Austin TX movies: Movie showtimes, reviews, tickets, film festivals, SXSW

The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Austin Movies

'Analyze That'

Get another opinion:
• Austin American-Statesman
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• Los Angeles Daily News
• Share Your Opinion

Starring: Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow
Director: Harold Ramis
MPAA rating: R for language and some sexual content
Running time: 95 minutes
Release date: December 6
Where "Analyze That" is playing.

More New Releases

On the Web
"Analyze That"

In Need of Therapy

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros.

• Write your own review
• Back to main page

By Carrie Rickey
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted: December 5, 2002

Which prison production number packs more jailhouse rock? Is it Dr. Evil and Mini-Me behind bars wailing "It's A Hard-Luck Life" in "Austin Powers in Goldmember"? Or is it mobster Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) behind bars croaking "The Jets Song" in "Analyze That"?

(Who knew that these nefarious men with Daddy issues were closet show-tune queens?)

Like the "Austin Powers sequel, "Analyze That" — the so-so sequel to the one about the mob boss (De Niro) and his shrink (Billy Crystal) — is stronger on jokes than on story.

When "The Sopranos" and "Analyze This" debuted — within weeks of each other — early in 1999, they respectively served up serious and satiric views of a Mafia don and his head doctor.

In the intervening years, "The Sopranos" continued to plumb mobster sociopathology, wondering how — and if — therapy might transform a cold-blooded killer into a an ordinary neurotic.

During the same period "Analyze This" director and co-writer Harold Ramis studied "The Sopranos," imagining if — and how — therapy might transform a passive psychoanalyst into an aggressive accessory to a crime kingpin.

Directed by Ramis who co-wrote with Peter Steinfeld and Peter Tolan, "Analyze That" has its moments. Most of them involve De Niro's character contemplating a legitimate career (think mobster as car salesman hooking potential buyers by talking about all that leg room in the trunk; think mobster as technical adviser to a "Sopranos"-lite TV series called "Little Caesar."). The remainder involve him screeching show tunes in a voice more lethal than a Ruger. With her machine-gun timing, Lisa Kudrow is quite droll as Laura, the analyst's wife.

The visual joke I most enjoyed was the casting of Anthony LaPaglia, a De Niro lookalike, as the actor who plays the Little Caesar character who studies Vitti's vernacular and body language.

Possibly not since "Grumpy Old Men" have I heard a film so solidly connect with one demographic while striking out with another. Given the alto and bass timbres of laughter, the jokes succeeded with those for whom the musical "West Side Story" was a seminal experience (the movie version came out in 1961).

Is it possible to make whackings wacky? "Analyze That" thinks yes. If it were consistently satirical, I would agree. But this is a movie that both parodies "The Sopranos" and aspires to its mordant humor. I don't think anyone — not Tony Soprano, not Paul Vitti — can have it both ways.

Now Playing in Central Texas Search for movies playing at theaters across Central Texas, purchase tickets, read reviews from our team of critics and leave your own review.

CENTRAL TEXAS BARS AND RESTAURANTS Find a new bar or restaurant to try tonight. Search by cuisine type, distance, location and price range. Then be sure to come back and leave a review.