Analyze This (1999) - Analyze what, Ramis?

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year  

 

Robert De Niro in what could look like a Marlon Brando 'Godfather' impression beside Billy Crystal as a shrink on the packed poster for Harold Ramis' Analyze This

New York's Italian-American gangster boss has a panic attack and falls upon a psychiatrist, whom he designates his new life-saver.

Analyze This is written by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me (2000)), Peter Tolan (Guess Who (2005)) and Illinoisan master filmmaker Harold Ramis (Caddyshack (1980)), whose 7th feature it was.

The basic premise isn't dumb, (and it looks a lot like what had shortly prior the film debuted as gangster TV-series masterpiece The Sopranos (1999-07))), but there isn't much of a plot to back it up in Analyze This. The film isn't really about shrink Billy Crystal's (This Is Spinal Tap (1984)) fiancée, his son, his meetings with the gangster Robert De Niro (The Good Shepherd (2006)) or the FBI, but they are all in the film anyway.

Analyze This swings between a notion that we should take its characters seriously and then utterly farcical tomfooleries, which is mixed with mighty thick cliches, such as Crystal curing over-acting De Niro, which is a joy and a blessing to him (despite going to jail!)

But the idiotic, deeply inane script and its empty construct here is the worst part of the film. Ramis really hit the gutter with Analyze This.

 

Related posts:

Harold Ramis: 1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Groundhog Day (1993) - Rubin, Ramis and Murray's irresistible comedy masterpiece 

Ghostbusters II (1989) - Reitman's unjustifiably maligned sequel (co-writer/co-star)

Ghostbusters (1984) - Reitman and Co. conjure up the gleeful pomp and circumstance of the 1980s (co-writer/co-star)

Caddyshack (1980) - And you thought golf was boring? 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $ (some sources claim 80 mil. $)

Box office: 176.8 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 5.89 times its cost) - unless the wildly different cost is accurate, in which case the return was 2.21 and the film a flop

[Analyze This was released 5 March (USA) and runs 103 minutes. De Niro was paid 8 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from May - July 1998 in Florida, including Miami, New Jersey and in New York. Box Office Mojo and IMDb mysteriously list an 80 mil. $ budget, while several other sites lists what I find the more realistic 30 mil. $ budget. It is more realistic also in light of the fact that the film was considered a hit, (at 80 mil. $ it would have been a flop), which gave a go-ahead for a sequel, the double-budgeted (60 mil. $, which is fairly standard studio practice for a successful film's sequel) Analyze That (2002), with returning stars and director, a major flop on the other hand. The film opened #1 to an 18.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained #1 for another weekend and stayed in the top 5 for a total of 9 remarkable weekends, grossing 106.8 mil. $ (60.4 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Ramis returned with Bedazzled (2000). De Niro returned in Flawless (1999); Crystal in 2 TV movies and an uncredited cameo prior to his theatrical return in America's Sweethearts (2001). Analyze This is fresh at 69 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Analyze This?

Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) (2004) - Miyazaki's hugely successful, highly strange fantasy

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This poster for Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle teases adventure and visually fantastic vistas of epic and wondrous scope

A girl working diligently in a hat shop gets transformed into an old woman by the Witch of the West and goes on an adventure in the search for a reversal of the curse, which brings her to a moving castle and many more fantastic things and characters.

Howl's Moving Castle is an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' (Year of the Griffin (2000)) same-titled 1986 novel by Japanese master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke (1997)), who has adapted and directed the film.
Miyazaki has stated that the film was profoundly impacted by the Iraq War (!), which is not something that is in any way noticeable. The film has many funny and lovely scenes and exchanges, and the character animation is delightful. Technically the animation is also incredible, full of wonders of detail, colors and movement. - The castle itself is amazing.

The story is fascinating to watch, but perhaps becomes too aloof in its unconventional strangeness at some point, at least for an audience member such as myself. Howl's Moving Castle is nevertheless a wondrous journey and a film that it is worth watching several times for its artistry and warm and strange originality.

Related posts:

Hayao Miyazaki: Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠し (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001) - Miyazaki's highly Japanese, enormously weird story of a girl

Watch the American trailer for the film here

Cost: 24 mil. $
Box office: 235 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Moving Castle was not supposed to be directed by Miyazaki, who had gone into early retirement at the time, but as the hired director jumped ship, he decided to step up. Upon release, it became a commercial and critical triumph as one of the highest grossing Japanese films ever made: The film made a stunning 190 mil. $ (81 % of the total gross) in its native Japan. In North America, Disney released the film in select cinemas with a star-studded American voice cast, and it grossed 4.7 mil. $ (2 %) there and got Oscar-nominated as Best Animation but lost to the great Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The film made many top 10 lists of its year, and stands at #141 on IMDb's Top 250. Roger Ebert called it one of Miyazaki's "weakest films" and gave it 2½ stars.]

What do you think of Howl's Moving Castle?

Monsters University (2013) - A funny and inspiring prequel

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A great congregation of monstrous but hilarious characters are gathered on this poster for Dan Scanlon's Monsters University

We first travel back to a glimpse of the trying first school years for one-eyed, green monster Mike Wazowski, until he finally gets to go to Monsters University, his life-long dream, - where he will train himself to become a scarer. But again things line against him: No fraternity except the pariah Oozma Kappas (OK) fraternity will take him in, and what's worse; no one thinks he's scary. The arrogant, impressive blue monster Sullivan is thrown out of school at the same time as Mike, and they both decide to sign up with the OK fraternity to the school's Greek Games in order to win back their chance to become scarers.

 
Monsters University is the excellent prequel to Pixar's hit animation adventure family movie Monsters, Inc. (2001). It is Pixar's 14th film, and its first prequel. It is written by great Michigander filmmaker, co-writer/director Dan Scanlon (Tracy (2009)), Daniel Gerson (Monsters, Inc. (2001)) and Robert L. Baird (Ferdinand (2017)).

In the course of the story, Mike and Sully learn about work moral, working as a team, conducting yourself with integrity, - and how true friendship can be greatly rewarding. Monsters University is a surprisingly solid, funny and heart-warming follow-up to the wonderfully original first movie, in which a human child got out in Monstropolis and came into Mike and Sully's unfamiliar care.
Billy Crystal (Analyze That (2002)) and John Goodman (Downwardly Mobile (2012, TV movie)) are back to voice the main characters, and Steve Buscemi (Double Whammy (2001)) voices a younger, less evil version of Randy. Helen Mirren (Cause Célèbre (1987, TV movie)) is the imperial Dean Hardscrabble, and other enjoyable voices include those of Bill Hader (Her (2013)), Sean Hayes (The Bucket List (2007)) and Alfred Molina (Angie Tribeca (2016-17)).
A reason to see many good animation films are for their characters, and Monsters University doesn't disappoint. Besides the beloved protagonist pair there are plenty of new, funny, eye-popping characters.Careful brainstorming and research has obviously gone into Monsters University in its depiction of American college life, and it really pays off: From first being a praise of the world of a major, (U.S.) college, we go through classes, student types, clubs, parties, fraternities, and the imaginative Greek Games. Especially funny scenes include a basement initiation for the OK fraternity's two new residents, and a Game discipline about stealth abilities game by way of capture-the-flag under the blurry gaze of an ancient, tentacled monster librarian. The film is really funny, - it oozes with joy in its material, and Randy Newman (The Paper (1994)) has made a terrific, percussion-filled score that lends a full dimension to the grand, high-spirited material.
SPOILER The ending yields yet another valuable lesson about life, which is that college isn't the only way to get to where you're going, and to not give up on your dreams when the straight path you'd imagined proves blocked.
Monsters University is an amazing, wonderful time, - and it can be watched just as well with or without kids.

 
Related posts:

 

Dan Scanlon: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Estimagted 200 mil. $
Box office: 743.5 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.71 times its cost)

[Monsters University premiered 5 June (London) and runs 104 minutes. Sequel rights-holder Disney had been developing a sequel prior to their acquisition of Pixar in 2006, at which point their project was scrapped, and the reins instead handed back to Pixar's people. Production took place from May 2008 - May 2013 in California. The film opened #1 to an 82.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another in the top 5 (#4), grossing 268.4 mil. $ (36.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 90.1 mil. $ (12.1 %) and the UK with 47.1 mil. $ (6.3 %). The film was nominated for 2 BAFTAs, among other honors. The-numbers.com estimate that it made in excess of 134 mil. $ at the North-American home video market. Scanlon returned with Onward (2020). Crystal returned in 6 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in The Comedian (2016); Goodman in CollegeHumor Originals (2013, TV-series) and theatrically in The Monuments Men (2014). Monsters University is certified fresh at 80 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Monsters University?