THE BUCKET LIST

Directed by: Rob Reiner Written by: Justin Zackham Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverley Todd,Rob Morrow, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King Distributed by: Warner Brothers Film will be released 25th December 2007 in the U.S. & 15th February 2008 in the U.K. Review by Matt Holmes

rating: 1.5

Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. I was sold by the billing. Two of the biggest actors of their generation, together on screen for the first time. Sadly, this is far from their finest hour and when the movie has such a lacking screenplay and really flimsy direction from vet Rob Reiner who is a pale imitator of his former self these days, the movie can't survive with only half good performances. The writing just isn't present from first time writer Justin Zackham, whose script was clearly picked up because of the concept rather than the quality of writing. Nicholson and Freeman were cast in the idea that they could cover the cracks and carry this emotional film completely by themselves but without a career performance, it just was never going to happen here. The vets have no chemistry together, Nicholson bringing his usual overacting game and Freeman once again disappearing on screen like he has FAR TO OFTEN over the last few years. Does any other actor bore you more than Freeman these days? What a sad statement. The Bucket List should have been an easy success. The idea of an emotionally withdrawn rich billionaire (Nicholson) and the typical family/working man who never took his shot in life and should have retired years ago (Freeman) becoming diagnosed with cancer and forming a great Bond together despite the grim reality of having less than a year to live... is a good one and you can see why it was picked up by Warner Brothers. Here are two characters who like all of us in the end are full of regret and missed chances who decide instead of sitting around waiting for death... they will go out and spend their last few days living out things they should have done when they were younger and righting wrongs that have never fully been resolved. The movie should have been a moving and heartfelt tale about life and the acceptance of death and an unlikely friendship formed between an odd old-timers couple but instead I was given a unbelievable mess where the actual bucket list (list of things they want to do before they kick the bucket) becomes a throw-a-way plot device and instead of a real journey, it seemed to be more of an excuse to travel the world and give us a neat new landscape to stop us from being bored. When the project was first announced, it made it sound like Freeman and Nicholson had actually broke out of hospital to do all these things... but instead it's just like a vacation. No excitement in a breakout scene that this film could have dearly done with and instead of Sean Hayes' (the camp gay one from Will & Grace) ridiculously moronic character being a sidekick to Nicholson, he should instead have been the one trying to chase the duo down and get them back to the hospital, never quite catching up with the two guys who are having the time of their life. Too much time initial time with the film is spent with the duo in the hospital finding out that they are terminally ill (something which the title and the trailer let you know anyway, so this is dumb) and when we finally get to the moments we have been waiting for, they fly by quicker than they should and they soon become scratched off the list as if they were shopping for groceries. I didn't believe the friendship they had formed, I didn't believe the character changes of either guys in the film (call me cynical maybe), I didn't believe some of the adventures they went on (Jack's skydiving scene is pathetic) and it goes by so fast you think you are watching a made-for-tv feature. Indeed, the writing here is so bad that you can't believe actors like Freeman and Nicholson who still have so much to provide in this day and age would stoop to such a project. Class differences (something I can't believe they didn't touch on more) and the whole idea of being scared of death aren't touched on enough, and when the ending comes I took little satisfaction from a movie that I should have felt like I had been on a journey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest always made me feel like I had been on journey and that was set mostly in a mental ward. This one has the opportunity of the whole word but it just makes me wanna sleep.