Movie Review - The Bucket List

After seeing the depressing Kite Runner, I was SO ready for a comedy. The Bucket List delivered.

I was already able to say line for line the trailer to The Bucket List because it seems that no matter what type of movie I was in the theater to see - horror, comedy, drama - they ALL had a trailer for this movie and I had seen it so many damned times. I went from thinking it looked like a stupid movie to thinking it might actually be pretty good. You know what? It was actually VERY good.

Edward has more money than he knows what to do with and is not about to share it with anyone. That's why when the hospital that he owns has a meeting over patients wanting to have their own rooms, he nixes the plan and says the famous line "I run hospitals, not health spas. Two beds to a room, no exceptions." But after saying this, he starts coughing up blood and ends up being hospitalized.

Carter has been a car mechanic for over 20 years and thru books, has learned a little bit about everything, and is able to not only answer every trivia question his younger employee asks him, but can also answer every Jeopardy question before the contestant can. He finds out that he has terminal cancer and has been put in a room where Edward has just been brought into.

Edward, of course, wants his own room since he thinks he's better than everyone else, but is told that it would be bad PR if he was allowed to have his own room when everyone else was required to share - per his speech earlier given. So, reluctantly at first, he gets to know Carter and finds the crumpled up paper that Carter was starting to make out for a "bucket list" which is a list you make of things you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket.

They decide to make the list together and then with Edward's money, they check off each item which takes them sky diving, race car driving, travelling to Paris, etc. and each one learns a little about the other and despite their differences they become good friends.

I left out a lot so there are still many good parts to see. Mostly comedy but there are a few heartwarming scenes, too. And not to give it away, but there was one item on the list that Carter said "how in the hell are you gonna do that?" that once Edward did, I cried. It was so sweet.

And the ending was fantastic! One of the last lines of the movie was both funny and sweet at the same time and I left the theater with a happiness in my heart.

I'm not a huge Jack Nicholson fan, but he did a good job and I'm sure he'll end up with an Oscar. I like Morgan Freeman, too, but is there a single movie he's been in lately where he's NOT the narrator? I guess that's the curse you have to endure when you have as nice of a voice as he has.

Anyway, whether you're in the mood for a comedy or a just a good story, this is one to see.

Vixy :]