Did Morgan Freeman shave his head for the bucket list?
Apparently, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman have known each other for years, and always dreamed of working together. They left it a little late -- both actors are now 70 -- but their combined charisma is just about enough to save this sentimental Rob Reiner comedy from nosediving into pure schmaltz. It's a close call, though. icholson and Freeman play two very different men united by a common ailment. Freeman is a modest, unassuming type called Carter Chambers, an intellectual man with a very high IQ who sacrificed his academic dreams for the sake of his young family, and has spent his life working quietly as a car mechanic. At work one day he begins to feel unwell and when he's admitted to hospital he discovers he has cancer. He's just getting his head around that when into his room comes the bombastic Edward Cole, a self-made multimillionaire who actually owns the hospital. Edward also has cancer, and the reason he ends up sharing a room with a blue collar worker is because he made it hospital policy that everyone has to double up. A demanding and impatient man, Cole has been married four times and is used to getting absolutely everything his way. Even he can't dodge the big C however, and both men are soon told their conditions are terminal. Mournfully, Carter begins making a list of things he'd always dreamed of doing but now never will -- seeing the Himalayas, driving a certain kind of car. Edward finds it, and begins to jazz it up a little, calling it 'the bucket list' -- that is, things you'd like to do before you kick the bucket. Money being no object, he persuades Carter to embark on a world tour with him, seeing and doing the things they'd always dreamed of. Carter's wife is not best pleased, but he decides to go anyway. And so, like a senior citizens' version of Jackass, they go skydiving and haring around racetracks before setting out on a whistlestop tour of Egypt, India, Nepal, Hong Kong and the south of France. As they do, they philosophise calmly about their predicaments, and speculate as to what lies beyond the grave -- Carter believes in God, Edward definitely doesn't. And while Carter rediscovers the ability to enjoy himself, Edward begins to get his priorities straight. If all that sounds a bit contrived and pat, that's because it is. The Bucket List sounds like something thought up by a committee of marketing persons to appeal to the aged and infirm. The whole cancer thing is handled with kid gloves (Jack Nicholson gets his head shaved and throws up a few times but I believe the chemo experience is a little more unpleasant than that), and people who've actually experienced the disease will find the vigour our two heroes discover the moment they've left hospital hilarious. The ending is purest Hollywood, and some of the writing (particularly the speeches delivered by Freeman as narrator) is pretentious in the extreme. And yet, at times, I found myself enjoying it. Why? Because Nicholson and Freeman are engaging enough to make you sit through anything. By his own standards, Jack's performance here is remarkably restrained, and there are moments when his talent as a screen actor shines through. Freeman's velvet voice and dignity almost make you make you fall for those awful speeches. It would have been great to see the pair in a movie worthy of their talents. n This article is about the 2007 American film. For the Indian film, see Bucket List (2018 film). The Bucket List is a 2007 American buddy adventure comedy-drama film directed and produced by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.[2] The main plot follows two terminally ill men on their road trip with a wish list of things to do before they "kick the bucket".
Theatrical release poster Directed byRob ReinerWritten byJustin ZackhamProduced by
Production Castle Rock Entertainment (uncredited)[1] Distributed byWarner Bros. PicturesRelease dates
Running time 97 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$45 million[1]Box office$175.4 million[1]The film premiered on December 15, 2007 in Hollywood and opened in limited release in the United States on December 25, 2007, by Warner Bros. The film then had a wide release on January 11, 2008. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2007 and was a box office success, opening at #1 in the United States, and grossing $175.4 million worldwide. Two elderly men, blue-collar automotive mechanic Carter Chambers and billionaire Edward Cole meet for the first time in a hospital owned by Cole after both men are diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Chambers, a gifted amateur historian and family man, wanted to become a history professor in his youth but chose to start a family instead. Cole, a four-time divorced healthcare tycoon and cultured loner, enjoys drinking kopi luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world and tormenting his personal valet Matthew, whom he mistakenly calls Thomas. While in the hospital, Chambers and Cole manage to find common ground. For fun, Chambers started writing a list of activities to do before he "kicks the bucket." After hearing he has less than a year to live, he dejectedly discards his list. Cole finds it the next morning and urges him to do everything on the list, adds his own items to it and offers to finance all expenses. Chambers agrees and though his wife Virginia objects, the two patients begin their globetrotting last vacation. They go skydiving, drive a vintage Shelby Mustang and Dodge Challenger around California Speedway, fly over the North Pole, eat dinner at Chevre d'or, visit the Taj Mahal, ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, attend a lion safari in Tanzania and visit Mount Everest. Atop the Great Pyramid of Giza, they confide mutually about faith and family. Chambers reveals that he has long been feeling less in love with his wife and feels some regret for his chosen path. Cole discloses that he is deeply hurt by his estrangement from his only daughter, who disowned him after he drove away her abusive husband. Later, while in Hong Kong, Cole hires a prostitute to approach Chambers, who has never been with any woman but his wife. Chambers declines and insists they stop the bucket list and go home. During the return journey, Chambers tries to reunite Cole with his estranged daughter. Considering this a breach of trust, Cole angrily storms off. Chambers returns home to his family while Cole, feeling alone though among escorts, breaks down weeping in his luxury high-rise suite. Chambers' family reunion turns out to be short-lived as while readying for marital romance, he collapses and is rushed to the hospital, where it is discovered that the cancer has spread to his brain. Cole, now in a remarkable remission, visits him to reconcile. Chambers, always a Jeopardy! fan knowledgeable about trivia, reveals how Cole's kopi luwak coffee is fed to and defecated by a jungle cat before being harvested. As the two laugh hysterically over the obscure fact, Chambers implores Cole to finish the list for him. After Chambers dies during surgery, Cole manages to reconcile with his own daughter and she introduces him to the granddaughter he never knew he had. After greeting the little girl by kissing her cheek, Cole thoughtfully crosses "kiss the most beautiful girl in the world" off the bucket list. Soon after, Cole delivers a eulogy at Chambers' funeral, during which he explains that the last three months of Chambers' life were, thanks to Chambers, the best three months of his own. An epilogue reveals that Cole lived to age 81 and Matthew then took his ashes to a peak in the Himalayas. As Matthew places a Chock full o'Nuts coffee can of Cole's ashes alongside another can of Chambers' ashes, he crosses off the last item on the bucket list, "witness something truly majestic" and tucks the completed list between the cans.
The film opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on January 11, 2008 and grossed $19,392,416 from around 3,200 screens across 2,911 theaters, averaging $6,662 per theater ($6,060 per screen) and ranking #1 at the box office.[3] The film closed on June 5, 2008, never having a weekend-to-weekend decline of more than 40%, and ended up with a final gross of $93,466,502 in the United States and Canada and another $81,906,000 overseas, for a total gross of $175,372,502 worldwide, easily recouping the film's considerable $45 million budget and turning a sizable profit for Warner Bros.[1] The Bucket List received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 41% based on 178 reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Not even the earnest performances of the two leads can rescue The Bucket List from its schmaltzy script".[4] Metacritic gave the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[6] Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002 and whose lower jaw was removed in 2006, criticized the film's portrayal of cancer sufferers, writing in his one-star review that The Bucket List "...thinks dying of cancer is a laff riot followed by a dime-store epiphany."[7] AccoladesNamed one of the Top Ten Films of the Year by the National Board of Review.[8] A score album from Varèse Sarabande was released on January 15, 2008, featuring composer Marc Shaiman's original score for the film as well as a selection of newly recorded themes from Shaiman's previous scoring projects, including City Slickers, Simon Birch, The Addams Family, Mother, North, Sleepless in Seattle, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, Mr. Saturday Night, and Stuart Saves His Family. It also features a rearranged version of the James Bond theme "Goldfinger" (titled "Printmaster"), with Shaiman's own voice and lyrics in which he spoofs the industry's habit of tracking music in scenes where they don't belong. The full list of 23 tracks is as follows:
The theme song, John Mayer's "Say," is not included on the Bucket List soundtrack, but included on the re-release of Mayer's third album Continuum. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray June 10, 2008.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bucket_List&oldid=1075437005" |