You watchin' me?

So, some spoilsports are muttering that this second go-around – "Analyze That" – of a neurotic mobster (Robert DeNiro) and his very nervous shrink (Billy Crystal) doesn't measure up to the fun and frolic of the first, "Analyze This."

Audience reaction isn't everything of course and you do have to factor in your own subjective feelings; still, let me tell you, people were laughing so hard throughout my viewing they were wiping tears from their eyes.

I'd taken a dear chum along who'd just had her second chemo session scheduled to run for another six months. She was chuckling, guffawing, gurgling with out-and-out delight non-stop. Even next morning when she called to thank me for bringing her along, she said, "It really was therapeutic. I truly feel much better today."

Limited test sampling, you'll say; although I have to admit while keeping a cool critical eye on some of the major holes and gaps in plausibility in the plot, I still found myself laughing out loud a heck of a lot.

The film picks up some years after Paul Vitti (DeNiro) has been put away in Sing Sing. Actually – since "Analyze This" ended with Dr. Ben Sobel (Crystal) being wed to Lisa Kudrow as Tony Bennett serenaded them, and this film gives Dr. and Mrs. Sobel a hulking 17-year-old son at the outset with Ms. Kudrow looking as if no time at all has passed between the two films – you do have to wonder if someone wasn't a touch careless or absent-minded about the script. Maybe director Harold Ramis, also one of the three writers, was kept just too busy to pay much heed to such details.

The plot gets rolling with the good shrink being called forth from his father's funeral (a man, which you who saw the first film may remember the Crystal character had very difficult relations with). This shtick serves largely to motivate Crystal's behavior in the film – he is coming to terms with grieving.

Meanwhile in Sing Sing someone is trying very hard to whack DeNiro, who has apparently been doing his time peacefully enough. His solution to getting away from potential hit men within prison confines is to go mad. And does DeNiro ever deliver, shouting – nay, bellowing – the lyrics from "West Side Story" in the midst of a prison riot.

From there, he goes catatonic with alternating bursts of "West Side Story." Naturally, shrink Sobel is called in by the FBI who knows Vitti has a parole-board hearing coming up in four weeks and they want for somewhat obscure reasons to get Vitti in shape so he can be paroled. Don't ask. The story and the two lead actors keep things moving along so fast you feel like some mean-spirited sort to fuss over such details.

Crystal then submits DeNiro to every possible psychological test to see if he is really truly bonkers. DeNiro's deadpan, catatonic expression breaks up the audience as Crystal pulls every test possible including jabbing him in the thigh with a large medical needle. No reaction.

The FBI releases DeNiro in Crystal's care, to live in his house and be totally responsible for making sure DeNiro will be ready for that parole board hearing.

DeNiro quickly reveals he is perfectly sane, and highly resistant to being the doctor's live-in patient. Finding a respectable job for him is nigh impossible given his aggressive, anti-social behavior until he is brought onto the set of a successful television series, "Little Caesar," clearly a send-up of HBO's "Sopranos."

Anthony LaPaglia in an uncredited performance plays the lead in this tele-series with his native Australian accent. He and DeNiro have a riotous scene where LaPaglia starts spot on doing DeNiro's most famous film lines including, "You talkin' to me?" as DeNiro gapes open-mouthed at him.

The action heats up with rhyme and reason being merrily tossed to the wind, as everyone gets into the act with a heist of millions in gold bars and heaven knows what else going on. You really don't care at this point, but whatever you do, do not – repeat do not – start exiting from the theater as the credits begin rolling. You get outtakes of DeNiro and Crystal that are genuinely so hilarious you may be tempted to sit through the whole movie a second time just to savor those moments again. Sublime.

Listen, "Analyze That" may not beat James Bond or even Harry Potter at the box office, but I guarantee you'll go home feeling in a much better mood than if you were coming out of having seen "Solaris."