Movies like "Happy Gilmore," "Billy Madison," and even the critically acclaimed "Punch Drunk Love" all tell the same story. In each of these films, Adam Sandler plays an aggressive character who is thrown into an extreme situation that compels him to leap from a mild-mannered drudge to a raving lunatic who kicks in sliding glass doors and punches holes in office walls.
At the same time, audiences cannot seem to get enough of his shtick. Sandler's newest and much anticipated film "Anger Management" has many of the same qualities but is refreshingly unique. The reason is simple: Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is an absolute natural as Buddy Rydell, an anger management counselor who becomes unnaturally involved in the life of Sandler's character, Dave Buznik.
Buznik is similar to most of Sandler's past characters; he is a good gentle guy who has been getting metaphorically stepped on his entire life. The audience is immediately sympathetic to his character after the first flashback scene where he receives an embarrassing de-pantsing from the town bully in front of his elementary school sweetheart.
He is an unassuming nine-to-fiver who could complain about a few aspects of his life but opts to accentuate the positive. Hence, he is diagnosed with the most dangerous kind of anger, "implosive" as opposed to "explosive." Buznik is about to receive a big promotion at work and seems close to proposing marriage to his kittenish poetry teacher girlfriend, Linda, played by Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.
The moment Dave's life becomes unhinged is also the funniest scene of the movie. While flying to St. Louis on a business trip, Dave's request for a pair of headphones is mistaken for air rage. Dave is amusingly found guilty of physically assaulting a flight attendant and is sentenced to 20 hours of anger management therapy with the controversial Dr. Rydell, whose unorthodox methods have made him a popular legend.
Instead of smoothly completing the treatment, the "implosive" Buznik finds himself getting into deeper and deeper trouble with both his shrink and the law. A nasty bar fight almost lands him in prison for a year, but Rydell convinces the judge to let Dave off with 30 days of intensive treatment, which involves the two spending every waking and unwaking moment together. Buznik's life is predictably turned upside-down by the constant presence of the neurotic Rydell.
"Anger Management" highlights the bizarre duo comedy genre, following in the footsteps of "The Cable Guy" and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."
The movie is full of odd cameos and features a very funny duet of Sandler and Nicholson singing a selection from "West Side Story." Also included are the ever-popular shout-outs to Sandler's favorite New York sports teams, the Jets and the Yankees.
Sandler is lucky to have been paired with the likes of Nicholson and Tomei on this one. Otherwise, this could have turned out to be just another Sandler movie with him playing the same old sappy character, accompanied by fading Saturday Night Live alumni. True Sandler fans will love this addition to the Happy Madison Production Company family. A warning to the rest of the movie-going public: If Woody Harrelson in drag doesn't seem funny, neither will the rest of this movie.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
