The more I think about it, the angrier I get. What was potentially a goldmine of a hilarious premise soon turns into a landmine field of jokes that bomb in "Anger Management."
The idea was a great one: Passive-aggressive Adam Sandler is court-ordered to undergo anger management with an unorthodox therapist played by the great Jack Nicholson. The trailers have been hyping the film for months, promising what should have been nonstop laughter. So what went wrong?
The film starts out in promising fashion. There are a few chuckles as Sandler's Dave Buznik meets Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson) on a plane. Already we get a feel as to how these two will get along throughout the movie. Dave is sent to court for "harassing" a flight attendant and is ordered to see Rydell for therapy. Rydell holds Alcoholics Anonymous-type meetings for people struggling with rage. Dave attends a meeting and is paired with an accountability partner (John Turturro, recently with Sandler in "Mr. Deeds").
So far, not bad.
When that doesn't pan out, Rydell moves himself in with Dave to work with him personally on his supposed anger problem. Much of the rest of the film finds Rydell putting Dave through a series of tests and exercises to try to get him to explode with anger. The first few are somewhat funny, especially a scene that finds the two stopped in a car in the middle of rush-hour traffic until Dave sings all of "I Feel Pretty" from "West-Side Story."
But the movie starts its downward spiral quickly. One of the first tip-offs of this is when Woody Harrelson shows up in drag and is told by Rydell to get into the backseat with Dave.
From here, the film resorts to the usual jokes and gags involving gays, wedgies, penises and other juvenile humor. That's not to say that type of humor doesn't have its place ("American Pie," etc.), but it's a shame this film sinks to that level when it could have done so much better.
The talents of both Sandler and Nicholson are wasted. Sandler is simply doing a mixture of things that he has done in the past. Everything from the passive-aggressive nice guy ("Mr. Deeds"), the bursts of rage ("Happy Gilmore" and "Waterboy"), the tackling of people (again "Waterboy"), and of course, the cheese-ball ending (see all of the above).
We're a long way from his excellent performance in "Punch-Drunk Love," in which he showed depth in his acting abilities.
As for Nicholson, it's glaringly obvious there was a giant payday involved here. I was embarrassed for him in certain scenes, as he had to spout out dialogue like, "I'm wetting my Jockeys here!" and "I'm on the verge of exploding in my pants."
There are a plethora of celebrity cameos here, which is usually a sign of desperation. For instance, when a TV show is experiencing low ratings, it will usually start featuring guest star appearances. "Anger Management" features appearances by Heather Graham, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, John C. Reilly and others.
Most unfortunate of the cameos, however, is Tech's own Bob Knight, who was grossly underused. His appearance will generate a guffaw, perhaps, but one can't help but ponder the missed opportunities.
Which is really what "Anger Management" amounts to: a series of missed opportunities. There are a few sparse laughs here and there, but there was the potential for riotous laughter throughout. I wanted to laugh so much more.
EPPLER'S RATING: ____
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