ang'r managmn't

[sphinx]

**some spoilers, but nothing you wouldn't already guess**

sphinx went to see anger management tonight.  not guzman, not turturro, not harrelson, not even nicholson could save this movie.  and it pains me to say it.  i feel a stab in the heart every time i speak of this movie.  it kills me, it really does.  it was close to working, i could see where they might have been going.  but no.  let's compare this film with another film of a similar premise, meet the parents

both films have a lot of things in common
- a fairly normal young guy who wants to propose to his wife
- the normal guy gets put in strange situations with a wacky character played by a famous actor
- the normal guy's life is ruined by the wacky character
- everything turns out to be okay in the end

but why does meet the parents work so well, and why doesn't anger management?  personally, i think it was the style of the film, the direction.  it has the feel and look of a sandler film, but it just doesn't work with what the movie is trying to get to.  meet the parents was much more awkward and dead-pan, which is why it was easier to laugh.  the direction in anger management was almost too involved, or inconsistent.  that style might not be a bad thing, but it didn't work with the majority of the movie.  saying that, though, there is a pretty hilarious scene in a bar that worked tremendously well with that kind of direction.  there were a lot of focus problems and some choppy editing, but i won't even touch that

i think another reason was that the film's advertising pretty much expoited every decent joke in the film, so you knew exactly what was coming.  

i don't know.  i can't believe i'm saying this about the movie.  i'll probably get speared in the head for this one, but if you go to see the movie, it might not turn out to be as enjoyable as you think it might be.  and i wanted to laugh.  i really did.  i almost felt like i betrayed sandler and his humour when i came to my conclusion about this movie.  i always love his stuff.

and the audience reaction was amazing, everybody seemed to love it.  there are a lot of people in the audience that deserved to die just for the remarks i was hearing from them coming out.

cinemas make sphinx sad

[RegularKarate]

Yeah... I just got back from it as well... I missed all the good movies... now there's shit playing... so I ended up here.

It was really fucking stupid.  Some scenes worked... as in they were funny, but it was really poorly done, some inserts and reaction shots that were just akward and boring, as is the style with the bad Sandler films (and some of the good ones even) and overall, predictable jokes and poor use of funny people.

Jack and Sandler are a good combo though... I really think with a good script and a decent director, they could be really funny together.

I did laugh a few times and it would probably be worth catching the second half on HBO, but that's about it.

The Matrix trailer was nice though... almost worth the price of admission to see it on the big screen.

[picolas]

it's totally the script's fault. in most of the scenes, the humour's so crude that it collapses upwards from the bottom.

The Matrix trailer was nice though... almost worth the price of admission to see it on the big screen.

word...i thought the effects looked way more real up there, too...

[Ghostboy]

I found it pleasant up until the point when

SPOILER

Heather Graham (her cameo may be a surprise to some) starts chowing down on the brownies. From that point on it was really bad, and this unfortunately includes John C. Reilly's cameo. The ending at the ballpark was an embarassment.

The first act or so showed real promise. It was slowly squandered, until it was all gone. I still laughed pretty consistently, but those came mainly from my enjoyment of the known Sandler and Nicholson personas, and not from the actual material.

I will say that I did appreciate the higher level of production value. A lot of the recent Sandler films have looked like crap (which may have been part of their charm, but Mr. Deeds was so awful it erased any sort of goodwill I may have felt). This one actually looked more like a real movie.

[moonshiner]

my question for anyone who has seen this...does the humor touch any of the racy side of Sandler that you got consistently in Happy Gilmore and especially Billy Madison?  Mr. Deeds seemed like Sandler had lost all the edginess that humor like his has to touch on.  Seems like the major problem with the latest "Sandler" projects is that they're not really funny.

[Duck Sauce]

Ive kind of lost my faith in Adam Sandller (aside from PDL). I havent really liked anything since Waterboy, which I thought was alright. But nothing he does now comes near to how good and funny Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison were, maybe its his age but I havent liked anything else. I thought Big Daddy was terrible by the way.

[Ghostboy]

I hated The Waterboy for the most part, and the only parts I liked about Billy Madison were the penguin and Steve Buscemi's part. My least favorite is probably Mr. Deeds. But I LOVE Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer. I think Sandler looks like he's going to stick to the nice guy routine, with one or two violent tackles thrown into each movie to satisfy his rowdy fans.

In Anger Management, he really seemed to be channelling Barry Egan. Just a little less f'd up. I thought it was really interesting, at first...if the script hadn't derailed, this could have been the perfect mixture of Happy Madison comedy and intelligent humor. Oh well. I still look back on the first half fondly (in the two days since I've seen it, but still).

[neatahwanta]

I haven't seen it yet but I will.

I have a question though: I'm a Sandler fan, I think his movies are stupidly funny, and I enjoy mindless entertainment, but...

...aren't all of his movies pretty much the same thing, just re-hashed?

Just curious what others think.

[Sleuth]

Yes

But I hate Sandler so don't listen to me

[Ravi]

Yes

But I hate Sandler so don't listen to me

I like Sandler on SNL and talk show appearances.  But I hate most of his movies.  I can't possibly like some character that is written to be so angry and aggressive, but they try to make him likeable and give him a romantic interest.  His characters are assholes.  At least PTA did an interesting deconstruction of the Barry Egan's rage and insecurities.

[Sleuth]

Yes, PTA did a really wonderful thing, didn't he?

[oakmanc234]

For those who have seen it, is there any new music in the flick, cause there ain't a soundtrack for it. I know that Sandler/Nicholson comically sing 'I Feel Pretty' during one bit (which I hear is pretty funny) but is there any new music????????????? Sandler's flicks usually have great soundtracks.

[Victor]

...aren't all of his movies pretty much the same thing, just re-hashed?

Just curious what others think.

i think a big part of that's cause the same guy, tim herily, writes most of his stuff. i just dont think the guy's got any stories left, its the same fucking thing every time. but anger management i think was written by someone else, with herily as one of the producers, so ive got hope for this one.

[ProgWRX]

I was really dissapointed with this as well... and i really like Sandler...

I agree though, Sandler and Jack have great chemistry. With a superior script and a good director, this could've been great.

[cine]

SPOILERS

I agree with everyone else who said it that the chemistry between the two could've inspired a hilarious movie. but the the screenplay is utterly terrible. The "Picking Up Heather Graham" scene was not funny at all. I only laughed at Sandler's quick deadpan "get the fuck out of here". Sudden things like that amused me -- especially Nicholson's singing. I saw it from the commercial but laughed a lot more when it hit me in the movie itself. Little things like that were good. 'Chuck' picking a fight by asking if the bald guy had something against people with hair was just funny with how it was set up. All in all, worthless garbage for me and apparently everyone in the theatre as well. There was roughly 80-100 people watching and let me tell you, there were VERY little laughs. A few big laughs near the beginning.. and that was seriously about it. This audience ranged from age 6 to about 65. That's embarrassing.
There are many other things in the movie I disliked but the one I think I loathed the most was the cameos - specifically Guiliani's. My god was that an ugly cameo. Sporting his FD/NY baseball cap and hearing him shout "You can do it!!!" and "Give her a 5 second frencher!"  I was appalled by his cameo. I really wish there was a documentary on the development of Guiliani's agreement to appear, the shooting day and his thoughts overall. I'd love to see that. Bobby Knight was just awful. He looked like he was just told what to say 1 minute beforehand. Awful. I hope Sandler works with another good director one day. Then I'm sure he'll have a good script and we'll see his second film worth watching.