Adam Sandler (“Happy Gilmore”, “Punch-Drunk Love”) still has not learnt that acting mean and hitting things does not constitute comedy. In “Anger Management”, he stars opposite Jack Nicholson (“Batman”, “Chinatown”) and the two create a frustrating mess of a film.

Dave Buznik (Sandler) is a businessman that is forced to attend anger management classes after a misunderstanding. His instructor is Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), a specialist with some incredibly strange methods. Dave Buznik has to complete the program or he will go to prison but will his relationship with his girlfriend (Marisa Tomei “The Wrestler”) survive.

Sandler is as annoying as usual. Jack Nicholson unfortunately gets dragged into this film and while he gives a good performance, the script is just awful. The interactions between the two are occasionally amusing but a lot of the time, I was just confused about what the film was trying to do. Marisa Tomei is good as Linda and I’m now convinced that Sandler makes these films just so he gets a kissing scene with an attractive actress (Kate Beckinsale in “Click”, Bridgette Wilson in “Billy Madison” etc…). We also have to suffer through seeing Woody Harrelson (“Natural Born Killers”) in drag. John Turturro (“Transformers”) is okay as one of Dave’s fellow anger management patients.

“Anger Management” has a few funny moments in it but the film as a whole is fairly bad. Like many of Sandler’s other movies, it is just so darn mean-spirited at times that it is then really hard to get behind the more traditional feel good moments. The plot also gets needlessly complex for this type of movie. It’s certainly not Sandler’s worst movie but that really is not saying too much. Fans of films such as “Happy Gilmore” and “Big Daddy” are likely to enjoy it but for everybody else, this is another dud from Sandler.