In theory, gonzo Jack and Zen master Morgan should make for an inspired odd couple, but while you keep expecting that dictated friction to ignite, their bucket list ends up feeling more like chores than spiritual fulfillment, with Reiner perfunctorily scratching off each item as he goes along. Both have maybe a month or maybe a year at most left to live their lives to the fullest. On the surface, the two share little in common with the exception of the grim diagnoses handed to them by their doctors. Nicholson’s Edward Cole is a curmudgeon of a health-care billionaire who finds himself sharing a room in one of his hospitals with Freeman’s Carter Chambers, a trivia-spouting career car mechanic. REUTERS/HandoutĪlas, their labored efforts fail to lift “The Bucket List” out of its flatlining state.Ī film about a pair of cancer patients who set out to address 10 things they’d like to accomplish in their lives before they kick the proverbial bucket, this talky, inert production never makes it off that itemized page.Īlthough the pairing of Nicholson and Freeman could attract older viewers over time, the subject matter doesn’t exactly make for the most festive of options when it comes to Christmas Day openers. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in a scene from 'The Bucket List' in an image courtesy of Warner Bros.

The bucket list cast