The words "drop dead hilarious" and "mainstream American comedy" only seem to come together less than a handful of times each year. For every laugh out loud "There's Something About Mary" there are ten seriously unfunny attempts at comedy (eg. "McHale's Navy"). Early reaction for this film has been extremely positive, in fact it was SO positive it made me concerned. Also considering the fact this is being made by Warner Bros., a studio whose film product in the last two years has been about 90% pure crapola, warning bells began to ring. But, if this film is the kind of product WB is greenlighting, the studio is not only on the road to recovery, its set to take the crown."Analyze This" is not only a laugh-out loud comedy but a film gem in its own right. The humour is clever, but not off on its own tangeant (eg. the disappointing "Rushmore"), and most important of all - its consistently funny. The only real fault with 'Something About...' was that the jokes came in fits and starts, with huge gaps where no humour was present. While "Analyze This" doesn't have any real scenes as drop dead funny as the 'franks & beans' or 'hairgel' scenes (though the mafia conference at the end comes close), it takes a different approach by spacing its jokes out so your not laughing as hard but you are doing so more frequently.
An enjoyable script and smooth direction from the skilled hand that is Harold Ramis, is lifted into the stratosphere by performances from DeNiro and Crystal. DeNiro is worthy of an Oscar, not only can the man act his pants off in drama but he's a superb comedian as well. Upon watching him giving of his "yes you do" line, I couldn't think of anyone more perfect for the part. After being stuck in some disappointing family-oriented comedies, Billy Crystal mostly plays is straight in this and gets to make some hilarious jokes of his own as well as sharing a great chemistry with DeNiro in their scenes together which are thankfully very numerous.
The supporting characters are all good, with special commendation to Joe Viterelli as DeNiro's dimwitted bodyguard 'Jelly'. However both the roles of Lisa Kudrow and Chazz Palmenteri seem a little underwritten, both could've been used to greater potential. Also there's a sub-plot with DeNiro's father which rises up about 70 minutes into a film and comes to the forefront for about 5-10 minutes, which causes the laughter to cease and tone of the film to dip slightly. Thankfully they get right back into the laughs and the last 20 minutes or so really show off Crystal's comedic potential. Even though its only March, "Analyze This" is going to be THE comedy to beat this year - nothing else so far has come close.
