Starring Billy Crystal, Robert De Niro, Lisa Kudrow, Joe Viterelli. Directed by Harold Ramis.

Mobster-in-therapy comedy Analyze This took enough money back in 1999 to make a sequel inevitable é but De Niro is so busy these days ités taken nearly four years for the follow-up to appear.

Analyze That may not be quite so depressing as last monthés City By The Sea é ités a reasonably competent little comedy é but you have to wonder how long De Niro is going to continue churning out these étake the money and runé B-movies.

This time his volatile gang-boss Paul Vitti is released from jail into the custody of mild-mannered shrink Ben Sobel (Crystal) after appearing to suffer a mental breakdown behind bars.

But ités all an act, and soon Vitti is plotting his next big heist while also making some cash on the side acting as adviser to TV show Little Caesar é any resemblance to The Sopranos is entirely intentional.

The plot, however, is just an excuse for the Crystal and De Niro double-act é episodes range from the amusing to the embarrassing (De Niro feigning illness by belting out West Side Story tunes; a pill-popping Crystal slurring his speech in a Chinese restaurant).

The only real reason for bothering with Analyze That, however, is the always-excellent Anthony Lapaglia as the antipodean actor playing Little Caesar.

The éAussie De Niroé is very wittily cast, and his sub-plot could have been used for some welcome, Scream-style, postmodern fun é if, that is, director Ramis and his co-writers had been able to tear themselves away from the increasingly tired Vitti-Sobel shenanigans.

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