Analyze This & Analyze That

Reviewed by Drav3n

Format: Blu-ray

Release: February 23, 2010

Rated: R

Runtime: Analyze This - 103 Minutes, Analyze That - 96 Minutes

The Movie:

1999 was a good year for mafia-related characters. In the beginning of the year we saw director David Chase introduce us to Tony Soprano, who would become one of the biggest household names. And not even two months later director Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters) brought us Paul Vitti. Ok, so maybe Robert Deniro's character of Paul Vitti isn't as recognizable as the Tony Soprano character, but Analyze This made some serious bank when it theaters. And because of the huge success of Analyze This, that led to the 2002 sequel that reunited the cast and director, Analyze That.

Robert DeNiro starts in Analyze This as New York mobster, Paul Vitti. After suffering from a panic attack he turns to a shrink for help, Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), who earlier became acquainted with some of Vitti's henchmen. Dr. Sobel and his soon-to-be-wife (Lisa Kudrow), soon have their worlds turned upside down by Vitti's 24-hour, on-call demands for Sobel's service. The police catch on to Sobel and approach him with an offer he can't refuse: wear a wire and betray the mob boss or go to federal prison. Hilarity ensues.

In the 2002 sequel, Analyze That, Paul Vitti has been locked up at Sing Sing prison. After faking insanity and only singing West Side Story tunes, he is released...into the custody of Dr. Sobel. Sobel then insists that Vitti find a regular job, and eventually finds a job as an advisor on a mafia tv series. Meanwhile, the FBI have informed Sobel that Vitti has already gotten his old crew together, and something big might be happening, which leads to suspicion on Sobel's part.

It was great to see the main cast reunite and to see Harold Ramis return to direct the sequel. Both movies are easily considered to be spoofs of the mafia movies, and even having DeNiro spoofing himself was worth watching for by itself. Although some feel that the sequel wasn't as good as the first, I do believe that both of these movies are excellent. Sure the second one may not be as memorable as the first one, but both films deliver the funny. And being that these are comedy movies, isn't that the point? DeNiro shows, in both of these films, how much of a comedic actor he can be. Plus adding guys like Billy Crystal and Joe Viterelli as more comic relief worked to its advantage in both of these films.

Presentation:

This is Warner's first double-feature disc to be release. And sadly these transfers aren't as appealing as one would've hoped. Analyze This is the weaker looking of the two. Skin tones are over-saturated, background detail is very hit-or-miss, and the image as a whole is very soft looking. There are some scenes that look sharp and crisp, but for every good scene, there are several weaker looking scenes.

Analyze That looks better than Analyze This, but overall the image is still lacking as well. Blacks are inconsistent and weak looking, and grain is visible through more than most of the film. Some scenes really look nice and detailed. Skin tones do look better than they did in Analyze This.

Overall, these aren't horrible transfers, but when compared to alot of other movie releases on blu-ray the presentation can be considered lackluster. However, comparing this to the dvd counterparts, both of these movies are a huge improvement.

Audio:

Both films contain an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, and a French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track. For the most part, the audio sounds really good and crisp, and the sound effects do come through clearly. However, there are alot of parts where the audio sounds muffled and you might have a hard time hearing what DeNiro or Crystal are saying. And with both of these movies, most of what's going on is based on the conversations between these two characters. So it can get annoying when you are not able to fully hear what it is they are saying.

In the end, the audio is a step-up from the dvd's, but it's not anything that audiophiles are going to go crazy over.

Bonus Material:

Unfortunately, all of the features that were found on the dvd versions of these movies, are nowhere to be found on this disc. There are actually no extras at all on this disc.

Bottom Line:

Both films are hilarious! While it might have a sub-par audio and video presentation, and no bonus features at all, this can be a tough choice. However, the double-feature discs can be found at a very reasonable price, which can make it easy to justify the purchase of two movies for the price of one. If you are a fan of these movies or actors, and want to be able to watch these movies in HD, then buy this blu-ray disc!