Anger Management (2003) * *

Directed by:  Peter Segal

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei, Kurt Fuller, Allen Covert, Luis Guzman, John Turturro, Kari Wuhrer, Heather Graham, Woody Harrelson

Adam Sandler has it in him to make decent comedies.    I know because I've seen some.   Anger Management represents a missed golden opportunity.    He has a legendary co-star in Jack Nicholson who is wasted here.    Nicholson feels more like an Adam Sandler movie guest star.    The idea of pairing meek Sandler with an aggressive Nicholson must've seemed like a hit on paper, but the idea works better in theory than practice. 

We first meet mild-mannered milquetoast Dave Buznik (Sandler) and he is clearly a mess who manages to somehow hold it together without exploding his rage onto the rest of the unsuspecting world.    He has a loving girlfriend, Linda (Tomei), who he is afraid to kiss in public, a loudmouth boss who walks all over him, and a job creating a clothing line for overweight cats which others take the credit for.    Throw in a lecherous male friend of Linda's who clearly has designs on her and you have the recipe for a guy ready to boil over, only he doesn't seem to know it.  

One day on a flight, Dave is caught in the middle of a fight and is unjustly sentenced to anger management counseling led by unconventional therapist Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), who has some unusual methods in anger management therapy including moving in with Dave and sleeping naked next to him in his bed.    Dave is clearly uncomfortable, but can't bring himself to do more than mildly protest Buddy's clear overstepping.    All of this leads to a surprise ending in which a lot is left to chance to produce the desired outcome for all involved.    Most of the fun evolves from Nicholson trying to make something out of this.   We are into it for a while because he's Jack Nicholson, but soon even he is sucked into the morass of ridiculousness and, of course, cameos by Rudy Guiliani and a few New York Yankees.

If Anger Management satirized anger management therapy and created a more enjoyable dynamic between Sandler and Nicholson, this movie would've been special.    Instead, Anger Management devolves into silly pranks, painful miscommunication, and even a fistfight with a monk which I won't even bother to describe since it is such an unsatisfactory payoff for an amusing setup.    The entire movie feels just like that.