Anger Management
5/10 Stars
Review by Jason Gaston

 

Adam Sandler is back and trying his best to make up for Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, and Eight Crazy Nights. His new film is called Anger Management and, while it's a nice start to an apology, it's not quite the apology I require.

In this movie, Sandler plays a mild mannered wiener who accidentally gets into a scuffle with a flight attendant and lands himself in an anger management class, lest he go to the pokey and get pokey'ed in the shower.

At anger management, he meets Doctor Buddy Rydell played by Jack Nicholson. Rydell is highly respected but  psycho and, after another accidental scuffle with a cocktail waitress, Sandler is going through aggressive therapy with the good doc.

Largely, this is a typical Adam Sandler movie. Sandler plays a good hearted quiet mannered guy who suffers from extreme bouts of anger. Where have we seen that character before? Let me think... Oh, yeah... in Happy Gilmore, Eight Crazy Nights, Mr. Deeds, Punch Drunk Love, The Waterboy, and The Wedding Singer. Nice to see you try to expand into a completely new and different part there, Adam.

The highlight of this movie, however, is Jack Nicholson. This movie shines when Wacky Jack is unleashed and causes havoc in the mild-mannered protagonist's life. Unfortunately, though, the shine is dulled by an inexcusable amount of not being funny.

It's the script's fault. You can almost taste greatness in the air when this movie is playing, yet greatness never comes. Sure, it makes a cameo appearance here and there along with Woody Harrelson, Bob Knight, and Rudy Gulianni, but it never actually sticks around to do anything noteworthy.

If you're tired of the standard Sandler shtick, then I must recommend you avoid this movie in theaters and wait for it to come out on video. I, on the other hand, have always counted myself a fan of Adam Sandler and I found this movie to be acceptable. Not great, but acceptable. It's not anywhere in the league of Happy Gilmore, but at least it doesn't leave a foul odor like Eight Crazy Nights or Mr. Deeds.

Sure, some of Adam Sandler's self-congratulatory humor is getting a little hard to swallow, but Anger Management is a nice quasi-return to his days of greatness. If he could just break from his typical comedy mold, I could see great things down the line but, Sandler sticks to what he knows like a nervous 60's family afraid to come out of the safety of their bomb shelter.