The Bucket List

Two old pros do their best with meager material in The Bucket List, a film that feels a little like a rejected script for some hospital TV show like Grey’s Anatomy or ER. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman elevate this movie to near-miss status, almost making it worthwhile. Almost. It’s a goofy, mushy, implausible, semi-fun movie that strains with sentiment. Director Rob Reiner, who hasn’t made a decent movie in a long time, comes close, but only because the talent he’s cast has the ability to work the material. Nicholson and Freeman play two cancer patients sharing the same room. Freeman’s character has made a list of things he’d like to do before dying, and Nicholson’s character—a rich man—decides to take him on one last crazy jaunt. They jump from planes, eat crazy foods, woo women … and so on. It’s all just a little bit stupid. But if you’re a big Nicholson or Freeman fan, you could do a lot worse.