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Anger Management (film)

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For other uses, see Anger management (disambiguation).
Anger Management
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPeter Segal
Written byDavid S Dorfman
Produced byAdam Sandler (executive)
Allen Covert
Jack Giarraputo
Tim Herlihy
StarringAdam Sandler
Jack Nicholson
Marisa Tomei
Luis Guzman
Allen Covert
Lynne Thigpen
with Woody Harrelson
and John Turturro
CinematographyDonald McAlpine
Edited byJeff Gourson
Music byTeddy Castellucci
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 11, 2003 (2003-04-11)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75 million
Box office$195,745,823

Anger Management is a 2003 slapstick comedy film starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, directed by Peter Segal and written by David S Dorfman. It was produced by Revolution Studios in association with Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions and was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

In 1978, a young Dave Buznik is about to kiss the girl of his dreams, when a local bully, Arnie Shankman, pulls down his pants and underwear, embarrassing him in front of everybody. This leaves Dave with lasting trauma about public affection, as well as repressing his emotions. In the present day, Dave Buznik lives in New York, working as a secretary for Frank, an abusive boss who takes credit for Dave's work. His problems also extend to his private life, much to the concern of his girlfriend Linda. Her ex-boyfriend and best friend Andrew, is in her life constantly, and makes no resistance in condescending to Dave.

While flying to a business meeting, Dave sits next to a man named Buddy Rydell. Buddy irritates Dave, and after Buddy pressures Dave to watch a movie with him, Dave asks the flight attendant for a headset. She ignores him, and when Dave asks her again, she overreacts and demands that he keep calm. The flight's sky marshal appears, overreacting to the situation as well, and tasers Dave. Dave is arrested, tried, found guilty of assault, and sentenced to anger management therapy.

Arriving at his first therapy session, he discovers that his therapist is Buddy. There, Dave meets a diverse group with assorted mental issues. Dave loses his temper more than once, mostly due to Buddy's odd therapy techniques. After the session, Buddy tells Dave that he will have to attend double the entire therapy course, recognizing Dave's problem as passive-aggressive anger. Later that night at a bar, Dave and Chuck, his "Anger Ally", get into a confrontation due to Chuck's anger. Dave accidentally strikes a cocktail waitress, landing him back in court. There, brash Buddy enlists Dave in his intense anger management therapy, moving into Dave’s apartment, where he finds various ways to aggravate him. Among these, Buddy accompanies Dave to work where he insults Dave's boss and Andrew, whose father knows Frank.

After receiving a phone call for Buddy, Dave is asked to tell him that his mother is having minor surgery in Boston. As a joke, he exaggerates its seriousness. Regretting his deceit, Dave confesses and Buddy forgives him, but vows to get him back. Buddy then tells Dave that he has to accompany him to Boston to check on his mother. On the way back to New York, they stop at a restaurant. There, Dave meets and goes home with an attractive woman at Buddy's insistence. He later comes back to the bar after rejecting her out of loyalty to Linda. Later, Dave is devastated to learn that Buddy has told Linda about the woman. Buddy reveals that the woman is actually a former patient of his and that this was his way of getting back at Dave. Buddy agrees that when they get back to New York, he will tell Linda the truth.

Continuing on, Buddy takes a detour to a Buddhist temple, so that Dave can confront Arnie. Now a monk, he is remorseful for his previous behavior. Buddy quickly starts a confrontation by lying to Arnie about insulting comments Dave made. Dave beats Arnie in a fight, then he and Buddy are chased from the grounds.

Back in New York, Dave attempts to propose to Linda but loses his nerve. Disappointed, Linda suggests that they take a break from their relationship. Later, Dave attacks Buddy when he learns that he has started dating Linda. Dave has an outburst and attacks Buddy, prompting him to end up in court on assault charges. Afterwards, Dave's boss browbeats him to return his latest assignment and gives the promotion Dave was clamoring for, to Andrew. Fed up, Dave snaps in his boss' office, punches Andrew out after ordering him to stay away from Linda, humiliates his boss and orders him to give him the promotion, to which he agrees.

Dave learns that Buddy is taking Linda out to a New York Yankees game that night. Assuming that Buddy has stolen his idea of proposing to her at a game, he races to the stadium, runs out onto the field. He proposes to Linda but before she says yes, she wants him to prove his love by kissing her in front of everyone. When he does, she tells him that he has graduated from anger management. Linda then explains how she first approached Buddy while attending one of his anger management lectures and that everything that has happened was a setup for Dave's therapy; the Judge, the female flight attendant and the waitress were all friends of Buddy's and were part of the setup... except for the Air Marshal that shocked Dave with the taser, who was just another disgruntled passenger on the flight at the time.

Dave, Linda, Buddy and the other therapy group members are celebrating Dave's graduation in central park, when a man approaches and asks for Buddy. When Buddy steps forward, the man pulls a gun and points it at him. Dave confronts the man, citing what he has learned from Buddy. The situation is defused when the man squirts water in Dave's face, revealing the pistol to be a toy, and Dave stating that he's a friend of his. The group laughs then sings together as the movie ends.

Cast

Several others appeared as themselves, such as:

Soundtrack

Critical reception

Anger Management received rather mixed reviews from movie critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 43% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average reviewer score of 5.1/10, based on 179 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.[2]

This was Lynne Thigpen's last film—she died only a month before the film's release—and it is dedicated in her memory.

References

  1. ^ "Anger Management Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  2. ^ "Anger Management (2003): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
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