Analyze That

Starring: Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal

RS: 2of 4 Stars

2002 Comedy

Robert De Niro scored laughs as paul Vitti, the mob boss who entered therapy with Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), in 1999's Analyze This. The movie made big bucks, which explains why the two stars have reunited for Analyze That. There's no creative reason.

The sequel, also directed by Harold Ramis, is painfully padded. At first you grin watching De Niro fake being nuts to get out of prison. He croons tunes from West Side Story, including "I Feel Pretty." "I'm half a fag already," he says in a sterling example's of the script's wit. It's that kind of movie.

PETER TRAVERS
(December 12, 2002)