Plot

Dave Buznik is a businessman who is wrongly sentenced to an anger management program, where he meets an aggressive instructor.

Mild-mannered timid businessman Dave Buznik works for a pet clothing company out of New York City. He's got an abrasive boss named Mr. Frank Head who frequently takes credit for his work and steps on him in return. He's got a loving girlfriend, Linda, whose best friend is her condescending college ex, Andrew. But when a misunderstanding aboard an airplane goes haywire, Dave is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell, who is an unpredictable, psychopathic character. As the relationship between Dave and Buddy becomes more tense, when the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc Dave's life, and Buddy might be the only one who can save him from a problem he recognizes right away in his patient, that could only get worse.—Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}

After a misunderstanding aboard an airplane that escalates out of control, the mild-mannered Dave Buznik is ordered by Judge Daniels to attend anger management sessions run by Doctor Buddy Rydell, which are filled with highly eccentric and volatile men and women. Buddy's unorthodox approach to therapy is confrontational and abrasive and Dave is bewildered by it. Then, after yet another mishap, Judge Daniels orders Dave to step up his therapy or wind up in jail. So, Buddy moves in with Dave to help him battle his inner demons. Buddy himself has no inner demons since he acts out at every opportunity and that includes making lewd comments about Dave's girlfriend Linda and goading Dave into confronting every slight, past or present, head-on. But Buddy finally goes too far and Dave must decide whether to crawl back into his shell or stand up for himself. Could it be that Buddy's confounding and contradictory treatment is just what the doctor ordered?—Sujit R. Varma

Overworked and undervalued Dave Buznik is a businessman whose life practically seems stuck in second gear. He's got a boss who just as well step on him, as acknowledge the fact that Dave does all the work but the boss gets the credit. He's got a pacifist nature that always gets the best of him, causing him to avoid conflict whenever possible. But it only seems to get worse for Dave when he can't take action and lets everything just sit. However, when a misunderstanding aboard an airplane lands Dave in court, the only way out is through the therapy of Dr. Buddy Rydell, a psychiatrist and anger management expert. While the unconventional Buddy seems harmful and psychotic, he might just be Dave's only solution to a problem that seriously needs to be addressed.—mystic80

Dave Buznik is a hardworking businessman with a pacifistic nature that has often gotten the best of him. But a simple misunderstanding aboard an airplane quickly escalates into a legal nightmare for Dave. Now, the only way he can avoid jail time is to seek the help of a very unlikely anger management instructor known as Dr. Buddy Rydell. The good doctor's unorthodox methods border on unconventional and nearly psychotic, but may be the perfect antidote for Dave, who has been a stepping stone his entire life.—monkeykingma

In 1978, a young Dave Buznik (Adam Sanlder) is about to kiss the girl of his dreams, when a local bully, Arnie Shankman, pulls down his pants and underwear, embarrassing him in front of everybody. This leaves Dave with lasting trauma about public affection, as well as repressing his emotions. In the present day, Dave Buznik lives in New York, working as a secretary for Frank, an abusive boss who takes credit for Dave's work. His problems also extend to his private life, much to the concern of his girlfriend Linda (Marisa Tomei). Her ex-boyfriend and best friend Andrew is in her life constantly, and makes no resistance in being condescending to Dave.

While flying to a business meeting, Dave sits next to a man named Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). Buddy irritates Dave, and after Buddy pressures Dave to watch a movie with him, Dave asks the flight attendant for a headset. She ignores him, and when Dave asks her again, she overreacts and demands that he keep calm. The flight's sky marshal appears, overreacting to the situation as well, and tasers Dave. Dave is then arrested, tried, found guilty of assault, and sentenced to anger management therapy.

Arriving at his first therapy session, he discovers that his therapist is Buddy. There, Dave meets a diverse group with assorted mental issues. Dave loses his temper more than once, mostly due to Buddy's odd therapy techniques. After the session, Buddy tells Dave that he will have to attend double the entire therapy course, recognizing Dave's problem as passive-aggressive anger. Later that night at a bar, Dave and Chuck, his "Anger Ally", played by John Turturro, get into a confrontation due to Chuck's anger. Dave accidentally strikes a cocktail waitress, while trying to stop a bar fight that Chuck had just started. Due to this, Dave ends up landing back in court.

There, brash Buddy enlists Dave in his intense anger management therapy, moving into Dave's apartment, where he finds various ways to aggravate him. Among these, Buddy accompanies Dave to work where he insults Dave's boss and Andrew, whose father knows Frank.

After receiving a phone call for Buddy, Dave is asked to tell him that his mother is having minor surgery in Boston. As a joke, he exaggerates its seriousness. Regretting his deceit, Dave confesses and Buddy forgives him, but vows to get him back. Buddy then tells Dave that he has to accompany him to Boston to check on his mother. On the way back to New York, they stop at a restaurant. There, Dave meets and goes home with an attractive woman at Buddy's insistence.

He later comes back to the bar after rejecting her out of loyalty to Linda. Later, Dave is devastated to learn that Buddy has told Linda about the woman. Buddy reveals that the woman is actually a former patient of his and that this was his way of getting back at Dave. Buddy agrees that when they get back to New York, he will tell Linda the truth.

On their way back, Buddy takes a detour to a Buddhist temple, so that Dave can confront Arnie. Now a monk, he is remorseful for his previous behavior, except for pulling down his pants when they were still kids. Buddy quickly starts a confrontation by lying to Arnie about insulting comments Dave made about Buddha and things that he did to tease Arnie's nutty sister. Dave beats Arnie in a fight, then he and Buddy are chased from the grounds.

Back in New York, Dave attempts to propose to Linda but loses his nerve. Disappointed, Linda suggests that they take a break from their relationship. Later, Dave learns that Buddy has started dating Linda. He has an outburst and attacks Buddy, prompting him to end up in court on assault charges. Afterwards, Dave's boss browbeats him to return his latest assignment and gives the promotion Dave was clamoring for, to Andrew. Fed up, Dave snaps in his boss' office, punches Andrew out after ordering him to stay away from Linda, humiliates his boss and orders him to give him the promotion, to which he agrees.

Dave learns that Buddy is taking Linda out to a New York Yankees game that night. Assuming that Buddy has stolen his idea of proposing to her at a game, he races to the stadium, runs out onto the field. Security captures him and begins to remove him from the stadium but Mayor Rudy Giuliani orders them to allow Dave to speak. He proposes to Linda but before she says yes, she wants him to prove his love by kissing her in front of everyone. When he does, she tells him that he has graduated from anger management. Linda then explains how she first approached Buddy while attending one of his anger management lectures and that everything that has happened was a setup for Dave's therapy; the Judge, the female flight attendant and the waitress were all friends of Buddy's and were part of the setup... except for the Air Marshal that shocked Dave with the taser, who was just another disgruntled passenger on the flight at the time.

Dave, Linda, Buddy and the other therapy group members are celebrating Dave's graduation in Central Park, when a man approaches and asks for Buddy. When Buddy steps forward, the man pulls a gun and points it at him. Dave confronts the man, citing what he has learned from Buddy. The situation is defused when the man squirts water in Dave's face, revealing the pistol to be a toy, and Dave stating that he's a friend of his. The group laughs then sings together as the movie ends.