Arts & Entertainment

Sandler, Nicholson get angry

By Andrew Beard
The Daily Cougar

Over the past two years, Hollywood studios have unleashed a barrage of tandem comedies resulting in both success and failure. Steve Martin didnit quite gel with Queen Latifah in Bringin Down the House, Chris Rock couldnit hang on screen with Anthony Hopkins in Bad Company, Ja Rule stumbled next to a fat Steven Seagal in Half Past Dead and Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes showed their collective teen squeakiness in Big Fat Liar.

Sidney Baldwin/Columbia Pictures

None of these films, however, matches the hype surrounding one of the most anticipated on-screen pairings in years. Adam Sandler (of farting and cursing fame) joins with Jack Nicholson in this weekendis release Anger Management.

Sandler is coming off a mediocre stretch of films. Despite taking three years to make, his animated feature 8 Crazy Nights flopped hard at the box office, and his dramatic acting debut in Punch Drunk Love received lukewarm reviews and modest box-office returns (certainly not the 100 million that usually follows his name).

Nicholson, on the other hand, is coming off a hot streak. His small feature, About Schmidt, soaked up millions at the box office and added several trophies to Nicholson's already full trophy box (Golden Globe and the Critics Award). It seemed he was a shoe-in to win the Oscar, but a major upset by Adrian Brody in The Pianist kept Nicholson in the runner-up seat.

Anger Management follows the travails of Dave Buznik (Sandler), a mild-mannered guy sent to anger-management classes after a misunderstanding on an airline flight. The judge sends him to into the pits of hell after assigning him to the care of Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), a psychiatrist with psychotic tendencies. Rydell eventually moves in with Buznik, causing all sorts of crazy Sandler-style shenanigans (punching, farting, spitting, overweight women and probably a few little people).

The other major release was the victim of a long delay, much like last weekendis release Phone Booth. Rob Zombie (yes, Rob Zombie) releases House of 1,000 Corpses.

The film is set in rural Texas and follows a couple looking for a man called "Mr. Satan." A band of evil psychotics (no, not O-Town) captures the two and leads them down a path filled with murder and confusion.

Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow also opens nationally Friday. However, this indie flick has not received a whole lot of exposure.

Better Luck Tomorrow was picked up by MTV Films after the movie saw continuous success at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, but it was shunned by most other major production companies because of the controversial content.

Better Luck Tomorrow is the story of Ben, an overachieving Asian-American high school student who is about to graduate at the top of his class and has been accepted to an Ivy League university. 

However, Ben has an evil side and, along with his two friends Virgil and Han, he begins to lead a double life involving crime. 

Along with a few other social outsiders, the friends band together and start a secret gang to kill their boredom. Soon, Benis perfect life gets out of control as he becomes involved in drugs and sex, and the plot has some surprising twists. 

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