Due to circumstances largely beyond his control, businessman Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is ordered by a judge to enroll in an anger management program. Much to Dave’s dismay, the man heading up the program is Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). Rydell’s methods are questionable, his sanity more so.

The more Rydell tries to cure him, the more unhinged Dave becomes, and the more Dave tries to convince his girlfriend Linda (Marisa Tomei) that Rydell is the source of his anger, the closer he comes to losing her. But Rydell’s help is the only thing keeping Dave out of jail, so he goes along, but then he discovers that Rydell is making time with Linda, which threatens to snap his resolve like a twig.

CRITIQUE

I can encapsulate pretty much everything that’s wrong with Anger Management in three words: it’s not funny. That’s not really a rare quality when it comes to the cinematic works of Adam Sandler and his stable of cronies, but this particular movie is really unfunny. It has Luis Guzman as a fey psycho, Woody Harrelson as a cross-dressing prostitute, John Turturro as a sociopathic ex-soldier, and Krista Allen and January Jones as bisexual porn stars who’ll start making out at the drop of a hat, yet it still can’t manage to entertain.

Sandler does his usual shtick here, initially acting calm and then slow-burning until he finally erupts, which I think is really starting to get old. (Am I the only one who thinks people shouting at each other isn’t inherently funny?) For me the only time this has worked was The Waterboy, where Sandler was able to create an endearingly loopy character and was smart enough to surround himself with a great supporting cast.

Here he does neither, instead just plugging his standard cinematic persona into a plot that follows the expected path of pushing Dave to the edge before allowing him a rote epiphany, meaning you get an opening ninety minutes of Sandler trying not to get angry but getting angry anyway (i.e., doing what he shouldn’t be doing) and a climactic ten minutes of contrived, gooey sap (i.e., the moral). It’s almost like an episode of Full House or some other painfully trite sitcom writ large, and being subjected to such twaddle isn’t really how I like to spend my free time.

If you’re expecting anything special from the teaming of Sandler and Nicholson (who in his younger days could have easily played Dave), you’re in for a big letdown. For a while now Nicholson has been accused of spinning his wheels, and it’s performances such as this one that give such accusations weight. He’s incredibly lazy here, going beyond playing down to the material and doing the bare minimum necessary to qualify this as an actual performance.

You can almost imagine that one of Nicholson’s assistants was charged with doing nothing but standing off-camera and holding up a sign that had his salary scribbled across it, reminding him exactly why he was there. I certainly wasn’t expecting him to give it his all, but when you consider that this movie followed closely on the heels of About Schmidt (easily one of the best performances of the actor’s career) and Something’s Gotta Give (easily one of the funniest), Nicholson’s turn here becomes all the more disappointing.

I think I did laugh a couple of time over the course of the movie, but I’m having a hard time remembering exactly what made me laugh. I know I found the punchline to Jones and Allen’s response to Sandler’s query about whether or not size matters to be mildly amusing. I’m also pretty sure I got a brief chuckle out of the antics of Guzman and Turturro, but the specifics escape me. And I think that’s sad. It’s only been a matter of hours since I finished the movie, yet I can’t really remember anything about it. Then again, the script is credited to David Dorfman, who also penned My Boss’s Daughter (which, if you can believe it, is even worse than this movie), so while it may be sad, it’s certainly not surprising. But of course nothing about Anger Management is surprising, except maybe the lack of a Rob Schneider cameo. Now that really boggled my mind.

THE VIDEO

This movie was photographed by Donald McAlpine, who brought a bit of visual slickness to Peter Segal’s otherwise lifeless direction. This disc’s 2.40:1/1080p transfer nicely captures the resulting subdued, naturalistic look. Colors look very good, blacks are solid. I was particularly struck by just how deep and detailed the image can be, proving that even a no-frills visual scheme can look excellent in high-def.

A hint of softness and/or flatness sneaks in on occasion, and there’s quite a bit more print damage on display than you’d expect from a movie that just passed its fifth birthday, but overall this is a very nice transfer.

THE AUDIO

Audio here comes in the form of a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track (available in English or French). Much like the video, the audio offers some surprises, including more surround action--both for ambient sounds and some well-placed discrete effects--than you’d expect from this sort of comedy.

But dialogue is the main component here, and it exhibits a clear, natural quality for much of the movie, although there are moments when the ADR really stands out. (This movie was originally rated R, but some last minute edits, changes in dialogue, and an appeal to MPAA resulted in a re-rating.) The low end doesn’t get much of a workout, with its presence in the mix being more realistic than bombastic.

Optional English, English SDH, and French subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The commentary by Adam Sandler and director Peter Segal is a complete waste of time. What you get here are Sandler at his most inarticulate and comments from a director who generally gets work simply because he’s a friend of Sandler’s.

Skull Session (17 minutes) is an EPK-style making-of featurette, with interviews with the cast and crew mixed with behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the movie.

My Buddy Jack (4 minutes) is a bit of wasted disc space in which Sandler and his co-stars bend over backwards to talk about what a great guy Nicholson is.

A few deleted scenes (10 minutes total), which are essentially more of the same, are also included.

Closing out the extras is a gag reel (6 minutes), which features the usual flubbed lines, missed cues, and crackups.

FINAL THOUGHT

If you’re a fan, you’ll probably want to pick this one up. If you’re not, you probably already know to stay away.