Put ‘The Bucket List’ on your bucket list

Two distinguished gentlemen find out they have less than a year to live and decide they want to go out with a bang.

After composing the ultimate wish list, the duo embark on the trip of a lifetime, or end of a lifetime.

Sound sort of morbid?

Only Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman could make such a premise work. The legendary actors come together for the first time in “The Bucket List,” which is so good, Freeman’s signature smile will creep across your face and stay for awhile.

Edward Cole (Nicholson) is a gazillionaire who owns the hospital he must stay in while receiving cancer treatment. He wants his own room of course, but it has been a long-running policy of his hospital that all patients share a room. This is where the yin of characters meets the yang.

Where Edward is all bleep and vinegar, Carter Chambers (Freeman) is the epitome of what a man should be. It takes awhile for the pair to warm up to each other. They do so while both receiving chemotherapy (making sore subjects humorous is not easy) because they are in the same boat but with different paddles.

For instance: Cole drinks nothing but Kopi Luwak coffee, which costs around $600 a pound. He never gets visitors aside from his assistant and is content with dying with only dollars by his side. He says, “More people die from visitors than from diseases.”

On the other, more inviting hand, Carter loves the simple things like watching “Jeopardy” and his bedside is adorned with cards, flowers and kids’ drawings. He says, “You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.”

One night, Carter makes a list of all the things he wants to do before he dies, a bucket list. His to dos include witnessing something truly majestic and kissing the most beautiful girl in the world. Edward later finds the list crumpled up on the ground and adds to it—though his final wishes are much flashier. He wants to skydive and get a tattoo. After some convincing Carter agrees to going along with Edward on the trip of all trips. This is the only problem with Justin Zackham’s screenplay—Carter would never leave his kids, grandkids and beloved wife of 66 years to spend his last days on earth with a mean spirited man he’s only recently met.

The twosome sets out to check as many things off the list as possible. They go to France, stop by the great pyramids, tour The Great Wall of China, stroll around the Taj Mahal and visit the Himalayas (too bad director Rob Reiner couldn’t afford to shoot one of these shots on location). Edward foots the bill for their adventure while Carter teaches him about all of humanity and how to be human along the way.

The unlikely new best friends last wishes do morph. It’s a blast to see them skydive (“I hate you!” screams Carter in the air) but nothing beats Edward’s kissing the most beautiful girl in the world. The too rich man has been estranged from his daughter for years and after much convincing from Carter decides to finally pay her a visit. He discovers he has a granddaughter and when he bends down to kiss her your heart will smile then melt. When best, movies do move you.

“We live and we die and the wheels on the bus go round and round,” the Jack delivers with his Joker eyebrows raised. Taking a pit stop at “The Bucket List” is an oil change for the soul.

Adrienne Mackey is a freelance movie critic for the Green Valley News.

Movie Review

3.5/4 Stars

Adventure/Comedy/Drama

Run time: 1 hours,37 minutes.

Rated R for language, including a sexual reference.

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd

Written by: Justin Zackham.

Directed by: Rob Reiner.