Godfather Week: Analyze This & Analyze That Double Feature Minisode Review

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[00:00:31] I hit a pillow. Feel better? Yeah, I do. Analyze This. You want me to clear your schedule for you? Oh no. Rated R. No. Jimmy! No! Analyze That is the funniest film of the year. Mommy mad at me because I made a boom on a bug. A killer comedy even funnier than the first one. I feel pretty. Also pretty. Analyze That. Rated R. Starts Friday, December 6th.

[00:00:59] We missed. We loaded it. We edited it. Sometimes we get so deep into conversation that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. The reshuffled mini episode. Alrighty guys, we're doing Godfather Week. So again, you know, analyzing all kinds of stuff. Speaking of that, I'm analyzing Analyze This and Analyze That.

[00:01:49] You fucking balls off. I'll shove them up your fucking ass. I'll fucking bury you. I'll put fucking ice picks in your eyes. I'll chuck your fucking eyeballs. I'll send them to your fucking family so they can eat them for dessert. If you live through millennial stuff, let me set so many things on the record straight. Let me clear the room. Let me figure out why there's been so many confusing plagiarism accusations for everybody.

[00:02:18] As starters, these are Warner Brothers productions. So that alone does a lot. Warner Brothers previously was known for instilling the idea of Babylon 5 from Paramount's Star Trek Deep Space Nine. You know, Space Station, sci-fi space operas.

[00:02:36] So in this case with Analyze This and Analyze That, it was pretty convenient that these came out not, you know, long around the time of Sopranos.

[00:02:50] So again, a lot of people say, I don't claim that. And even though The Sopranos was filmed in 97, again, a lot of people had spilled the beans and said, you know, they don't buy it. And I wouldn't doubt it. You know, people talk, producers take ideas. They say, hmm, what could I do?

[00:03:16] And yeah, I don't buy it for a second. Someone at the Warner Brothers New Line Cinema Film Departments was talking to people at HBO. They had to. And again, you got a psychiatrist interacting with this. This is it's too convenient for a cynical, you know, crime drama guy making a TV show and pitching it to HBO to not have some of that bleed into this.

[00:03:42] Now, I believe Harold Remus just wanted a simple idea. And to be fair, it doesn't really go all the way with the whole crime aspect. That's just the back wrap. That's just an extra thing. Kind of like Men in Black has sci fi, but it's not a deep sci fi movie. It's just a comedy with some action and aliens in it. So same kind of deal here. There are gangsters in this, but it's not really much of a crime comedy. Now, I'll get to what it does right and what it does wrong.

[00:04:13] But yeah, I was these were always on TV. The first one alone, kind of like the whole nine yards and other edited movies, you know, was often on TV. Yes, sometimes even country music TV. I don't know why cable TV was weird. So, yeah, the sequel, I rarely saw it on anywhere, but I saw it when it premiered on HBO and I was bored shitless.

[00:04:39] My folks had bootleg cable and I would sneak stuff in on Friday nights after getting home from high school. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the main draw to it was I'm like, hey, I'm seeing Billy Crystal do comedy. You know, he's you know, he's done everything. He's done voiceovers. He's done TV. Here he is doing a movie where he's a straight face, you know, psychiatrist. And to be fair, I think without this, I definitely don't get Robert De Niro.

[00:05:08] I mean, he'd done comedy before, especially crime comedy with Midnight Run, which is an excellent movie. It delivers in every respect. It's a good redemption drama. It's discovered by everybody, every generation. And these often come up in conversations when people want other funny movies. Just everything. This was during the John Gotti craze. Everybody wanted to know about gangsters.

[00:05:33] I tried with these. I really did. I was like, yeah, I like I like Harold Ramis, you know, much like Ivan Reitman. And he knows how to just kind of take on just wacky formulas and do with it. But yeah, unfortunately, you know, outside of working with Reitman and Bill Murray, he never had as many winners. He did do some very historical episodes of The Office before kind of being less active in his unfortunate death. But yeah, I have tried with these movies. I really have wanted to like them.

[00:06:03] And their premise is funny. Again, a psychiatrist who has an insecure mob boss played by Bobby D. And yeah, I just despite the casting, Chaz Palminteri is like the main maid head of all the mobsters. He was kind of wasted. I do think De Niro again, you know, without this, even though he'd done other comedies like We're No Angels,

[00:06:30] I think this is what was an invite for him to do stuff like, again, you know, the Meet the Parents films. So and Joe Vettarelli is in here. He's another guy who's like, I've seen that, you know, ugly guy in other gangster movies. Molly Shannon has a brief role. Leo Rossi, B-movie regulars here. Max Casella, who's best known as the best friend on Doogie Howser. This is kind of where he starts doing gangster stuff.

[00:06:59] And he coincidentally is on The Sopranos. So if anything, maybe Sopranos stole him from here. But it's just casting. But yeah, Peter Tolan is one of the co-writers along with director Ramis. And he's best known as creating the show Rescue Me and being one of the lead writers in Larry Sanders. So again, like it has some of that appeal. He also did the dud with Billy Crystal called American Sweethearts.

[00:07:27] Kenneth Launderman is one of the other co-writers on this. And he has done stuff like Manchester by the Sea, all this overrated stuff. Gangs of New York is probably his best movie. And yeah, I think it's just never ignited for me. And it was just one of those, the premise sounded wacky. But yeah, Lisa Kudrow was wasted as the spouse who's like, you know, a Billy Crystal who's like, are you okay? You know, you're seeing this client.

[00:07:56] He sounds questionable. And it just never really played with it. I just never felt like the stakes were going to be lost. Just it's a dud. I never found these movies funny. And it's a shame. They are the kind of movies. It's not like Tarantino where, or Walter Hill, where you kind of watch them on cut. Otherwise, they're not going to, you know, be funny. Too much stuff is taken out. But yeah, just without Phil, I'd see these on cable channels once in a while.

[00:08:24] And they're, you know, part of the HBO Warner Brothers vault. So they would come up. Despite those, probably the best thing was. And the taglines is like, oh, you're going to tell your number one client, you know, no. And he's a mobster. I'm like, okay, I could write that. New York's most powerful gangster is in touch with his emotions. And the sequel got pretty mediocre reviews and was pretty much forgotten about. But again, you know, that's pretty much how I found out about it.

[00:08:54] Because it was just them teaming them up again. And yeah, it was just kind of wacky. It was like, oh, you know, I'm on good behavior and I'll behave as long as I have a psychiatrist. And yeah, it's just, again, just not well-realized potential. Not much used with it. Kathy Moriarty was in there. There was plenty of other people who was like, I've seen that character actor.

[00:09:21] I've seen that one stunt actor, other comedic person. But yeah, it's just during that time where it's like a lot of people watched them. And you either liked them or forgot about them. But yeah, I couldn't figure out why these were just so enamored by, you know, other than, oh, funny premise. Oh, Billy Crystal in a mob comedy.

[00:09:47] I just didn't take off, didn't ignite. And sequel, quickly forgotten. And it was one of those where people talked about how risque it was. And I was like, there's a lot of dance club stuff. But there's nothing sexual about these movies. But people would always be like, oh, very sexual movie. I'm like, what are you talking about? And yeah, in 2002, there were just so many better movies. In 99, there was a lot of hits. There was a lot of duds.

[00:10:14] But yeah, these were just kind of just for the B or C crowd. They weren't for the main A crowd, despite Warner Brothers packaging so many, you know, two packs of these movies. So again, I can applaud someone for trying their own film franchise, but not Harold Ramis' finest hour. Definitely forgettable for Billy Crystal, despite him doing his solid job of trying to be a leading man.

[00:10:40] This was when, again, during the time where Morgan Freeman and Sam Jackson are now making fun of their tough guy images. And Robert De Niro is pretty much doing that here. And he doesn't, it's not as bad as his other phone name performances, but it's basically also just an easy role for him. So he doesn't really add as much as he should to this. But if you're a completist, check it out. Otherwise, just skip it on by. You're not missing anything.

[00:11:09] Yeah, you might be better off just kind of like if it's a, like an overrated show that your friends like, but you never liked. This is probably better off just ask them, hey, you ever see that? What'd you think? And if they do, they'll probably talk your, you'll have more fun hearing them hype up about it versus actually sitting down for 90 minutes to watch these unfunny comedies. So sorry, guys. Didn't hold up then, still don't hold up now. And I can't recommend them.

[00:11:38] Again, I don't, I think someone definitely talked at HBO, but in all fairness, the psychiatry is more of a subplot with Sopranos. So I think they definitely made a joke and someone else took a joke and it just spread like wildfire. And it happened to line up with something Ramis was already working on. But it also was one of those, they kind of marketed it similarly, especially with the sequel. So there was definitely some theft. It's not as abundant, if you will.

[00:12:09] But someone definitely was like, thinking, you know, kind of like if they were going to do a comedic version of a prison show, like Oz, or kind of like how Reno 911 and Bones were making fun of other cop shows. Definitely someone was thinking, how can we make fun of a current mobster formula? So if they didn't take from that, they definitely took from other De Niro type stuff like Casino and Goodfellas and other Scorsese stuff. I mean, with the casting of Kathy Moriarty, there was definitely some Scorsese stuff.

[00:12:38] It definitely avoids Tarantino type stuff where we talk fast and act all cool. But it's also not, it lacks his kind of dark humor and wit and brilliance. And so, yeah, I mean, if you're going to stick with Ramis, stick with his other earlier collaborations with Reitman and Murray. This is definitely the chapter where I'm like, no, thank you. So thanks for listening. I hope we entertained you for Godfather themed week on talking about other mafia franchises.

[00:13:09] You'll return after these messages.

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