The Bucket List
(2008)Both corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Nicholson) and working class mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman) are at a crossroads in their lives. They share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket". Together they embark on the road trip ticking off their to-do-lists.
-
Directed by Rob Reiner
Starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Rob Morrow
Written by Justin Zackham
The Peoples' Reviews
Reviewed & Rated by
Your rating & review
Rate / Review this movieRate and/or review
The Bucket List
BY Brian1 superstar
Worth going to, but it won't leave you totally fulfilled.
You may wish to start your own bucket list, I wonder how many have following seeing Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman playing the 2 guys who meet whilst in hospital and see the world.
The Press Reviews
40%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
A movie about two old codgers who are nothing like people, both suffering from cancer that is nothing like cancer, and setting off on adventures that are nothing like possible. Full Review
You'd think the team of Rob Reiner, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman might have had the right stuff. Alas, their labored efforts fail to lift The Bucket List out of its flatlining state. Full Review
Freeman and Nicholson make the most of Justin Zackham's script, but there just isn't enough substance behind their characters to prop up the carpe diem platitudes. The result is a semi-comedic, geriatric "Brokeback Mountain" minus the sex and with a Himalayan summit. Full Review
This terminally ill, terminally awful dramedy marks a sad cinematic milestone: The Bucket List is the first film in history to feature a truly wretched Nicholson performance -- and we're not talking about the character he plays. Full Review
Emotionally false. Full Review
The film's not a complete waste of time, but certainly left me wishing it was so much more. Full Review
A feel-good film about death, a sitcom about mortality, "Ikiru" for meatheads. It's also a picture about two cancer patients confronting reality, and deciding how they want to spend their presumed last days, that has not an ounce of reality about it. Full Review
A little cliched
BY Brad Kreft
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Nicholson and... More Freeman as much as the next guy but these two screen titans had little to work with in terms of script. The beginning and middle stages of the film just didn’t seem to hit me with any real emotional weight. Laughter was MIA and the lump that I had expected to appear in my throat during this film never really materialised. The actors are not to blame though. Without Freeman’s smooth, intelligent style and the beautifully eccentric over-acting of Nicholson, The Bucket List would surely go down as one of the year’s biggest wastes of Hollywood funds. It’s just a shame they didn’t have a more powerful script at their disposal, as the idea is a solid one.
So if you enjoy watching these two acting legends kicking around in their familiar styles then you may be into this film. Otherwise I think it should be best left to the oldies.Hide
Care to comment?