CNN - For a good laugh, reviewer prescribes 'Analyze This'

(CNN) -- Harold Ramis' "Analyze This," co-starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal as a panic-stricken mob boss and his unwilling psychiatrist, is a sometimes-classic piece of satire. Smart, original laughs are generated from a situation that could very easily turn into nothing more than a series of knowing references and gestures if everybody isn't on their toes. I know this for a fact, because, after the first 45 minutes to an hour, that's exactly what happened to the movie. At that point, it still had more than a few chuckles left to dispense, but the fact that they were of the been-there-done-that variety and the being-and-doing took place about five scenes earlier suggests that Ramis and his co-screenwriters had a funny idea, but didn't really know where to go with it from a story-telling standpoint.

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Relatively speaking, that's OK with me. De Niro and Crystal are a crackerjack pairing, and their interplay is loony enough to make you forgive the movie being stuck in neutral most of the time. De Niro plays Paul Vitti, an elegant mob boss who's obviously meant to conjure images of the Dapper Don, John Gotti. Paul's no one to be fooled with, which becomes immediately apparent when you realize that De Niro is going to play him almost exactly the same way he plays these sorts of characters in movies like "Goodfellas" and "Casino." He pulls out his entire peppers-and-sausage arsenal, everything from the slowly-enunciated threats to the terrifyingly direct finger pointing. It's a real gas, easily one of the more enjoyable De Niro performances of this past decade.

Paul's afraid that he's losing his cold-blooded edge, and has no earthly idea why it's happening. He's suddenly grown impotent, even with his mistress (in his mind a sure sign of wilting machismo), and he's actually started crying over things like TV commercials where little boys play with cute puppy dogs. His arch-rival, Primo Sindone (Chazz Paminteri, just as committed as De Niro is to maintaining the Scorsese shtick), is looking to move in on the family, and Paul is afraid that he'll go for it if he finds out about this sudden bout with soft-heartedness. After Paul is almost gunned down (and he falls into a panic attack in front of his underlings), his murderous right-hand man, Jelly (the very funny Joe Viterelli), hooks him up with Crystal's character, a Manhattan psychiatrist named Ben Sobel.

I feel bad when I complain about either Crystal or his buddy Robin Williams, because they're both talented actors and seem like genuinely good people. But in recent years I've found myself rooting for them to do something -- anything -- that's not partially embarrassing. Well, I'm pleased to announce that Crystal is the first of the pair to break out of the comic doldrums (the unholy success of "Patch Adams" suggests that Williams might be trapped in the honey for the long haul.)

Crystal's performance in "Analyze This" is a deft piece of straight-man interplay, and the laughs definitely arise from the character, not sheer silliness. Most of his best moments come while trying to maintain enthusiasm for dealing with his assorted patients (not just De Niro.) There's also several rewarding bits of business like his thinking that O.C.D. on an Organized Crime Division detective's identification card means "obsessive compulsive disorder." (I just about screamed over this, for some reason.) I hate the catch-all word "edgy," but an edge is exactly what's been missing from Crystal's work for a long time. There's a touch of meanness to some of the jokes in "Analyze This," and Crystal benefits from the all-inclusive mentality. Plus, he really knows how to mug it up when somebody's shooting at him.

You have to figure that Crystal's character will get pulled further into the family business than he wants to be, and that's what happens. He's getting married soon (the oddly under-written fiancee, played by Lisa Kudrow, is a slightly more knowing version of her character on "Friends"), and he doesn't need Paul and his cronies doing things like bursting in on a party that he's throwing for his future in-laws, or tossing a guy out a window and into a tray full of salmon that's been set up for the wedding reception. So that happens, too.

There really aren't many surprises after a while, but the zippy dialogue and the De Niro/Crystal pairing keep it all afloat. One of my favorite sequences before it gets redundant is when Crystal dreams that he's being shot on the street in New York City in exactly the same manner that Marlon Brando takes his bullets in "The Godfather." And I mean exactly. Ramis has duplicated that sequence to a T, including the period costumes, the fruit stand, the car, and (a touch that I appreciated) that lonely trumpet that somebody's playing scales on somewhere down the street just before the hit men show up. The joke of the dream is that Crystal is Don Corleone, and Fredo, the dim-witted son who drops the gun as his father is being mowed down, is played by De Niro.

When Crystal describes the dream to De Niro, De Niro isn't buying it. "I was Fredo?" he says. "I don't think so." It's that kind of goofiness that makes "Analyze This" a treat, regardless of whether you start to feel like you're being fed the same particular treat over-and-over again. I got a big kick out of it, and think you will too.

"Analyze This" contains the multitude of "F" words that you always find in modern gangster movies, and, if you ask me, it benefits from the inclusion. There's violence, and a surprisingly semi-graphic scene between De Niro and his sexy mistress. Rated R. 106 minutes.

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