DVD Release Date:  June 10, 2008
Theatrical Release Date:  January 11, 2008 (wide)
Rating:  PG-13 (for language, including a sexual reference)
Genre:  Comedy
Run Time:  97 min.
Director:  Rob Reiner
Actors:  Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Rob Morrow, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd

“Find the joy in your life.” That’s the bottom-line message of director Rob Reiner’s The Bucket List, delivered by one of two characters who are facing death and trying to find meaning in their existence. But the film reflects another saying as well:  “Everything old is new again.”

In 1991, Hollywood gave us The Doctor, a William Hurt vehicle in which the title character was forced to become a patient—and a better person. That same year, Doc Hollywood and Regarding Henry used health crises and cultural fish-out-of-water scenarios as catalysts for their close-minded protagonists to gain a deeper appreciation for others. Also in 1991, actor Morgan Freeman appeared on-screen in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, while Jack Nicholson filmed an Oscar-nominated performance in Reiner’s A Few Good Men, released the following year. Both men would go on to win Oscars for subsequent roles—Freeman for supporting work in Million Dollar Baby, and Nicholson for the lead performance in As Good as It Gets.

Sixteen years later, The Bucket List represents a regression for these two great actors, who give the same type of performance they’ve given many times before—Nicholson loud and in-your-face, Freeman gentle and wise—in a Hollywood production that rehashes the Yuppie dramas of 1991 for the older set.

Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a hospital executive who pads his profits by insisting that every room in his hospital have two beds. (“I run hospitals, not health spas,” he tells a skeptical review panel.) But when Cole falls ill and winds up rooming with Chambers, he’s forced to live under the very conditions he’s imposed on others. Not even his loyal assistant (Sean Hayes) can undo the policy Cole has so proudly insisted upon.

Nicholson’s bluster takes over the film as Cole hollers, barks orders and curses at anyone who will listen to him. Chambers, a laid-back mechanic and devoted family man, is the perfect foil for Cole’s vulgar rants. But when both men learn they are terminally ill, the proceedings take a turn toward the maudlin. Chambers reluctantly shares his “bucket list”—things to do before he dies—with Cole, who adds his own items and bankrolls the men’s trips across the globe.