comic drama with a great central idea, Analyze That is an out and out farce, which is as hilarious as it is shallow.

The plot, as much as there is one, involves De Niro's attempt to escape prison (and assasination) by pretending to be insane. He is released to the custody of Crystal, the shrink who has to 'heal' him.

Ultimately, the plot is of very little important. The point of the movie is a series of hillarious scenes, where De Niro gets to exhibit his comic talent, which he has abundances of. Particularly roaring is a scene in which De Niro freaks out after imagining himself robbing a Jewelery store, and a scene where he flashes himself infront of Crystal's jewish, conservative family.

Don't expect anything resembling deep charactarisation in this flick, but if you want a feel good movie with many, many laughs, with fantastc leads and very good (if underused) secondary characters, Analyse That is a winner