A lazy and condescending package from top to bottom.
The Bucket List (2007)
Tomatometer
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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.
Reviews for The Bucket List
The Bucket List isn't so amazing that a viewing deserves a spot on your own bucket list, but at least it's safer than skydiving.
There is only one way this could possibly have been entertaining: if Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman had switched roles.
Those looking for a romp in the daisies should be advised that Bucket List isn't going to provide much in the laugh department. If you've seen director Rob Reiner's work in recent years, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
It's fun, for two minutes, to see Nicholson and Freeman jumping out of a plane, but once they've gotten tattoos and raced vintage cars, the movie is already scraping the bottom of the bucket.
Nicholson and Freeman are so lovably companionable, they almost make you forget the glaring contrivances screenwriter Justin Zackham concocts.
One of the most contrived, formula-ridden, shamelessly manipulative explosions of stacked-deck writing, star-indulgent schmaltz it's ever been my lot to suffer through.
I hope that I get to see many more movies as enjoyable as The Bucket List before I kick my bucket and head for that great multiplex in the sky.
Freeman and Nicholson are gracefully charismatic, more enthralling than either of them has ever been onscreen...
Even the one-two punch of A-list heavyweights Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman can't save this terminal tearjerker from itself.
Any filmgoer’s Bucket List should be seeing these two legends playing off one another.
A feelgood, end-of-life flick that manages to overcome its sobering subject-matter and somehow buoy the spirit.
The Bucket List is a messy free-for-all, but it’s a genuine pleasure to watch two hired hands literally running the rodeo.
In general, the light is golden, the mood technologically sublime, the actuality of the experience a dead zero.
Strikes a nice balance between comedy and drama, favoring humor and poignant conversations over weepy developments.
Who wouldn't like Nicholson and Freeman at the top of their game, aided by an intuitive script by Justin Bakeman that allows them to argue about the meaning of life?
The way these two iconic actors play off one another is as good as it gets.
A movie where not one emotion nor even some of the backdrops seem the least bit real.
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