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Movies / On DVD / The Bucket List
The Bucket List

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The Bucket List (2007)

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Reviews Counted:34

Fresh:8

Rotten:26

Average Rating:4.5/10

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

Theatrical Release:Jan 11, 2008 Wide

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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Release:

Jun 10, 2008

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Reviews for The Bucket List

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Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
10/18/08
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You get the performances you expect from these two great stars, which lift this story mercifully but marginally above its meager content.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
01/15/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie is caught in the crossfire of its two missions -- to celebrate the universal things that "really matter" in life (friendship, family) and to celebrate what it means to live like Jack Nicholson.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/11/08
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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Not every film about death needs a bald Swede and a game of chess: Sometimes, the sky-diving's enough.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
01/11/08
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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By the end of The Bucket List, silliness has been replaced by pretension, and while there may not be a dry eye in the theater, many of those tears will be shed in embarrassment for giving in to such hooey.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
01/11/08
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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Acting's good, but Bucket is half-empty.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
01/11/08
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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Watching Nicholson and Freeman on the same screen and their characters Edward and Carter embarking on a sojourn of discovery is hard to resist.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
01/11/08
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
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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
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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
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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
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It's impossible to mistake the movie for inspired.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
01/11/08
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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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
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Great actors sometimes transcend their material, but Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman can't pull their boots free from the ankle-deep schmaltz of The Bucket List.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
01/10/08
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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The overall sense is of a movie coasting on an obvious and somewhat flimsy premise, to which no one thought to bring much else besides Nicholson and Freeman.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/10/08
John Anderson
John Anderson
Washington Post
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This being Oscar-coveting Hollywood claptrap, class barriers vanish as the two become best friends and Nicholson bankrolls a spree in which they indulge their deepest romantic whims.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/10/08
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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The Bucket List must have seemed like a good idea -- around 1985.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
01/10/08
Bill Goodykoontz
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic
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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.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
01/09/08
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
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Nicholson and Freeman are so lovably companionable, they almost make you forget the glaring contrivances screenwriter Justin Zackham concocts.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
01/09/08
David Germain
David Germain
Associated Press
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Any filmgoer’s Bucket List should be seeing these two legends playing off one another.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
01/07/08
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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The Bucket List is a messy free-for-all, but it’s a genuine pleasure to watch two hired hands literally running the rodeo.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
01/04/08
Rex Reed
Rex Reed
New York Observer
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