Anger Management

Adam Sandler missed a golden opportunity in this laughless comedy about a milquetoast office drone sentenced to rage therapy after an incident on an airline. The incident: His repeated polite requests for a headset to watch the in-flight movie are absurdly mistaken for aggression by a flight crew with post-9/11 jitters. The missed opportunity: The concept's punchline should have been that he really is a rage-a-holic and the calm version of events we see is his own skewed perspective of normalcy. Instead, the picture sticks with ineffective sketch comedy set-pieces in which typically dim-bulb nice-guy Sandler is simply misunderstood. Director Peter Segal fails to find a single genuine laugh in the story's goofball gimmick--which is that Sandler's nutzo court-appointed therapist (Jack Nicholson, volume turned up to 11, in a performance so grating that he's even harder to tolerate than Sandler) moves in with him and makes his life a living hell. A comedy catastrophe and a criminal waste of talent. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include audio commentary by director Peter Segal and costar Adam Sandler, an 18-minute “Skull Session” behind-the-scenes featurette, a four-minute “My Buddy, Jack” featurette on costar Jack Nicholson, a “Do You Have Anger Problems?” game with questions asked by the cast and crew, four deleted scenes (9 min.), a six-minute gag reel, two hidden Easter Eggs (a four-minute behind-the-scenes montage, and a brief joke by Sandler), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)[Blu-ray Review—May 27, 2008—Sony, 106 min., PG-13, $28.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2003's Anger Management sports a decent transfer with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound. The bonus features on this release are identical to those on the standard DVD release, including audio commentary by director Peter Segal and costar Adam Sandler, an 18-minute “Skull Session” behind-the-scenes featurette, a four-minute “My Buddy, Jack” featurette on costar Jack Nicholson, a “Do You Have Anger Problems?” game with questions asked by the cast and crew, four deleted scenes (9 min.), a six-minute gag reel, and trailers. Bottom line: better looking, yes; better, no.]