Movie Review: The Bucket List

Premiering in January of 2008 is Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson starring in "The Bucket List". Both actors shaved their heads for this film, which portrays two elderly men who pursue a "Bucket List" when informed they have a limited time to live. The "List" is supposed to represent their life's ambitions unfulfilled before they kick the "bucket".

If you think you don't have any more movie experiences left in you where you need a tissue at the end, try and hack this one. While not an intentionally sentimental movie, this Rob Reiner film is destined to be a classic. One of the best performances in years by both Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, and that is no small statement. "The Bucket List" could score Oscar nods.

Freeman is presented as a jeopardy-minded auto mechanic whose intelligence has weathered decades as a grease monkey. We learn later his character started life as a very young adult young, broke, and black with barely two semesters of City College before the first baby came. Decades later, his character is forced to confront the end of his life.

Nicholson opens his part in the film by appearing in court in his bathrobe to perk some exotic coffee and protest his hospital's resistance and legal pleas against the two to a room policy. He wins the case, but rapidly sees the other side of the argument after being hospitalized for some very serious cancer surgery. The phrase his character delivers in court to maximize profits comes back to haunt him. "Two beds to a room, no exceptions". In the face of this, even the wealthy Edward Cole can't demand a private room.

"The Bucket List" delivers many straightforward asides about the realities of today's medical treatment environment. As the owner of the hospital, Nicholson's character gets catered food, a doctor who answers his every question, and surgery as soon as he needs it. Freeman's character has been waiting so long for test results it's practically a running gag. Freeman plays Carter Chambers, a gentle man with a giant intellect. This character has a lot of similarity to his part in "The Shawshank Redemption".