Nicholson's Worst Major Movie? (Done for Money and To Relieve 9/11 Trauma)
Jack Nicholson was a superstar with three Oscars (two for Best Actor, one for Best Supporting Actor) when he agreed to do this movie with Adam Sandler.
Of course, he was a superstar in his "later decades" (his sixties) and not necessarily a favorite of - or even known to -- younger moviegoers at the time. ADAM SANDLER, on the other hand, WAS a big star at the time and Nicholson probably knew that would help put him in a hit.
Nicholson willingly took second billing to Sandler. As a matter of box office at the time, it was right. As a matter of quality control, it was all wrong. Nicholson willingly taking the second spot behind...Sandler.
As I recall, Nicholson got paid a LOT to do this movie (all the better so he could do small indies like The Pledge on the side.)
Also important: after the national trauma and horror of 9/11 (September 11, 2001) in America, Nicholson came out about a year later to say something like "After the national trauma of 9/11, I want to make my contribution to get us over it by making nothing but comedies for awhile.")
I guess he was true to his word. About Schmidt(which is funny AND sad) came out in 2002, Anger Management in 2003 and the comic "oldster's sexual love story" Something's Gotta Give" in 2003 as well.
I just watched Anger Management for the first time in years and -- what a horrible experience. Yes, people say "Jack always plays Jack" and he had a certain "schtick" in his later years: he relied very much on a "stereophonic voice" in his later years -- deep, almost musical -- and he hissed his "s"'s and hit down hard on his "ts": In "Batman" every time he said Batman or Bat it came out "BaTTman" or "a baTT in my belfrey. He also seemed to have a face with 1,000 moving muscles -- the eyebrows went up but the face constantly moved around BUT, in most of his late era films...he used all these devices(voice, line-readings, face) in a very elevated manner and had the whole of his cinematic history trailing him on screen.
But in Anger Management, Jack was a prestige superstar forced to do some of the most stupid things a prestige superstar has ever had to do, or say. He had to dumb himself down to even ACT like what his character was doing made sense for a real human being. Sandler was delivering his mediocre lines in HIS standard manner -- the movie WORKED for him. But Nicholson just looked adrift.
Its funny, looking at Anger Management 20 plus years later, to see how powerful Adam Sandler's stardom was back then(and he is arguably more powerful -- and certainly more rich thanks to Netflix -- today.) He could land Jack Nicholson as his second-billed co-star. He got the beautiful Oscar winner Marisa Tomei as his love interest. A small parade of "star cameo players" (Woody Harrelson in a truly bad "she-male" bit - that's what they called it back then), John C. Reilly, Heather Graham...all to demonstrate that this was a big budget, big deal affair. (Even then-NYC Mayor Rudoloph Giuliani -- a hero of 9/11 -- turned up.) And John Turturro.
But all for naught. The script.
Funny: about 3 years later, for Scorsese and flanked by Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg...Nicholson pretty much brought the look and sound of his character in THIS movie(and his GOATEE in this movie)...and the stereophonic voice and the multi-muscled face and turned the same essence into a GREAT character in a serious mob drama (The Departed.)
And then he made two more movies -- The Bucket List(a small hit with a now-famous catchphrase) and How Do You Know? -- a "nothing" movie from the writer-director who helped Jack win two of his Oscars -- James L. Brooks(Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets.) And then he left without saying goodbye. (Retirement never announced, no new movie in 14 years, now in his 80's.)
Nicholson ruled the 70s, survived into the 80's and sustained across the 90s. In the first decade of the 21st Century before checking out, it was a mixed bag. I count three good ones -- The Pledge, About Schmidt, and The Departed -- one rather glossy but "meh" one(Something's Gotta Give") and two disappointing ones. Sadly, one looks to be his final film(How Do You Know).
But Anger Management is the worst one. Glad the pay was great and 9/11 trauma was relieved, though.