DeNiro, Crystal flounder in lame gangster sequel

I don't like mob movies. Alleged classics like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas" glorify organized crime and make heroes out of the lowest scum of the earth.\nI also don't like sequels. Very few movies have been so good that they warrant a second installment, yet the money-grubbing makers of many of the films that don't usually unleash unspeakable suffering on gullible filmgoers by putting out sequels that are scarier than Eugene Levy's back.\nSo when I walked into the theater to see "Analyze That," the movie already had two strikes against it. Its forerunner, "Analyze This," was funny because it successfully poked fun at the Mafia, an organization that deserves more scorn and ridicule than Christina Aguilera. Could the ever-overrated Robert DeNiro and Oscar-hosting schlep Billy Crystal work miracles again?\nNope, not really. "Analyze That" takes the first film's one-joke premise -- a beleaguered psychiatrist giving therapeutic advice to an anxiety-ridden mob boss -- and drives it into the ground. The result is a markedly unfunny movie with a limp plotline and scattershot attempts at humor.\nThe movie starts with jailbird and former wise guy Paul Vitti (DeNiro) feigning catatonia in an effort to secure early release. The authorities dispatch Vitti into the care of his shrink, Dr. Ben Sobol (Crystal), who himself is dealing with the recent death of his overbearing psychiatrist father.\nThe result is a disjointed mess featuring rival mobsters, high-speed chases and a Sopranos-ish TV show for which Vitti lands a job as a consultant. The film's fatal flaw could be that DeNiro and Crystal don't interact as a comic duo nearly as much as they did in "Analyze This." It also lacks the type of well-defined bad guy that Chazz Palminteri played in the original.\nAs a result, the movie, lacking a coherent focus, founders aimlessly from lame joke to lame joke. The film manages to elicit a few chuckles, but not enough to outweigh a bad script and tepid direction. Plus it has Lisa Kudrow. 'Nuff said.