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National Lampoon's psychoanalysis >> Harold Ramis takes De Niro to the couch in Analyze This by JOANNE LATIMER
Ramis isn't neccesarily bragging about his new film, Analyze This. He's just explaining why he'd take the risk of casting De Niro in a mobster comedy. Would the audience want to make the leap? I mean, who wants to see De Niro ape the performances that have won him such hushed respect? "Billy [Crystal] and Bob were more worried about it than I was," he adds. "Billy's fear was that Bob would put too serious a spin on it, and Bob was afraid that Billy would make it too silly or something. I knew that was all just anxiety. Anxiety is fear of what's not happening. Once they started working together the reality took over and then they felt comfortable. In fact, we sailed through this shoot." It's hard not to judge Analyze This against Ramis' past blockbusters. In various combinations, he had a hand in writing, directing and acting in Animal House, Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Baby Boom, Groundhog Day and National Lampoon's Vacation (not to mention his role in the early seasons of Second City TV). Like the rest of the list, Analyze This is funny. But, as you'd expect over 15 years later, it's more grown-up; there are no pus gags, no Peeping Tom stuff. It's also what you'd expect, hearing Ramis' take on comedy in the 1990s: "There's always Woody Allen. He leads us all. But popular comedic entertainment is hit and miss. There's this dumb, dumber and dumbest trend: how low can you go? We actually hit some new lows--and the audience loved it last year with There's Something About Mary. I'm a little alarmed about TV too. I don't watch network television as a rule, but as I flip channels, I see a lot of people bantering in an insulting way." Ramis is also dismayed at the recycling of '50s, '60s and '70s television concepts into film. Culture, he says, is digesting itself. "I see a lot of people whose only life experience is going to the movies and watching TV. The things they turn out are very derivative. Did we really need a Brady Bunch film? I'm not putting it down, I'm sure it was entertaining at some level. But of all the films that could be made, do we need to see, say, Charlie's Angels: The Film? It will preclude other interesting things getting made. If a studio's only going to make 15 projects a year, and three are re-hashes of old TV and four are teen slasher films, that makes seven missed opportunities." Analyze This opens Friday, March 5
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"What's so startling is De Niro's vulnerability, not his toughness. People have this great anticipation as soon as he comes onscreen because they perceive him as volcanic--that he may explode at any moment and beat someone to death with a baseball bat. It can happen. We've seen it happen," director Harold Ramis laughs quietly over the phone, then continues. "So, we know the violence and that's what we project onto him. When he shows his vulnerable side--when he starts to cry--it's doubly hilarious."