Everybody, everybody, everybody livin' now / Everybody, everybody, everybody dies.*

Another movie to add to my list of I-didn’t-want-to-see-it-but-I’m-glad-I-did is 2007’s The Bucket List (PG-13). I figured that with Jack (Nicholson) and Morgan Freeman it would be a good flick, but I underestimated how good.

Edward Cole (Jack) is an extremely wealthy hospital owner whose own policy of “two to a room, no exceptions” backfires on him when he finds himself fighting Cancer with a roommate, Carter Chambers (Freeman). Carter, an extremely well read, Jeopardy-loving auto mechanic, is also fighting Cancer. The two men form an unlikely friendship based on Chemo, puking, diarrhea, and a general dislike of one their nurses. When both men are given very grim prognoses on the same day, they decide to go out for a final hurrah and form a “bucket list” – a list of things to do before they kick the bucket.

It sounds mushy and predictable, but it really isn’t. There are some tearjerker moments to be sure, but they don’t feel contrived like I’ve seen in many other movies of this type. The ending is also not quite like I had envisioned at the opening credits. Given the ending, the choice of narrators is interesting, but with a little suspension of disbelief, it works really well.

The Bucket List also has its moments of absolute roll-on-the-floor-helpless hilarity. The jump out of the airplane puts Jack on top, then Freeman comes right back with the stock car race (although I thought it a crime what they did to those classics (the cars, not the guys)).

Jack and Freeman have an undeniable chemistry and if they’ve never paired before, I have to wonder why. With these two as the main characters, I had no trouble believing they were exactly who they portrayed. In other words, I could forget I’d seen them in other movies and just enjoy the current characters.

The supporting cast was great. Powerful, but not overstated. Beverly Todd as Virginia Chambers and Rob Morrow as the doctor helped me to really get into the main characters even more. Sean Hayes as Cole’s assistant was perfect – wit with perfect timing.

I don’t remember the score one way or the other, so it must have been doing its job.

Despite the PG-13 rating, I let my ten-year-old watch The Bucket List. There is some strong language, but only one real objectionable in the film – Jack references an orgy.

Don’t be afraid of The Bucket List. What I figured for a piece of feel-good mush (which I hate) ended up being a movie for which I’d actually pay money to permanently own.




*Lyrics used without permission: Violent Pornography - System of a Down