If anything, Analyze This is a classic case of transference. Remember the nervous psychiatrist played by Alan Arkin in Grosse Pointe Blank? Or John Belushi as the Godfather in group therapy on Saturday Night Live? The filmmakers have sought to stretch this angle into an entire film, make it into a buddy flick with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal as the opposites working toward a common ground. They throw in a few gags mixing “issues” and guns, and badda-bing, badda-boom, they’ve got themselves a comedy. Trouble is, what the audience gets is something of a disappointment.

De Niro is Paul Vitti, the head of a New York “family.” For the first time in 40 years, all the heads of Mob organizations are holding a meeting to elect a CEO of sorts. As the date approaches, Paul is experiencing dizziness and shortness of breath. He’s so upset he can’t even work over a rat-fink properly. A chance encounter leads him to psychiatrist Ben Sobel, who agrees to help him through his panic attacks and have him back cracking kneecaps in no time. Only Paul is no ordinary patient. He’s the type of patient who kidnaps his psychiatrist in the middle of the night; he’s the type of patient who offs a guy in the middle of his psychiatrist’s wedding. Meanwhile, the FBI is keeping tabs on Ben, and a rival gangster has ordered a hit on Paul.

Analyze This offers De Niro a chance to goof on his many roles as a wise guy. His tough guy bursts into tears, and De Niro milks it — literally boo-hooing. The joke is that this violent, macho man finds himself talking about boundaries and feelings and reaching closure while unintentionally terrorizing the poor psychiatrist by exposing him to his world of thugs and bullet holes. Given a sharper script, it might have worked. But the one penned by Peter Tolan, whose credits include two quickly canceled sitcoms, and directed by Harold Ramis (Meatballs, Ghostbusters) is blandly middle-of-the-road with nothing too dark or outrageous, which is what it desperately needs. It also wastes the talents of Lisa Kudrow as Ben’s fiancée and Chazz Palminteri as Paul’s enemy, and for that, they really should have their heads checked.