Analyze This (1998)

Total Film
"...A sharp, darkly hilarious peek at mobster mentality..." 10/01/1999 p.88

New York Times
"...A funny title, an even funnier premise and inspired odd-couple casting that's enough to prompt laughter just on the basis of the two-shots in its ad campaign. Think of it as an offer you can't refuse..." 03/05/1999 p.E12

USA Today
"...DeNiro's performance is aptly 'Scorsese-aggressive' while Crystal effectively underplays..." 03/05/1999 p.6E

Chicago Sun-Times
"...ANALYZE this has Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal to bring richness to the characters....[Crystal] wisely restrains his manic side, and gets into a nice rhythm with De Niro's fearful gangster..." 03/05/1999 p.31

New York Times 0 of 10
Analyze This (say that second word with feeling!) has a funny title, an even funnier premise and inspired odd-couple casting that's enough to prompt laughter just on the basis of the two-shots in its ad campaign. Think of it as an offer you can't refuse. With the utmost affection, Harold Ramis' new comedy summons the hallmarks of a mob movie and just the man to send them up: Robert De Niro, in the hilarious role of a don experiencing fits of self-doubt. Without betraying the genre that has handed him such choice opportunities, De Niro gives a performance that amounts to one long wink at the viewer. And the funniest thing he does here is to play the role of Paul Vitti (other characters in the movie react to this name exactly as if it were John Gotti) nearly straight. Vitti doesn't lighten up, not even when he ought to. "Would you stop talking? I'm trying to do this here!" says Vitti to his girlfriend when the two of them are in bed... As he demonstrated in Groundhog Day, Ramis knows how to handle a high-concept story with unusual cleverness, and he does it again here. It helps to no end that De Niro and Crystal, despite their obvious differences, are perfectly in tune... Contributing nicely to the mock-mob ambiance are Joe Viterelli as Jelly, the faithful Vitti sidekick in charge of borrowing the doctor whenever it's least convenient, and Chazz Palminteri as an even more dapper Don than the one De Niro plays. (The costumes are often funny in their own right.) From its clotheshorse crime bosses to its shootout filmed in slow motion and accompanied by opera, Analyze This knows just where to aim. - Janet Maslin
 
Boxoffice Magazine 0 of 10
Thanks in equal measure to the crack direction of Harold Ramis, a splendidly intelligent script by Ramis, Peter Tolan and Kenneth Lonergan, and the seasoned talents of De Niro and Crystal, Analyze This is a welcome springtime surprise, a high-concept studio production with the astonishingly good sense to set its comedic aims higher rather than lower... The simple beauty of the [plot about a mob boss seeking psychiatric help] is exceeded only by the plum pairing of De Niro and Crystal, two astonishing talents who make the most of a rare chance to poke fun at themselves and the types of roles with which they respectively became famous. Supporting performances are equally impressive, from Lisa Kudrow to Joe Viterelli (Bullets Over Broadway) as Vitti's dunderheaded right-hand man Jelly, to Chazz Palminteri as conspiring rival mobster Primo Sindone. The film's greatest and most rewarding triumph, however, is that it refuses to resort to merely parodying so obvious a target as "gangster movies" or "therapy movies." First and foremost, Analyze This is a character piece, featuring fully-realized characters that transcend the caricatures on which they are based. As a result, the greater part of the film's humor derives from the interplay between De Niro and Crystal, rather than the usual sitcom-style cavalcade of prepared jokes and slapstick gags... - Wade Major