The Bucket List

Jumper for senior citizens. (13.04.2008)

Another one of those films about aging, presented humorously, though of course, with passages that attempt to tug at the emotions. In some cases, perhaps a bit too overtly, but Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson are such personalities that they handle even quite classic scenes with dignity. Yeah, this is the type of film I can get into. It definitely won't offend, unless you have a problem watching two older actors. (27.03.2014)

Two old men with a foot on the grave (played incredibly by two brilliant actors) decide to fulfill their dreams and desires before the Grim Reaper comes for them. Thanks to the cast, this fairly average premise didn't get bogged down in clichés and worked quite well for me. The great script and fitting music gave it even more juice. In short, a solid film that gives sickness and death a run for their money in almost every way. (16.01.2011)

Before I kick the bucket, I would certainly like to travel through Thailand, visit the peaks of the Andes, paddle upstream along the Amazon and lots of other stuff. But mainly I would like at last to see a movie where Nicholson doesn’t appear in his hundred and first variation on a snooty cynical grouch and Freeman as a good and wise family man for the fifty-second time. And I wouldn’t mind seeing the soccer world cup final in the flesh, but I would gladly give that up for the chance of at last seeing Reiner in a well-directed movie again with an original idea and not simply a well-made routine piece. And it also occurred to me that I would give all the money in the world to see Mother Earth from orbit. Definitely better than watching a squandered opportunity in the shape of the middle section of this movie. Although I don’t doubt that my parents would really like it, this movie reeks of unexploited potential and a run-of-the-mill safe bet from miles away. And it needed so little to make it good. Maybe to swap over the casting of the two main roles and to find a director who isn’t already past his zenith and isn’t afraid of giving it some balls. Oh yes, and it also occurred to me that I would like to see the pyramids with the same visibility conditions that these two hobblers had. When I was there was an impermeable shroud of smog over Cairo for my entire visit and visibility was barely a hundred yards. (27.03.2008)

As I get older, I can appreciate films dealing with the finitude of human life much more than before. The Bucket List presents this serious subject with a sensitive and humorous insight and manages to strike an emotional chord in all of us... If I had unlimited possibilities like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, I would also want to enjoy the last few months before I leave this world as much as possible. (80%) (21.03.2021)