HAROLD RAMIS

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB.5

USA/Australia, 2002.  Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, Baltimore Spring Creek Productions, Face Productions, Tribeca Productions.  Screenplay by Peter Steinfeld, Harold Ramis, Peter Tolan, based on characters created by Kenneth Lonergan, Peter Tolan.  Cinematography by Ellen Kuras. Produced by Jane Rosenthal, Paula Weinstein.  Music by David Holmes.  Production Design by Wynn Thomas.  Costume Design by Aude Bronson-Howard.  Film Editing by Andrew Mondshein.  

Mob boss Robert De Niro has faked his way out of prison by tricking his former analyst (Billy Crystal) into declaring him insane. Now he’s been released into Crystal’s custody and is given the chance to truly go straight and leave his mafia life behind. He plans on getting to it as soon as he finds out exactly who has been trying to kill him for the last few months. Meanwhile, Crystal has just lost his father and thanks to some unresolved issues, seems to be in more need of counselling than his patients. Harold Ramis returns to direct this totally bland sequel to the extremely successful original, keeping the same brand of humour but knocking out all the excellent banter that went on between the two leads in their personal sessions.  Lisa Kudrow also returns to her role as Crystal’s wife, but the real highlight is the small appearance by Cathy Moriarty as DeNiro’s replacement in the crime world (her film debut was as his wife in Raging Bull).