I gotta tell you, I was preparing to wince. I mean the previews didn't look too promising and the ad in the paper made the two top name actors look like they were pleading for our forgiveness for making such a stupid movie. And De Niro, I just didn't know if I was ready to see a film hero make a fool of himself.

My premonitions were all in vain. "Analyze This" is a respectably funny piece of work. Crystal was as good as ever, and De Niro didn't let me down -- even when he cried like a big thug baby. In fact, I'm very impressed with him for taking that kind of risk (and also for not making a buffoon of himself). Who else could have played the part of a Mafioso gang boss gone all mushy funnier than an actor that we all hold with such high and hardened wise-guy esteem?

I think you know the story, gangland boss Paul Vitti (De Niro) goes soft (under more than one type of situation) so he hires (loosely kidnaps) a shrink (Billy Crystal) to put his head back together. Wonderfully neurotic Lisa Kudrow plays Billy's wife to be.

As I left the theater, I overheard a couple discussing the film ... "It was good, but not great." Be that as it may, let me tell you -- not only did I laugh a lot, but I went home with a nagging desire to play a Tony Bennett or Louis Prima CD.