Dave Buznik is much like myself. He's a quiet guy, shy and not the least bit confrontational. He works as a secretary to some lazy man who holds an executive position and makes Buznik his bitch.
He deals with his girlfriend's well-endowed ex-boyfriend who hangs around all the time and within the first few opening scenes of Anger Management, Buznik, played by Adam Sandler, comes across as a total pushover. He can't even bring himself to kiss his girlfriend, Linda, in public.
After an everyday situation on an airplane escalates out of control, Buznik, the typical cool-as-a-cucumber kinda guy, is ordered by a judge to see Dr. Buddy Rydell [Jack Nicholson] and undergo 20 hours of anger management therapy.
He joins this group of oddball characters in Rydell's therapy group and the movie really begins. The characters are the only elements of the film that make it a typical Sandler flick.
A flamboyantly gay patient with severe anger issues sits in a circle with two lesbian porn stars who suffer, as well; an outraged sports fan who has "anger sharks swimming in his head"; and Chuck, who is constantly using bodily fluids as a source of retaliation against his enemies.
Rydell even has anger problems and begins to drive Buznik mad ... literally.
After several doctor-provoked outbursts, Buznik is sent to court again, only to find out that he must either spend time in jail or undergo Dr. Rydell's extensive anger management treatment.
This is where we see Nicholson's character come to life. He moves in with Buznik and takes it upon himself to sleep buck naked in his bed, make crude comments about the beautiful Linda, played by Marisa Tomei, and throws out every "angry" CD Buznik owns.
Rydell forces him to confront each bully from his past and present, and manipulates him into doing every out-of-character thing imaginable - from confronting a beautiful bombshell [Heather Graham] at a bar, to beating the shit out of his childhood bully turned Buddhist monk [John C. Reilly], to having a close encounter with a cross-dressing prostitute [Woody Harrelson].
Despite all of the cameos to keep the film on its toes [Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and college basketball coach Bobby Knight also find their way onto the screen], Anger Management is rather redundant.
After Buznik shows up in the same courtroom with the same judge several times, the scene gets old and predictable and I began to wish that I were in an aisle seat so I could sneak out and grab that soda I didn't have time to get.
Maybe it was the lack of reality in the whole situation I couldn't quite grasp: no shrink is going to move in with you after a week of treatment and follow you to work, forcing you to embarrass yourself over and over and over again.
I felt like I was watching Groundhog Day. Who could forget that Bill Murray classic where he keeps waking up only to relive the same day over and over again?
That's what this movie felt like. While it was indeed entertaining, it was terribly monotonous.
If a movie has captured an audience's attention, they won't want to even get up to go to the bathroom, even after they have downed a 32-ounce Mountain Dew.
After the first couple of frustrating situations in which Buznick is portrayed as a psycho with severe anger problems and Rydell is deemed the great therapist, the film lost its appeal.
The end does have a surprising twist to it, making everything, which once seemed unrealistic, fall into place [I was waiting for this to happen the whole time].
But when it was finally over, I was relieved. I pushed my way out of the crowded theater and walked quickly up and down rows of cars until I found mine, got into it and finally left - like I'd wanted to do from the beginning.
Reach the reporter at erika.wurst@asu.edu.
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out of four
