Analyze This Movie Reviews

2008.

The millenniums year that has shown promise, upheavals, markets rising and falling and along with it the people who run this show also rise and fall… meteorically!

1999

The time when the Mafia were on the move, rampant and ruthless! They were also experiencing turmoil, upheavals and their markets were rising and along with it the people who ran that show then also rose and fell, meteorically!

Analyze This

The reason for giving you a comparative of here today and gone yesterday is because we are doing precisely that today and I had the opportunity to watch this hilarious classic. And believe me I literally forgot the rising inflation and diminishing cash!

This Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal classic is the prequel to Analyze That… So let’s first Analyze This and then That…

Writer / Director Harold Ramis(Groundhog and Ghostbusters fame) takes a simple thread of a ruthless gangster De Niro(Paul Vitti), gives him a messed up mind and then throws him to a shrink Ben Sobol(Billy Crystal). The premise is so simple that you would probably think, even I can do it! But then the Ramis has a different game plan that will take you through a vortex of sheer laughter and some hilarious moments which will rock you hard and you will end up clutching your sides!

Analyze This, “What is my role here, to make you a happy well adjusted Gangster?”

Ben asks this of Paul when he realizes that he has a gangster right in his lap, worse still Paul is grounded in Ben’s house till such time the court declares him sane!

Paul is so whacky that he has some strange things that are disturbing him;

1. He gets sentimental when he sees emotional commercial campaigns TV like mutual funds,

   
   




2. He ‘cant get it up’ in bed any more because of the day to day stress building up

   
   




3. He is finding it difficult maintaining his belligerent, ferocious self who cant take NO for an answer AND

   
   




4. His nerves have started failing him already!

   
   

Phew! Huge problems there… So he declares himself emotionally stressed and agrees for therapy. Ben, who has a slight run in with Vitti’s goon Joe(Joe Viterelli) in an automobile mishap, finds himself stranded with this eccentric, headstrong mafia boss to repair his mind!

“When I went into family therapy, I didn’t expect this kind of family!” That’s how Vitti sums up his problems listed above to Ben!

Ben ends up being on a 24 hour call for this whacko Vitti and is himself on tethers as he finds himself using calming techniques on him, deep breaths and long walks and even lengthy monologues with his would be wife Lisa Kudrow(Friends fame) who is a reporter in Florida! Analyze This….! Ben is reluctant to take on a whacked out gangster like Vitti but Vitti manages to coerce Ben with his skillful persuasive tactics(the mafia tactics, with a completely unemotional face, typical Italian accent and gestures which say, “I am the boss, caprice?”)

Paul: “I couldn’t do it last night!”

Ben: “You mean sexually?”

Paul: “No, for the big game against Michigan State. Of course sexually!”

That’s the level of eccentricity that Ben has to deal with!

Add to it the internal rivalry of the big guys; they are intently watching the Ben – Paul relationship, waiting for the opportunity to pop Vitti and then rule New York!

Sindone(Chazz) is Vitti’s arch rival. Add to it the FBI who sniff the Ben Paul relationship and in order to nail the big ‘un they try to wire Ben to nab Paul. Paul quickly suggests that Ben ‘disappear’. There is also an attack on Paul during one of their own Mafioso get together! Things heat up and Paul starts loosing it completely!

Ben: “My wedding is ruined because you have got problems!” how cute is that?

What ensues is mayhem, clichéd scenes of both Ben and Paul landing in a hospital together and confessing that their ‘messed up’ minds is because of their fathers! There are number of screaming incidents where these two diametrically opposite characters land themselves in where Vitti uses his suave Italian accent punctuated with four letter words for maximum effectiveness in front of shrinks and Ben exploding is a gangsta tough talk in front of the mafia bosses is hilarious!

Analyze This;

“I wasn’t really going to kill you…”

“Yes you were!”

“Yeah you are right… I was just feeling conflicted about it…!” sums up the hilarity between Ben and Paul, doesn’t it?

De Niro, in an eccentric, Italian accented English mafia is a natural. He is fabulous.

Billy Crystal as Ben with his trademark beard and spectacles giving him the studied shrink look adds the required salt and pepper to the saucy and dry humor of the film. Lisa is wasted for adding more confusion to the confused drama between Ben and Paul. All in all, Analyze This is a sure fire comedy with its brisk pace, frequent comic situations and super comic performances!

“You want me to clear your schedule for you?”

“NO…”

Try telling this guy that his 50 minutes are up would ya?

Analyze This!

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