Customer Reviews

Anger Management [VHS]

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(63)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

There's not a whole lot to say about Anger Management, Adam Sandler's latest comedy. It's a simple and entertaining comedy that will make you laugh out loud more than once. Adam Sandler fans will love it while people who aren't too fond of him will only see it as a mediocre comedy.

Lighten up, fellow reviewers! ANGER MANAGEMENT is lighthearted comedy--not neurosurgery. I had zero expectations going into this movie, but as soon as the hilarious plane scene unfolded I found myself watching with an ear-to-ear grin on my mug.

I've seen Adam Sandler in numerous movies (and hated most of them), but as humble, wishy-washy Dave Buznik, Sandler is at his low-key best. Buznik is the last person to have an anger management problem, but following a fateful series of miscues (and hysterically funny miscues at that) he is ordered by a judge to attend an anger management course. And this is not just any old course: This is a course led by the unorthodox and dysfunctional Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson's inherent creepiness is perfect for this role). Nicholson and Sandler play off one another in grand fashion; the goofy therapist pushing the mild-mannered Buznik to the edge--and beyond--is mucho fun to watch!

An added delight to this campy comedy is the plethora of camoes, including John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson (also hysterically funny), Rudy Giuliani, and New York Yankee greats (and ex-greats) Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens. ANGER MANAGEMENT is pure fun, complete with milquetoast ending and wacky Nicholson facial expressions. Enjoy!
--D. Mikels, Author, THE RECKONING

Heres' the problem: this film simply isn't funny. Worse, it's obvious that Nicholson KNOWS it isn't funny. It was painful, at least for me, to watch him, in what appears to be a self parody, trying bravely to bail while this ship sinks -- and fast. Ugh!

I saw this film with a few close friends of mine back in June and we all laughed the entire way through. Sandler and Nicholson are a hit together, and I personally think they should team up again.

Go out and get the movie to watch immediately!

Possible Spoilers Ahead:

I have to admit that I am not a big Adam Sandler fan. However, I saw the trailers and I was intrigued by the thought of Sandler playing a regular guy to an over-the-top Jack Nicholson. About halfway through the movie, I had trouble following the storyline. I think this was due to Sandler playing his mild mannered Dave Buznik character too calm in the beginning. While I understand the concept of a guy who internalizes his anger (which is why he was a candidate for Anger Management classes), even guys who internalize their anger show some frustration when there are problems. I thought Buznik's overly calm reactions seemed unrealistic during the entire flight attendant hostility `over the headset' episode. I suppose Sandler was trying to go for no reactions at first and building up, over the course of the movie, to more obvious displays of anger (like the fight with his grade school nemesis turned Buddhist monk), but he started out so overly calm at the beginning, it was hard for me to understand whether he was acting or not. While the West Side Story 'I Feel Pretty' bit had some amusing possibilities, the Buznik character started well (frazzled at being forced to stop on the bridge and sing for his bizarre therapist), but the singing soon became too much like Sandler doing his singing bits for SNL, and not Buznik trying to placate his therapist so he could get to work. This may explain why some of the other reviewers gave this movie a thumbs down. I did find the second half more entertaining, mainly because I thought the Buznik character seemed to be reacting in a more realistic fashion to hostility directed at him. I didn't mind the final scene at Yankee Stadium, but I didn't think the cameos from the baseball players were required. While it was nice to see Rudy Giullani, that part could have also gone to someone playing just a regular guy in the stands rooting for the guy to propose to the girl at these sporting events (I didn't think all of the cameos were required - or added anymore laughs to the film).
Overall, this movie has some entertainment value (good as a rental), better for the die-hard Adam Sandler fans.

The story is just ok until the plot twist is revealed which is the most contrived and unbelievable. It is almost as if the final plot surprise was written after the movie was screened.

The con-game surprise ending really wipes out an already poor excuse for comedy.

I'm really surprised that the critics jumped all over this movie. I think it's because the critics generally don't like Sandler movies. They love Jack but jumped all over him for agreeing to this union. I don't enjoy Sandler's usual films for that matter, but I thoroughly enjoyed this flick all the way to the end.

With that said, I'll again reiterate: I'm NOT a typical Sandler fan and the last movie I liked with Jack Nicholson was Witches of Eastwick. However, when I saw the previews I was intrigued from the start. Sandler and Nicholson? What a wild combo! Last time I had this reaction was when Michael J. Fox was in Frighteners, which was tauted as a horror film. Still, the curiosity was enough for me to go out and rent it.

You've probably already read the synopsis, so I'll be brief: Sandler is subjected to anger management classes, which are supervised by Nicholson's character. His treatments are completely outrageous from the start, seemingly enraging Sandler more than pacifying his anger. The whole film is like a sweetly wrapped present that is neatly tied up with a lovely bow at the end. I'll leave it at that.

Sandler, who is usually a whiny, strange character in his films plays the straight role, while Nicholson goes more towards the wacky. Still, Nicholson isn't that outrageous that you believe it's a Sandler film, but Jack does steal the spotlight.

The cameos in this film are just hysterical. Some of which you'd probably miss if you blink but some are purposely put in tongue-in-cheek -- two of which being Bobby Knight and John McEnroe who are notorious temper-mongers in real life. One that you'd miss: Clint Black playing a massage therapist.

This really is a fun movie. It has humorous moments, some crude but not completely overdone, some unbelievable but they all work wonderfully. This is also, in my opinion, not a typical Sandler film and definitely surprising with a fun and loving ending. I highly recommend this film for those who want a good laugh. Sandler and Nicholson fans will thoroughly enjoy this, but others will just have fun.

I give this four out of five because I always leave five for classics that I'll immediately go out and buy. Regardless, this is more of a black comedy but still fun and worth buying or renting.

Bottom line is to scratch the last thirty minutes from the disc and to pretend it never happened. Not exactly the kind of premise that would have me running to the cinema for a ticket, it didn't, so I read the reviews, waiting for the DVD, asking myself if this is worth watching, or is it a bomb, never did get the DVD but I found the disc sitting on the table one morning, rented overnight by a friend, and so put it in on to watch it. Truth is that the first hour and ten minutes is some of the best pairing ever in a comedy movie, Nicholson is very much as good as he has ever been playing the character of anger manager and potential Adam Sandler savoir, who has injected himself thoroughly into the young man's life, on a court order to manage Sandler's seemingly accidental violent sprees on Aeroplanes and coffee shops, Nicholson has the full blown mania, spars with Sadler very well, with some extremely memorable scenes, almost four star / five star entertainment, until the final thirty minutes that does the smooch, smaltz, literally stop the baseball show with the I love you ending on the big stadium screen we have seen a million times before, and then another extra smaltz ending one on top of that for good measure, means that this has to be one of the cheesiest movies of all time where the ending(s) actually ruin a great hour of a completely different film. I would certainly watch it for the first hour and a bit but the two stars are here for good reason. The ending is not something you can sit through without thinking, My God how could they wreck such a great thing they had going?... and it was!

With that frazzled hair, that just-swallowed-the-canary grin, and that sly, mischievous, devil-may-care gleam in his eye, Jack Nicholson does the controlled-mania shtick better than anyone working in movies today. But even his presence isn't enough to prevent "Anger Management" from emerging as a decidedly unfunny comedy, one that ends up wasting the talents of Adam Sandler, Marisa Tomei, John Turturro, Woody Harrelson and Luis Guzman as well.

The David Dorfman screenplay is yet another of those "high concept" package deals - replete with contrived plots and big-name movie stars in the leads - that look irresistible to all those corporate green-lighters at the studio, but which fall to pieces the moment they come to fruition on the big screen. Sandler plays a mild-mannered, put-upon schnook who is unfairly and inexplicably convicted of assaulting a stewardess on an airplane. Much to Sandler's chagrin, the court consigns him to the care of Nicholson, a well-known anger management specialist who is more certifiably psychotic than the patients he is ostensibly helping. The strained, manufactured plot is little more than an excuse to give Nicholson a chance to chew the scenery and Sandler to act bemused, befuddled and benumbed. Unfortunately, that's pretty much how the audience feels after 106 minutes of nonstop crudity, predictability and over-the-top ranting. Director Peter Segal tries desperately to make the whole enterprise come across as madcap, witty and anarchic, but with virtually every single joke and set-up fizzling and sputtering out, the film ends up feeling merely chaotic and desperate.

The filmmakers have peppered their movie with any number of cameo appearances by some famous real life New Yorkers, but their performances are so thoroughly inept and wretched that "Anger Management" begins to feel more like amateur night at the Roxy than a multimillion-dollar Hollywood production. This is most acutely felt in the painfully awkward and embarrassingly mawkish climactic moments played out, stereotypically, before a packed house at Yankee Stadium (didn't we see this scene a few years back in "Never Been Kissed"?). Moreover, the "surprise" ending requires that we suspend disbelief more than is advisable even for a film of this nature, which could never expect us to believe for a fleeting moment anything that is going on here.

In what is a bizarre fluke of fate, I suppose, "Anger Management" turns out to be the second film in recent months to feature characters massacring and mangling the Bernstein and Sondheim song "I Feel Pretty" from "West Side Story." What I said about this phenomenon in my review of "Analyze That" holds true here as well: that filmmakers with a dubious movie on their hands should avoid reminding us of a much better film while we are being asked to suffer through theirs. It only makes the experience that much more painful.

This film got off to a very promising start. Many of the elements were surreal but well-founded in pop psychology. The acting was quite good and Nicholson played Nicholson as he does in all his films, but quite good nevertheless. It started off quirky and offbeat and I did like the episode on the Airplane.

It paced well, this was helped by Nicholson and Sandler. Then something went incredibly wrong...the film found its way into a packed baseball stadium (I am sure that most of the major Hollywood studios employ these guys to sabotage scripts and movies in order to make the movie more 'accessible' to the movie going public), it did not need this treatment as it turned a perfectly good film into a major turkey! and what the hell was Mayor Giulliani doing in this film anyway?.

I felt quite angered by the end. I think I shall write an angry letter to the studio to demand my money back.