Movie Review The Bucket List

The Bucket List (2007)

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by Justin Zackham

Starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow 

Release Date December 25th, 2007

Published December 24th, 2007

"Dying is easy, Comedy is hard" the alleged dying words of British actor Sir Donald Wolfitt are somewhat ironic when related to the new to DVD movie, The Bucket List. Directed by Rob Reiner, The Bucket List is a comedy about dying. It's also a comedy that proves just how hard comedy is as a pair of old pros, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, fail to get hardly any laughs at all in this desperate comedy.

Jack Nicholson is Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers. Aside from age, Edward and Carter have nothing in common except that they are both dying from cancer. After digging through the perfunctory getting to know you scenes, Edward, a millionaire who actually owns the hospital the two men are in, and Carter, a middle class mechanic, bond and decide not to spend their last days in bed.

Together they will blow off their families and friends in favor of a round the world jaunt that will help each accomplish all of the things on their 'bucket list', the list of things they wished to do before they 'kicked the bucket'. For Carter just leaving the country is one thing, Edward on the other hand wants to climb Kilimanjaro.

So what about their families? Edward is a loner who hasn't seen his only daughter in over a decade (no points for guessing that we will meet the daughter before the film ends). Carter's wife, played by Beverly Todd, is rightfully indignant until Carter plays the 'I'm dying, I'll do what I want' card.' It's a jerk thing to do to the person you supposedly love, leaving them right before you actually die to travel around the world with a virtual stranger, but nothing about these characters is all that likable anyway. 

The around the world journey is filled with charm even as it is slightly offensive in nature. Really, how many people really dying of cancer could just pick up and go around the world? Granted, movies are all about wish fulfillment, but there is something unseemly about the carefree attitude of The Bucket List in relation to cancer and the honest suffering of so many real people.

That aside, from a strictly filmmaking standpoint The Bucket List is a mixed bag. There are laughs, mostly from the two stars bantering off of one another, but The Bucket List is arguably the laziest movie Rob Reiner has ever made. The film moves from one expected scene to the next with little more than the charm of Nicholson and the sturdy presence of Freeman to carry us past the predictability.

Eventually, even these two awesome talents can't prevent us from getting bored with the progression from one expected scene to the next. There is an inevitability to the story, of course it's about two guys dying of cancer, but Reiner makes little attempt to mix up the journey with something we don't expect or that he doesn't tip his hand to several scenes ahead of time.

The dull predictability combined with the overall morbidity of the central story can't entirely dim the charm of these two stars but not even the talents of Freeman and Nicholson can overcome the rote anticipation of The Bucket List.

Movie Review: Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004) 

Directed by Robert Luketic 

Written by Victor Levin 

Starring Topher Grace, Kate Bosworth, Josh Duhamel, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, Ginnifer Goodwin

Release Date January 23rd, 2004

January 22nd, 2004

There have been a number of films made about big stars coming to small towns and stirring up a frenzy. My favorites are State and Main, David Mamet's caustic, witty satire of Hollywood and Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, a sadly underrated eighties movies lost in the crush of John Hughes clones. The latest entry into this small sub-genre is Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! starring Kate Bosworth and Topher Grace, a film in the spirit of Roxy but desperately in the need of Mamet's wit.

The Tad Hamilton of the title is Josh Duhamel from TV's “Las Vegas.” Duhamel's Tad is your typical Hollywood bad boy with a serious image problem. His managers, two of them both named Richard Levy (Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane), have to rehab his bad boy image in order to land a plum film role. The idea they come up with is straight out of some ultra-wholesome fifties teen beat style magazine, "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton".

The winner of the dream date is 22 year old Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth), a grocery store clerk from a small town in West Virginia. Rosalee is flown out to LA, put up in a great hotel suite and finally has her date with the man of her dreams, Tad. The date is perfectly chaste, especially by Tad's usually debauched standards, but Tad ends up feeling a real connection with the small town girl who has all the good qualities that he lacks.

Once Rosalee returns to West Virginia and to the welcoming arms of her two best friends, Cathy (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Pete (Topher Grace), it seems that Tad Hamilton was a one time adventure. That is certainly what Pete was thinking when he decided to reveal to Rosalee that he's been in love with her for years. Of course, wouldn't you know it, before Pete can reveal his feelings in walks Tad Hamilton.

This sets up a very conventional romantic triangle plot. A plot that has been done a thousand times and isn't much improved on here. What makes it slightly more tolerable in this film is the terrific comic performance of “That 70's Show” star Topher Grace. With his quick wit, neurotic shyness and lack of movie star handsomeness, he evokes a sort of Midwestern Woody Allen. His Peter gets the best one-liners of the film and it's most poignant moments and makes a rather mediocre story better just for having him.

That is not to say the film doesn't have other good qualities but most of the good in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! must be embellished by the audience. The film introduces some interesting story ideas but only glosses over them without ever exploring them. A scene in a bar between Grace and a bartender character played by Kathryn Hahn introduces an idea about everyone’s romantic ideal and how the Tad character is a representation of a romantic ideal that isn't real. The idea that everyone ideallizes the person they are in love with but that ideal is only in our mind.

The film also has a knowing sense of pop culture and uses it to good effect in it's ending. The idea of pop culture's growing role in the daily lives of younger generations and the way it shapes our memories in celluloid is an interesting idea but an unexplored idea in this film. Had director Robert Luketic, also the director of another piece of pop candy Legally Blonde, decided to further explore either of the interesting ideas the film introduces, this could have been a great movie. As it is, it’s merely another exercise in the teen-friendly romance genre.

Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! is not a bad film but not a great film. What it really is, is an announcement of the arrival of Topher Grace as a leading man. In his biggest film role to date, Grace makes a terrific impression and I really look forward to seeing him on the big screen more.