34 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
when i originally saw the trailer for " analyze this " a few months ago , i must admit , i thought it looked kind of lame .
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and then when the commercials started popping up a week or two ago , i thought it looked outright bad .
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but then when " analyze this " finally opened a few days ago , an odd thing happened .
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it got great reviews .
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critics were proclaiming it " hilarious " and a " dead-on parody of mob movies " .
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well , with praise like that , i figured , it must be good and so i headed off to the theater .
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you know that expression that says always trust your gut instincts ?
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well , turns out that expression is more valid than i ever gave it credit for .
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" analyze this " is slow , unfunny , and badly acted .
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don't get me wrong , i think that deniro is one of the top ten greatest actors of the century , but he is just out of his league here .
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i think the problem is he didn't quite know how to approach this material .
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he plays his character , mob boss paull vitti , somewhere in between the realm of comedy and drama .
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if he had played the character straight , along the lines of leslie nielson in the " naked gun " series , he probably would have been a lot more successful .
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as it is , though , he plays the character completely serious at some moments , and for laughs at others .
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this doesn't work .
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it creates an uneven character that never breaks out of the deniro mold ; you always know it's him .
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and the movie is badly paced , too .
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it never takes off .
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it just crawls from one scene to another without any forward momentum .
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i think the blame for this should be placed on the script .
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it's obvious the writer had a good idea for a movie , mob boss faces breakdown and needs the services of a psychiatrist , but once this is established , the movie doesn't really go anywhere .
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the formula of the film seems to be this : billy crystal says no to deniro , deniro forces him , and much wackiness ensues .
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this formula of sorts is repeated several times throughout the movie .
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i've said it before and i'll say it again : the only thing that matters to me in a comedy is whether or not it's funny .
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if " analyze this " had been funny , the pacing and bad acting wouldn't have bothered me .
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i would have been too busy laughing to notice .
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but as it is , i only chuckled a few times .
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the only really funny scene is a dead-on parody of " the godfather " .
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sadly , though , i don't think anyone in the audience i saw it with realized it was a parody , because i was the only one laughing .
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but my sense of humour , i have come to realize , is vastly different from the general population .
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i loathed " there's something about mary " , yet loved " baseketball " .
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now , if you want a movie that * i * think is funny , go out and see " office space " .
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it's full of genuine laughs and won't leave you glancing at your watch every 10 minutes , as " analyze this " did .
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