Anger Management

Starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson

Directed by…

Anger Management

Starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson

Directed by Peter Segal

Adam Sandler makes Adam Sandler movies. And people seem to like them. Me, I get maybe a few laughs and that’s it.

I give him some credit, though, for the way he handles himself. He’s not some idiot for hire who sits around waiting for someone to send him a script and a pile of cash; he is involved in the development and writing of his films. The films may lack intelligence, but at least he helps write them. Wait a minute.

On second thought, maybe he is an idiot for hire. But at least he hires himself.

And he doesn’t promote himself, which is cool. He sort of just says, you know what I am and you know if you like me.

There’s nothing cool about “Anger Management,” though.

Because of the presence of Jack Nicholson, moviegoers seem to be expecting this film to be funnier than your average Adam outing. Well, it’s not. It’s less funny. And damn near painful. I think I’d actually rather sit through “Little Nicky.”

It is most disheartening as a follow-up to Sandler’s first real acting gig, “Punch-Drunk Love,” in which he gave an affecting performance, dumbfounding his detractors. Watching him fall back into the goofus persona for one of his weakest stupid comedies to date is a real bummer. It’s easy to explain, though. While, no one saw “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Anger Management” is predicted to be a box office giant.

This go-round, Sandler is the mild-mannered – and of course, likable – David Buznik, who ends up stuck in an anger management program after an incident on an airplane leaves him looking like a menace to society. He’s forced to become “anger allies” with people who have real rage problems, from obsessive sports fans to jealous lesbian porn stars, and withstand the constant prodding of Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), a madman who keeps screwing up Buznik’s life in zany ways.

As always, watching Nicholson play a wacko provides some amusement. He gets to make a couple of fun nods to his own bouts with anger, specifically his attack on another man’s car with a golf club back in 1994. Problem is, the script doesn’t give him anything really funny to do. It resorts to having him sing “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story,” a stunt DeNiro confirmed to be unfunny just a few months ago in “Analyze That.”

Besides script issues, there’s an overload of cameos, almost all of which are more interrupting than they are funny. Apparently “be in an Adam Sandler film” is high on the to-do list of every actor, athlete, musician and politician. The phenomenon culminates with a lame goof by Rudy Giuliani, to whom Sandler can’t help but gush, “You’re the man, by the way.”

One more misstep is the wedging in of some pandering patriotism in the form of repeated shots of an army billboard that look like they were tacked on the film last week. In this context, it’s more awkward than anything.

Sandler, you’ve lowered a bar that was already low. Nicholson, you’re an accomplice.