I am grieving. It's a process (Analyze That (DVD))

Member Name: Andy.mack

Product:	Analyze That (DVD)
Date:	17/10/03 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: De Niro and Crystal still work well together on screen

Disadvantages: Lisa Kudrow really needs to break away from the Pheobe role

Over the last few nights, rather than sit and watch hours of endless rubbish on TV I have been catching up on the films I’ve bought and been meaning to see. So that means there’s material for at least three more ops. The first of these films was the follow up to the 1999 comedy Analzye This. Ramis returned with the same key cast members to try and make a sequel to the surprise hit.

Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) has been imprisoned in Sing Sing a maximum-security prison following the end of the first film. He runs everything inside but when his cellmate is transferred without requesting it Vitti gets nervous and so that night rather than sleep in his bed he sleeps under it. Bit of an odd decision until in the middle of the night one of the guards tries to take him out in his bed with a silenced pistol.

He’s having major problems and decides he needs to do something fast to get himself out. He decides the best way is if he appears mad, at least then he can get into a secure cell. After a fight breaks out in the canteen he starts singing songs from West Side Story and ultimately ends up in a padded cell awaiting the arrival of the good doctor who helped him out so well last time.

Of course Dr Sobel (Billy Crystal) still has his own problems, his father has just died and he doesn’t seem to feel anything. He’s now married to Laura (Lisa Kudrow), which is great but his work still doesn’t seem to be very fulfilling and on top of all that he’s taking endless amounts of tablets on the side. His life is stressful enough but the call to come and treat Paul Vitti really is another blow to him as he thought he was finally rid of him.

After running a number of tests on Vitti, he’s sure that he is actually insane and needs to be released to a safe house as quickly as possible. However what he didn’t count on was that he would be the one Vitti is released to. And shortly after leaving the priso
n it turns out he was faking it all along and now he was out. Now Vitti is determined to find out who is trying to kill him.

Again like the first film the plot is incredibly simple and I think it’s this point that has lead to a number of bad reviews of this film. The humours simple and very much follows the pattern of the first, which again ahs lead to a lot of people saying it’s a bad film but to be totally honest it isn’t a bad film and in-fact is just the sort of brainless comedy that worked out to be ideal watching after a hard day at work.

Again as with the first Director/Actor Harold Ramis returns to direct the film after the success he made of the first one. The script follows very similar lines to the first film, however more of Sobel’s character flaws and problems come out during this one making it a little less one sided. Again some of the locations match the idea of the film perfectly and although some of the situations like the car chase do seem a bit far-fetched but are actually quite funny.

The main factor that guaranteed that this was going to be a good film was the fact that the main actors were returning. There’s nothing worse than a sequel without the original cast members. In fact without De Niro, I honestly feel this wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good. As both the mad Vitti and his return to the normal Vitti, De Niro plays both well and really gets the most out of the script.

Although De Niro does steal the show I think Billy Crystal really adds something to this one as well. He built up a good rapport with De Niro during the first film and this was also an important part of keeping the same style of comedy going during this second outing. However again I feel Lisa Kudrow let the film down massively, trying to be so unlike Pheobe that in actual fact she seemed to be even more like her. Although I feel that the script may have been written to portray her this way.
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br>I know a lot of people following my op on the first film were saying they had heard this wasn’t very good, well to be honest compared to the first it wasn’t as good. But that’s not to say that it isn’t a good film because it is. The way De Niro and Crystal interact on screen really makes the film a lot better than perhaps the script would allow. That said Ramis knows how to make a decent comedy film and that alone should be a reason to see it. If you liked Analyze This its almost a certainty you’ll like this one

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