Life certainly is. What you want or desire the most when you have the energy and the inclination, you never get!! What you never need you always get!!
Take an everyday example; for a bald man, he looks for ads that will give him a sure fire fix to grow a mop of hair on his head, what he receives instead is the salons discount pamphlets that will style and gel his hair for the most celebrated events in his area!!
So when life’s cruel irony hits you everyday you actually sigh and sit back and say, "Hey I will take it one day at a time. I will not despair and will not deliberately look, but wait till what I want comes to me!!
The Bucket List is ironically the list made by two determined men to definitely fulfill their life’s topmost desires before they actually sigh and lie back to rest eternally!! Rob Reiner directed and written by Justin Zackham, I really find this film a bit of a sham and pompous in terms of the character of Jack Nicholson (Edward) and Morgan Freeman (Carter) playing the old codgers who are out to make most of their life as they embrace the bitter pill of suffering from cancer!!
Jack is the owner of the hospital that both he and Freeman are in being treated for cancer and the motherlode of all coincidences is that they are room mates!!! Okay I know for a fact that such a filthily rich millionaire as Jack is shown to be will never opt for a room mate and more than that not a black ase at that!! So when the time comes for a get together at a club Meet Cute, Jack in his usual pompous and arrogant manner rubs Freeman the wrong way and we are treated to the oh-so-famous in your face kind of humor that we all know Jack is capable or made to deliver!! Then comes the fact that Freeman has a list of to-do things that he must do before he "kicks the bucket". **The Bucket List....
As expected Jack in his inimitable style has only got to say this, ”Hell, all I have is... Money!"
This is what sets the tone for an adventure that takes you to the pyramids in Egypt, Taj Mahal, Hong Kong and the Himalayas!!
Now, I know many will think me as a complete idiot not to like this film which has two greats who have led the Hollywood brigade in terms of acting, choice of films and their charisma to land the most coveted awards to land in their laps. But, I have an argument to make...
When the film begins, we have a smooth, deep baritone of Freeman informing us about the existence of Edward and then the reason for the most flamboyant trip around the world in the private jet of Jack!! That to me was not new!! Jack has been playing this role of a pompous jacka*s for many a titles, Something’s’ Gotta Give is one of the many, but that film had the ingredients of a very spicy and naughty rich millionaire to be tangled with an equally naughty and meticulous writer Diane Keaton!!
So this is where I thought a good premise gone stale!!
When this duo starts on their magnificent odyssey, we are treated to a plush and a very stinkingly rich interior of the jet which makes you salivate at the luxury that some pompous a*s do enjoy! And I am sure you can immediately place Jack with his I-own-it-all grin, a champagne flute in his hand and of course a cigar!! Completes the picture perfectly!! (Please mention if you actually saw Jack Nicholson or not in the comments!!)
Now, why-oh-why would someone use the actors of the caliber of Freeman and Nicholson use Computer generated images to show that the duo has been there and done that!!! The size of the boys in front of the pyramid is so ludicrously impossible to believe.... That’s not what is expected from you Mr. Reiner!! And believe me you all out there, if ever Nicholson and Freeman had set their feet on Indian soil, the media would have gone on an orgasmic frenzy to let us all know that, isn’t it?? I have not seen or heard a peep on the same from the media.... So when did the entourage of Reiner, Nicholson and Freeman shoot in Agra did and what time of the day did they manage to do that?? CG of turning a night to a day would be foolish and the result a complete no-no!!
So, all said and done, this Bucket List actually made me do a little cacophony of laughter while watching it as a respect to the veterans of filmdom and then made me go to my washroom to KICK THE BUCKET!!
Add to it the fact that Edward is four times divorced, plenty of regrets and being filthy rich has the ego and the pushy nature to converge his thoughts on his partner like a huge piston pumping oil into the system of a hopper!! Carter, on the other hand is the exact opposite and does the job of patiently (he is a patient of cancer as well) teaching and infusing and instilling the kinder laws of nature into Edward!! (Clichéd?? I thought so too)
So, Edward meets his daughter, once forgotten, and then the shams of being a bit pompous and turned good happens and alls well that ends well!!! Feels a little like "As Good As It Gets"??? Or even "Driving Miss Daisy"?? No Comments....
Jack Nicholson is a hardened actor and to waste him in repetitive roles according to me is a crime never to be forgiven!! So even Hollywood has the disease of the AB syndrome popular in Bollywood and its now called JN syndrome.
Morgan Freeman is an equally brilliant actor and is again wasted here because he is reduced to play the side winger of this large nosed a*s called Edward!! he is reduced to shadow playing with all the angelic and kind guardian of the human part of life!!
There are a host of other actors but I have failed to identify there true existence!!
So did I actually kick the Bucket after the film?? No, I instead quickly ejected this DVD and then got to the menu of the films that I really wanted to see and shut my eyes, pointed my finger randomly at a film from the list, blindly, and voila.There it was, "Across the Universe!!"
It was written comedy there... I hope that I get some serious laughs!!
My reco is NO, but Nicholson fans and Freeman fans please fell free to see it and tear it to shreds!! I sincerely wish that people should think before using stalwarts and wasting talent by BUCKETS!!