Released in 2007, The Bucket List is a comedy-drama with a great pair of leading men in Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, which alone makes this a movie that is worth watching. I watched this for the first time…. I think since it came out recently and thought that it was a fun if predictable movie that may not offer anything radically new, but it will leave you feeling good and with a smile on your face.
How to Download The Bucket List
The Bucket List was released on December 25, 2007. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you want to see more films with Jack Nicholson, we also recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976), The Shining (1980), or The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Morgan Freeman fans, on the other hand, need to see him in Seven (1995), Deep Impact (1998), or Bruce Almighty (2003).
The Movie Review
Before I dive into the movie, I have to say that I found out that the writer of the movie, Justin Zackham actually had his own bucket list and one of the things on his own list was to get a Hollywood movie made! How awesome is that the inspiration for this movie actually led to the movie getting made!
Characters and Performances
Morgan Freeman plays the role of an old dude called Carter. Carter is a hard-working mechanic who lives a good life with his wife, but he finds out that he has terminal lung cancer! Carter is played perfectly by Morgan Freeman and he is pretty much what you would expect a “blue-collar” Morgan Freeman to be.
Our other main character is Edward and he is played by Jack Nicholson. Edward is about as far away from blue-collar as you can get. Edward is super rich, but he also has terminal lung cancer and it is while getting treatment that he and Carter meet. On the surface, these two have nothing in common, but they bond over Carter’s bucket list of things he wants to do before he dies.
This leads to Edward having a great idea. Edward adds his own things to the bucket list and he says that he will finance it all if Carter joins him. Carter agrees and along with Edward’s assistant, they travel the globe getting up to all kinds of crazy stuff. While it is a lot of fun to see Carter and Edward getting into all these fun activities, this is Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson that we are talking about!
The two eventually bond even more and we get to learn more about the lives and the regrets that both Carter and Edward have. This is all handled pretty well and the reason for that is the performances and acting chops of Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. This is the kind of movie that will make you laugh, but it will also hit you in the feels many times too.
The thing with The Bucket List is that it does what it does well. You truly care about the main characters, but the whole thing is very predictable, and when you hear about the “regrets” that the two men have, you know where it is all going a mile away. It is not bad at all, but it does feel like it never takes any real risk. Yet, to be fair, I am not sure what risks there were to be taken here.
Conclusion
I am glad that I watched this and by the time it ended, I had a smile on my face and it was a solid feel-good kind of comedy drama. However, I do not think that I would be in a rush to watch this again in a hurry. If you want a good and fun comedy-drama with two characters you will come to love played by two very talented actors, give this one a watch.
