The Bucket List

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

If I was making a list of all the things I wanted to do before I died, you can be certain seeing The Bucket List wouldn’t be on it. In this unfunny take on terminal illness, old dogs Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are up to their old tricks. Employing their familiar on-screen persona and character traits they pretend to breathe life into a lethargic movie about, well, dying. It’s a hopeless task.

Freeman plays Carter Chambers, a hardworking mechanic and family man who gets the devastating news that his years of cigarette smoking have finally taken a cancerous toll. Nicholson is Edward Cole, an enormously wealthy businessman who owns hospitals. Much to his chagrin, a sudden illness sends him straight into one of those hospitals and places him in a bed next to Carter.

The only thing these two have in common are their illnesses, other than that they are polar opposites. Edward is cocky, sarcastic and womanizing, while Carter is an upstanding father and husband, and Jeopardy enthusiast. He’s practical and cautious, while Edward is brash and impulsive. He’s…oh, you get the point.

Through the trials of chemotherapy and grim prognoses, though, these two very different men bond and become friends. One day, Carter starts writing a “bucket list,” an idea he got from his college philosophy teacher to write down all the things you’d like to do before you “kick the bucket.” Edward finds the list, begins adding his own grandiose wishes, and promptly decrees that they should complete it together.

Carter is initially reluctant and his wife is even more against the idea. But he begins reflecting on missed opportunities in his life and ultimately decides it’s something he needs to do.

And so begins Carter and Edward’s adventurous last hurrah. With the help of Edward’s money, the pair begins checking off everything from the extravagant (racecar driving, skydiving) to the more basic (reconnecting with an estranged family member). They travel around the world courtesy of Edward’s private jet, scaling pyramids in Egypt, going on a safari in Africa, dining on caviar in Paris. For being sick they are surprisingly able-bodied, which is a little hard to believe. Not to mention Edward’s abundant wealth is quite convenient.

The teaming of Academy-award winners Nicholson and Freeman fail to produce any sparks. They essentially play versions of themselves which we’ve seen time and time again and the two just don’t connect well on screen. I never really bought the fact that they changed each others’ lives so profoundly. There was something stiff about their relationship which prevents it from clicking.

And the hilarious Sean Hayes, so brilliant as the boisterous Jack McFarland on Will & Grace, is wasted in the role of Edward’s bland personal assistant. He is underwritten and underdeveloped, and sadly, has nothing funny to say.

The scenery standing in for Carter and Edward’s various travel locations is poorly done, especially the scene when the two are sitting atop a pyramid. The ...