Anger Management
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: April 11, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
23
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The two XXL personalities are in fit, fighting form in a comedy as bracing and furiously right for the moment as it is broad and huggable. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Miller time for the funny bone. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Each actor is unusually watchful and wily, and their actorly competition underscores the one-upmanship of their characters. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's good fun for a while, especially the therapy sessions that feature Luis Guzman as a gay hood with a paunch he covers in Day-Glo spandex and John Turturro as Dave's "anger buddy." John C. Reilly also scores as a bully turned Buddhist monk. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
At a time when screen comedy has its own problems with anger management, Sandler's self-possessed style is as refreshing as it is funny. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Without insult to either film, Anger Management could be called "Punch-Drunk Love" for the masses. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
As a comedy duo Nicholson and Sandler pose no threat to the legacy of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, in part because Sandler is so outclassed, but mostly because everyone involved is playing it safe. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Nicholson operates in full-bore demonic mode in Anger Management, eclipsing gentle star Adam Sandler and satisfying everybody who's been waiting for Hollywood's Wild Man to cut loose once more. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Essentially a one-joke movie that milks its central conceit long after there's nothing left. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
A ragged piece of filmmaking, but the odds are you'll have as good a time watching it as Nicholson and Sandler seemed to have making it. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The important things first: It's always a relief to come out of an Adam Sandler movie without a case of hives, and you can comfortably attend Anger Management without prophylactic antihistamines. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Only a smattering of the potential is realized in this tolerable disappointment, which is so unworthy of getting angry about that it will still become a knee-jerk hit. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It contains terrific sequences, and Nicholson and Sandler team up better than one might expect. But the film plays like two characters in search of a story and runs a good 15 minutes too long. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss
It should make audiences happy. But then so did most of his earlier movies, and they were lame, gnat-brained pieces of demagogic doo-doo! Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
The antics here are strained, graceless and tiresomely crude, the sorts of things audiences feel they're supposed to laugh at rather than well-developed situations that generate genuine amusement. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Consistently wacky and sometimes nearly surreal. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Although Sandler's formula remains constant -- the downtrodden hero can do eet! -- what's new is his willingness to share the screen equally with a male co-star. Not that anyone could get in the way of that mugging steamroller Nicholson. Read full review
60
Film ThreatKevin Carr
As with many films nowadays, the supporting cast actually shines more than the principles. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Needing the gristle of its title, the film should have been angrier. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
What's most astonishing is that a film populated by two madmen can grow so wearying and dull; the movie crawls toward its climax, which is so barmy it's almost surreal. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Anger Management is bearable up to its protracted climax, set in Yankee Stadium, which gets my vote for the most excruciating wind-up of any comedy, ever. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
What we're left with is an unfocused, rambling concept that lumbers off the ground but never really soars to the level of lunacy it could, especially at the afterthought of an ending, which is nonsensical at best. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Unless you’re 15 at heart, you may need anger management yourself after sitting through this aggressively crass comedy, which alternates between mean-spirited slapstick and arbitrary uplift. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Isn't all bad. It isn't good, either, but it's better than it deserves to be, and if one sits and watches, the laughs do come, a few. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The concept is inspired. The execution is lame. Anger Management, a film that might have been one of Adam Sandler's best, becomes one of Jack Nicholson's worst. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Doesn't possess the discipline to peel laughs off its potentially riotous premise. Instead, Segal and company grope desperately for every low gag they can find, whether or not it has anything to do with the story. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Undercooked, although it feels enough like a comedy for you to swallow it if you have to. Read full review
50
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Who's responsible for this comedy proving such a disappointment- Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler or director Peter Segal? Nope. The correct answer: screenwriter David Dorfman. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Though what he does here pretty much defines coasting, Nicholson just fooling around adds an energy to even the kind of hopelessly contrived material that lets you know that the lowest common denominator just got lower. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Disposable, sporadically amusing. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
With Nicholson and Sandler aboard, we want to love it madly. But instead of a tickle, this big-name comedy just grates. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Has hell frozen over? Not only is Jack Nicholson starring in a buddy movie alongside Adam Sandler, but of the two, Sandler's low-key approach is preferable. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Anger Management is so almost-but-not-quite funny that it feels like one colossal gyp. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's slapdash, crudely crafted and resolutely adolescent. And occasionally, though only occasionally, very funny.
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Sandler has become one of our primary symbols of the modern rage-repressed American male. Let’s hope that one day he will learn to channel that rage to greater effect. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The most dispiriting thing about Anger Management is that its cameos seem like leftovers. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It's a remarkable, if appalling, spectacle of self-abasement. But of course, that's Sandler's specialty. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels
But by the time the big not-so-surprise ending rolls around -- no, nothing that happened was exactly as it seemed -- most viewers will have long since stopped caring. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A perfectly dreadful affair that makes no sense, has almost no good laughs and finally just sinks like a rock in a Beverly Hills swimming pool. Read full review
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