Analyze That

Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro return as psychiatrist Ben Sobol and mobster Paul Vitti, the roles they played in 1999’s Analyze This. This time, in a plotline that makes no sense at all, Vitti fakes a nervous breakdown (hoarsely warbling songs from West Side Story) as a ruse to get out of prison early. Who knew it was that easy? The script by Peter Steinfeld, Peter Tolan and director Harold Ramis (who didn’t collaborate and may never even have met) seems thrown together in a blind panic. It’s a pointless sequel that’s fairly enjoyable in spots (Crystal and De Niro are pros, after all) but that makes no sense at all. It’s pretty much of a mess, and the more you think about it, the worse it gets. Lisa Kudrow (as Crystal’s wife) and Cathy Moriarty-Gentile (as a Mafia “queenpin”) are largely wasted.