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Movies / Upcoming / The Bucket List
The Bucket List

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The Bucket List (2007)

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Reviews Counted:160

Fresh:67

Rotten:93

Average Rating:5.2/10

Consensus: Not even the earnest performances of the two leads can rescue The Bucket List from its schmaltzy script.

Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Comedies

US Box Office: $93,452,056

Synopsis: Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star in the comedy drama "The Bucket List," directed by Rob Reiner, a touching, no-holds-barred adventure that shows it's never too late to... Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star in the comedy drama "The Bucket List," directed by Rob Reiner, a touching, no-holds-barred adventure that shows it's never too late to live life to its fullest. A long time ago, Carter Chambers' (Morgan Freeman) freshman year philosophy professor suggested that his students compose a "bucket list," a collection of all the things they wanted to do, see and experience in life before they kicked the bucket. But while Carter was still trying to define his private dreams and plans, reality intruded. Marriage, children, myriad responsibilities and, ultimately, a 46-year job as an auto mechanic gradually turned his concept of a bucket list into little more than a bittersweet memory of lost opportunities and a mental exercise he occasionally thought about to pass the time while working under the hood of a car. Meanwhile, corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) never saw a list without a bottom line. He was always too busy making money and building an empire to think about what his deeper needs might be beyond the next big acquisition or cup of gourmet coffee. Then life delivered an urgent and unexpected wake-up call to both of them. Carter and Edward found themselves sharing a hospital room with plenty of time to think about what might happen next--and about how much of that was in their hands. For all their apparent differences, they soon discovered they had two very important things in common: an unrealized need to come to terms with who they were and the choices they'd made, and a pressing desire to spend the time they had left doing everything they ever wanted to do. The list wasn't just a mental exercise anymore. It was an agenda. So, against doctor's orders and all good sense, these two virtual strangers check themselves out of the hospital and hit the road together for the adventure of a lifetime--from the Taj Mahal to the Serengeti, the finest restaurants to the seediest tattoo parlors, the cockpit of vintage race cars to the open door of a prop plane--with just a sheet of paper and their passion for life to guide them. Adding and crossing items off their list while taking in the grandeur and beauty of the world, they will grapple with the difficult questions and the even more difficult answers that plague all of us. And, without even realizing it, become true friends. With humor, insight, heart...and a fair amount of attitude. Sometimes you just need a deadline to get your life in gear. --© Warner Bros. [More]

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow, Beverly Todd

Director: Rob Reiner

Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriter: Justin Zackham
Producer: Alan Greisman, Rob Reiner, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron
Composer: Marc Shaiman
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for The Bucket List

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
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This rather special film is one about mortality and immortality and guarantees both laughter and tears. Of course, the combination of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman is special in itself

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
02/14/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Just die, already!

Full Review Source: Reno News and Review | comment 6 Comments
02/25/08
Bob Grimm
Bob Grimm
Reno News and Review

At one point Morgan Freeman's character shouts, 'This was supposed to be fun.' I couldn't agree more.

Full Review Source: The Scorecard Review | comment 5 Comments
03/04/08
Jeff Bayer
Jeff Bayer
The Scorecard Review

Nothing wrong about a movie that says, Stop and smell the roses. Now, if only director Rob Reiner hadn't rubbed our noses in a bouquet of plastic blooms.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment 3 Comments
01/10/08
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer

When actors as great as Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman can't make dialogue sound natural, you know the script is a stinkeroo.

Full Review Source: Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) | comment 3 Comments
02/15/08
Jeffrey Westhoff
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

A God-awful film that seems to suggest that terminal cancer can be a blast as long as you have access to billions of dollars, a green-screen machine and a philosophical narrator offering homespun bits of wisdom at every turn.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment 3 Comments
01/12/08
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

I urgently advise hospitals: Do not make the DVD available to your patients; there may be an outbreak of bedpans thrown at TV screens.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 3 Comments
01/11/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A manipulative look at dying with dignity and a lame yarn about as realistic as the fantasy in The Princess Bride.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment 3 Comments
01/11/08
Sid Smith
Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune

The sap flows freely in this geezer tearjerker...unless you're a sucker for...sentimental twaddle...you should cross The Bucket List off yours.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment 2 Comments
12/23/07
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

'The Bucket List' pales in comparison to the talents of its stars.

Full Review Source: Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) | comment 2 Comments
02/24/08
Linda Cook
Linda Cook
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

The Bucket List is a movie for oldsters that, paradoxically, looks as if it was made for 15-year-olds. If this is what is meant in Hollywood as "thinking outside the box," then it's time to get a new box.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment 2 Comments
01/11/08
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

A warning is in order. You may leave the theater with a guilty conscious, having hoped that both of them would just go ahead and die in order to put you out of your misery.

Full Review Source: Internet Reviews | comment 2 Comments
01/10/08
Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes
Internet Reviews

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 Source: Premiere Magazine | comment 1 Comment
12/23/07
Aaron Hillis
Aaron Hillis
Premiere Magazine

Bucket's rush to sentiment leads you to think the film, not its characters, is soon to expire.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment 1 Comment
01/11/08
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News

Cheap and flimsy.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment 1 Comment
01/11/08
Connie Ogle
Connie Ogle
Miami Herald

Reiner cannot reconcile the wildly different tones of the movie: buffoonish comedy one minute, treacly life-and-death melodrama the next.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment 1 Comment
01/10/08
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Smart, sophisticated and witty. It's a movie for people.

Full Review Source: ÜberCiné | comment 1 Comment
12/21/07
Gregory Weinkauf
Gregory Weinkauf
ÜberCiné

The Bucket List never ascends from the bowels of tearjerk formula and audience pandering to a redemptive place of truth and art.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment 1 Comment
12/20/07
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday

This bucket's got a hole in it.

Full Review Source: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | comment 1 Comment
01/11/08
John Wirt
John Wirt
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

A feelgood, end-of-life flick that manages to overcome its sobering subject-matter and somehow buoy the spirit.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment 1 Comment
01/06/08
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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