Adam Sandler must be a rich man but he's earnt his wages by serving up some of the most unholy drivel ever put on the big screen.

That brutal truth is a real shame for someone who is undoubtedly talented and can act. He showed that with knobs on in the stunning, swirling Punch Drunk Love which brought out the best in him and proved that he could master a dark, daring role with vicious rage bubbling underneath the surface.

But in Anger Management, rage is the pivotal emotion and it gallops along here, there and everywhere with no one in sight to calm things down before the next storm brews.

You'd think a doctor played by Jack Nicholson might be able to soothe the temper a little but he's completely off his rocker and instead of curing patients he sends them further into cream cracker territory by outrageous acts and lewdness.

Sandler plays Dave Buznik, a man who is sent to anger management classes after being involved in a dispute with a stewardess.

The classes are run by Dr Buddy Rydell (Nicholson) and are filled with all manner of deranged characters who are more interested in chaos and disorder than calm and therapy.

Dave is bewildered by the doc's methods and nearly ends up in jail again after another mishap.

So the judge feels that the only way to cure Dave of his demons is to get the doc to move into his house and step up his therapy.

Once you've clocked what this picture is all about, then Anger Management becomes as predictable as the v-sign or expletive when somebody cuts you up on the road.

Sandler is in his element as the man who sees everything crashing down around him but can do little about it even though his blood is boiling.

Nicholson, however, is the scene stealer and revels in the opportunity to let rip, literally, with some racy humour and wild antics.

But once he starts interfering in Dave's relationship with his girlfriend Linda (Marisa Tomei), it's all-out war between patient and doctor.

The problem with this film is that each character at some stage is going to 'lose it' and go off the rails and that's about as fresh as a rotting apple in a dustbin.

The jokes are too thin to sustain the story and despite it being watchable for the most part, the climax is a howling mess which throws away any of the patchy work that had gone before.

And predictably, Sandler is back to being his one-dimensional best. His sulky, soppy and annoying success is still a complete mystery on these shores. We can't understand how this man keeps getting away with thinking he's funny or vulnerable or both. America obviously loves him, but do they have to pollute us too?

Anger Management is a good back-from-the-pub film in that it offers little coherence but some loud and leery laughs that are okay at the time but totally unmemorable if you dwell on them too long.

There are also some interesting cameos from the likes of Woody Harrelson and former New York mayor Rudy Gulliani but the whole thing reeks of egomania without the edge.

There's no method to this madness, but as anger is never rational that's not a reason for dissing the film. The overwhelming reason is it's simply not funny enough, and for that you may look back in anger.