Published: December 31, 2007 11:46 am      

Bucket List features great acting, good story

Warner Bros. is giving Bucket List a limited opening on Dec. 25 and a wide opening on Jan. 11.

This movie is actually worth the aggravation and mental reservations entailed in a jaunt to downtown Dallas during rush hour. Make every effort to see this gem as soon as possible.

Bucket list, when you read the synopsis provided by Warner sounds like a real downer. It’s not. it’s a great film filled with humor, optimism and hope as well as pathos.

Although, I will confess at the start of the feature it appears that the film will be a long boring story. However, as Nicholson and Freeman stop testing each other and began trading one’s weakness of the other’s strengths, the movie begins to look up. The humor, which begins as black humor becomes part of the human comedy that most people enjoy, and the movie ends up, in my opinion, as a truly enjoyable trip through two friend’s lives.

I was surprised at how funny, touching, human and lifelike a movie could be. This movie brings out all of those strengths that two men who both have terminal diseases can share. Don’t expect a happy ending on this one, but do go expecting an excellent story with superior acting and splendid camera work.

You won’t be disappointed, nor even saddened by the ending. This is a top-notch production.

If you can, get out to see this one. Like real life, the movie is bittersweet. There are enough high spots to

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Rob Morrow, Rowena King ... Angelica rest of cast listed alphabetically:

MaShae Alderman, Verda Bridges, Lauren Cohn, Ian Anthony Dale and Jennifer Defrancisco

Bucket List

Rating (****1/2 out of *****)

Synopsis (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment): Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star in the comedy drama "The Bucket List," directed by Rob Reiner, a touching, no-holds-barred adventure that shows it's never too late to live life to its fullest.

A long time ago, Carter Chambers' (Morgan Freeman) freshman year philosophy professor suggested that his students compose a "bucket list," a collection of all the things they wanted to do, see and experience in life before they kicked the bucket.

But while Carter was still trying to define his private dreams and plans, reality intruded. Marriage, children, myriad responsibilities and, ultimately, a 46-year job as an auto mechanic gradually turned his concept of a bucket list into little more than a bittersweet memory of lost opportunities and a mental exercise he occasionally thought about to pass the time while working under the hood of a car.

Meanwhile, corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) never saw a list without a bottom line. He was always too busy making money and building an empire to think about what his deeper needs might be beyond the next big acquisition or cup of gourmet coffee.

Then life delivered an urgent and unexpected wake-up call to both of them.

Carter and Edward found themselves sharing a hospital room with plenty of time to think about what might happen next--and about how much of that was in their hands. For all their apparent differences, they soon discovered they had two very important things in common: an unrealized need to come to terms with who they were and the choices they'd made, and a pressing desire to spend the time they had left doing everything they ever wanted to do.

The list wasn't just a mental exercise anymore. It was an agenda.

So, against doctor's orders and all good sense, these two virtual strangers check themselves out of the hospital and hit the road together for the adventure of a lifetime--from the Taj Mahal to the Serengeti, the finest restaurants to the seediest tattoo parlors, the cockpit of vintage race cars to the open door of a prop plane--with just a sheet of paper and their passion for life to guide them.

Adding and crossing items off their list while taking in the grandeur and beauty of the world, they will grapple with the difficult questions and the even more difficult answers that plague all of us. And, without even realizing it, become true friends. With humor, insight, heart...and a fair amount of attitude.

Sometimes you just need a deadline to get your life in gear.

Running time:

MPAA rating: PG-13 for “language, including a sexual reference.”