Anger Management

Adam Sandler’s gigantic bankability in the US has ensured that the noxiously unfunny Anger Management, a lame but cynically effective re-tread of his tried-and-tested formula, breezed past the $100million mark within three weeks of its release. Nonetheless, all his previous efforts have singularly failed to travel well outside his homeland (it may well be that the supply of idiots begins to run out) and in spite of Jack Nicholson’s presence, there’s no cause to suspect that this will be the one to break the pattern.

Imagine, if you will, a less amusing Analyse That with the deNiro and Crystal roles assumed by Sandler and Nicholson, and you’re scarily near the mark. It’s played as a ‘buddy movie’, with Sandler’s unusually mild-mannered character forced to undergo anger-management lessons after an incident on a plane. His anger counsellor is, of course, a fairly psychotic Jack Nicholson, whose unorthodox methods include moving in with Sandler and coming on to his girlfriend. Nicholson, as has often been his wont, overacts hideously, grinning maniacally and arching his eyebrows in full-on Batman’s Joker mode, which has the astonishing effect of making Sandler look restrained.

The pair’s comic sparring is decent enough in view of what they’re given, but an atrocious sub-soap opera script, replete with phrases like ‘anger monkeys’ and ‘fury fighters’, does its level-best to drill holes in the audience’s collective head.

Bring plenty of missiles and rotten fruits.