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Poster (c) Columbia-Tristar
Dave is a mild-mannered businessman who is on a plane from a business trip when he sits next to Buddy, who is cracking up at Tomcats. Dave wants a headset, also, so he keeps on asking a flight attendant, who mistakes what he’s saying for an argument. For punishment, Judge Daniels (the late, great Lynne Thigpen) sentences him to thirty days of Buddy’s anger management course. Guess what? Buddy is over the top and insists on following him around, making Dave’s life a living hell.
I wasn’t really sure if I was looking forward to this movie, but I see that I was, since I did see it. Although it wasn’t as funny as some of Sandler’s other movies, especially Happy Gilmore, it had some good sporadic laughs here and there, most of them big. Although some times, it seemed really padded, especially with it being the second recent movie to have “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story in it, the first being Analyze That.
Anger Management had many cameos: Roger Clemens, Rudy Giuliani (who uses the famous “You can do it” line), Heather Graham, Luiz Guzman, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Nealon, John C. Reilly, and Harry Dean Stanton. Most of them I could recognize, except Woody Harrelson, since he was in drag (eww…rates as second worst movie going experience of 2003 so far: first is Kathy Bates in About Schmidt). The plot, well, there wasn’t really much of one, but is there ever in a Sandler film?
Sandler probably did his best acting to date (although I have not see Punch-Drunk Love yet), proving himself to be out of the slob comedy (which he hasn’t done since Little Nicky). He may be able to go to real comedy. Nicholson seemed to be having tons of fun in his role of the aggressive doctor who needs the course in anger management. Marisa Tomei, as Sandler’s heartthrob, is wasted, of course, as is John Turturro, someone else in the course. He was magnificent in Mr. Deeds, but he didn’t have much of a role in this one.
I’ve seen comparisons to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from Anger Management, which doesn’t really make sense. Sure, they both deal with mentality issues, but that’s about it. One’s an Oscar-winning drama, and the other is, well, Sandler’s farewell to what made him famous.
Rated PG-13 on appeal for crude sexual content and language.
Review Date: April 17, 2003