The Bucket List - Review

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer: Justin Zackham
Starring: Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman
Runtime: 1 hr 37 minutes

Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) is standing in a courtroom, arguing that the hospitals he owns are doing the right thing. Then he has an attack, and coughs blood into a handkerchief.

Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is standing in his auto shop, taking a smoke break. The phone rings. It's the doctor's office. Chambers' tests are back. Pause. "What does that mean?" Chambers asks, as the cigarette drops from his fingers.

That's how Cole and Chambers end up in the same hospital room for the ghastly experience of surgery, chemo, and suffering.

Following their chemo sessions, they find out that they only have about a year left to live. Total strangers before being struck down by disease, they now find that they're friends who understand each other. That is when Chambers comes up with the idea: the bucket list. A list of things that you want to do before you kick the bucket. Luckily for him, Cole is game, and he happens to be rich.

It's a good idea for a movie. Take two stellar actors in Freeman and Nicholson, throw in a good director (Rob Reiner), and send them off on various adventures. The thing could practically write itself, as there wouldn't be a need for plot. Just send them to Africa, and Asia, and wherever the hell. Let the fun times roll until, as must happen, they die.

Alas, The Bucket List doesn't quite do this. I was into the film until the two men kicked off their adventure. After that, I wondered what I was watching. A comedy? A drama? A dramedy?

The Bucket List can't make up it's mind, and so I couldn't make up mine either. Should I be enjoying this as a thrill ride, or should I be thinking that these guys are going to die, and therefore it's a dark sketch?

Since the movie couldn't pick which direction to go, it doesn't really go anywhere. Freeman's voice-over starts the adventure: "And so it began."

Cut to the two of them skydiving. Cut to the two of them racing nice cars around a track. Cut to...uh-oh. I smell seriousness coming on, as the movie slows down, and down, and down. Frank discussions in front of beautiful sunsets, long talks about the meaning of joy.

The list they came up with turns out to only have about eight things in it, and most of them are generalities: "Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. See something majestic. Help out a stranger."

Where's the fun in that? If I were a rich guy with one year left to live, I'd be damned specific and I'd make a good time out of it. But, as said, the movie couldn't decide if it should be a fun romp, or a mellow take on two old guys discovering that life is about family and being "happy."

There are no risks and no surprises here. Nicholson has a daughter he hasn't talked to in years, and Freeman isn't sure if he loves his wife the same way he used to. Guess how those threads turn out.

One character that does well is Nicholson's executive assistant, played by newcomer Jonathan Mangum. Considering he was acting across from two screen legends, he does a very good job as the straight man.

The Bucket List doesn't give you much to sink your teeth into, and it more or less sits there on the screen. It's not bad, but it's not good. With the cast and crew it had, you would expect a lot more from it. Just not this time.

Photos: Yahoo Movies