The Bucket List (2007) Review – Why You Should watch this Movie

Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

Veterans Tag Team

“The Bucket List” is certainly a sentimental favorite that as a viewer touches your emotions and has you hoping for finding a friendship in the end, even though the film is funny and somewhat unrealistic. The performances from Jack and Morgan as expected are top notch, and I personally like Rob Reiner’s direction of showing how an unlikely and odd friendship develops between two guys on their way out of life by doing the things they’ve always wanted. The “Bucket List” in many respects is a good happy fairy tale that most ordinary folks would dream about before they die, yet the character types played by Nicholson and Freeman make it so believable.

Journey of Friendship

The quiet mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is a man with a great general culture; has been married for forty-five years with his beloved wife Virginia (Beverly Todd) and has two sons – one lawyer the other engineer – and a violinist daughter. The caustic and bitter billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) owns many hospitals, has many divorces and one missing daughter. Following the policy of Edward, his hospital makes no exception giving a private room to him and he shares the same room as Carter. Along the days, they become close to each other and when Edward finds in the garbage the bucket list that Carter had prepared, listing all he wanted to do before dying, he includes his own items and invites Carter to a journey of friendship, discoveries and redemption.

Oscar Worthy

You know that feeling when you walk out of a movie and think “God, that was just such a great film”? It takes a lot for me to think that… especially when it’s a movie about two men who have cancer… but this movie really did it for me, as well as everyone else in the theater. I saw the movie at its first ever screening in Pasadena and it was just wonderful… even with temp music and unfinished visual effects! Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman were truly amazing together – it’s a film about cancer, and yet the two were able to balance the comedy and the drama of the script in such the perfect way that the audience loved every moment of the movie. The script was quite original, which was such a breath of fresh air, and the acting couldn’t have been any better. I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone – as it was such a feel-good movie that made you both laugh and cry at the same time – something you don’t come across too often. Not only did the audience applaud the movie at the end, but EVERY single viewer who stayed to give comments agreed that the movie was “Excellent”… I can’t imagine how often that happens. I’d be surprised if this movie isn’t up for some Oscar or another come next year.

Good Story with Good Actors

I can tell if a movie is good by the way it keeps me riveted to the story. And this is no exception. It’s no surprise that a movie with highly talented actors like Nicholson and Freeman would be good. It’s not that I’m normally attracted to movies with a deep inner meaning, but this is one movie which didn’t beat you over the head with it. I mean, here are two guys who are facing death and decide to go out & do all the things they’ve ever wanted to. Some scenes are dramatic, others are funny, and in the end, the deep inner meaning just kind of shines through without a bunch of sappy sentimentalism. And yes, I did get a bit watery eyed near the end, which means this is a good story that you can get into & feel part of.

The critics have it all wrong

The big thing about this is that this is the one film where you should not look at the critics’ reviews before watching it. Rotten Tomatoes averaged up 40% of critics liking it, and Metacritic’s averaged score is currently 42 out of 100. Both, all in all, are mixed or average scores. This is definitely not your average comedy/drama in any way, shape, or form. If anything, it deserves an Oscar. Maybe not Jack Nicholson–it’s easy to admit that he does not give his best performance; plus he had an easy role to deal with–but Morgan Freeman definitely should have won the Oscar for Best Actor. He was smart, funny, witty, clever, and lovable. If the Academy didn’t want that, what a pity.