BEFORE: I know it's Earth Day, but nothing appropriate is on the list - besides I have to give Birthday SHOUT-out #34 to Jack Nicholson. Exactly 1 Nicholson film has come into my possession since my chain last Sept/Oct. so here goes. Linking from last night, Cameron Diaz was in "Gangs of New York" with John C. Reilly, who has an uncredited role here.
THE PLOT: A businessman is wrongly sentenced to an anger-management program, where he meets an aggressive instructor.
AFTER: I've been fortunate that in watching 842 movies, I haven't accidentally watched the same one twice. Remakes are allowed of course, but movie #1 is now so far away (physically and mentally) that without proper organization, it might have been easy to slip and cover the same ground again. Well, this is as close as I want to get to that, since this is essentially the same film as "School for Scoundrels".
I'm honestly shocked that IMDB doesn't recommend one film if you're looking up the other - and if I were the writer of whichever film was released first (turns out it's this one) I would file some kind of injunction with the WGA, or however that works...
In both cases you've got a main character who won't stick up for himself, who attends a class/therapy session run by an older expert, who practices unconventional techniques, and might have designs on the main character's girlfriend. Plus there are a bunch of colorful/strange characters attending the same class. See? Same film, except for a few details.
Where this one fails to connect is in mis-diagnosing the main character - he doesn't really have an anger management problem, in fact he's got the opposite problem - he lets people walk all over him, and he doesn't get angry enough. And it's tough to tell if Nicholson's therapist is mentally all there, or just using unconventional techniques, since the self-help genre is so full of wacky crap. I realize we're meant to be kept guessing until the end - but does that allow a screenwriter to just make stuff up, as opposed to researching actual anger management techniques?
Then again, if someone had an actual anger management problem, they might not be a sympathetic main character - or if the older professional were completely sane, it would similarly mean that the main character is, by extension, insane. Still, it feels like a bit of a dodge.
Also starring Adam Sandler (last seen in "Grown Ups"), Marisa Tomei (last seen in "The Wrestler"), John Turturro (last seen in "Secret Window"), Luis Guzman (last seen in "He's Just Not That Into You"), with cameos from Woody Harrelson (last seen in "Semi-Pro"), Kevin Nealon, Heather Graham (last seen in "The Hangover"), Harry Dean Stanton (last seen in "Christine"), Lynne Thigpen, Jon McEnroe, Rudy Giuliani, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens.
RATING: 4 out of 10 golf clubs
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