The Bucket List
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
17
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle Smith
Actors tell us that dying is easy, comedy is hard. But comedies about dying are hardest of all. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie's sincerity helps it get over some of the most difficult hurdles and the feeling after leaving theater is one of having experienced something worthwhile albeit unremarkable. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The leads, who were born six weeks apart in 1937, have remarkable hare-and-tortoise chemistry. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
There are certainly worse ways to spend the holiday season than in the company of two charming old actors, being reminded that human companionship makes life worth living, even as it makes dying a little tougher. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Despite some emotional dips and a see-it-to-believe-it load of schmaltz at the end, The Bucket List is mostly a joy ride with good company, and the actors obviously were having a high time on their traveling boondoggle. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A feel-good film about death, a sitcom about mortality, "Ikiru" for meatheads. It's also a picture about two cancer patients confronting reality, and deciding how they want to spend their presumed last days, that has not an ounce of reality about it. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJulia Wallace
Turns out The Bucket List is a meta-film, mostly about how these two legendary actors interact and what it means to be an actor in your own life. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie Errigo
The script is weak and obvious and the direction disappointingly unimaginative. But stars are stars, and the old boys are terrific - enough to make this a funny and sometimes moving buddy picture. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
The movie has its moments, and some are undeniably affecting. But even those seem artificial, relying far too much on our familiarity with and fondness for the film's stars. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
You'd think the team of Rob Reiner, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman might have had the right stuff. Alas, their labored efforts fail to lift The Bucket List out of its flatlining state. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Freeman and Nicholson make the most of Justin Zackham's script, but there just isn't enough substance behind their characters to prop up the carpe diem platitudes. The result is a semi-comedic, geriatric "Brokeback Mountain" minus the sex and with a Himalayan summit. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Director Rob Reiner is betting that their star power alone will blind us to the holes in this cheesecloth of a script. It proves a fool's bet – no star shines that brightly. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Fails its stars in fundamental ways. Mr. Nicholson has played wealthy rogues before (most recently in “Something’s Gotta Give”), but this particular bon vivant is unsalvageably repellent. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The Bucket List will quickly be kicked into oblivion, but, at a lifetime-achievement-award ceremony, Nicholson’s tempest will fit nicely into a montage of Crazy Jack moments. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
This movie exists wholly in the realm of metaphor, whose messages stick out like placards: Find joy through pain. Reunite with estranged loved ones. Keep hope alive. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The first thing to say about The Bucket List is that Rob Reiner is the rare director who can take all the wonder out of one of the seven wonders of the world. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
A manipulative look at dying with dignity and a lame yarn about as realistic as the fantasy in “The Princess Bride.” Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Emotionally false. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Freeman and Nicholson mostly stand in front of special-effects green screens and have the locales projected, like they're in a "Road" picture. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
In The Bucket List, Nicholson is human-ish. And Freeman is so human. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Feels every bit as cheap and flimsy as Edward's hospital. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Nothing wrong about a movie that says, Stop and smell the roses. Now, if only director Rob Reiner hadn't rubbed our noses in a bouquet of plastic blooms. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The entire undertaking feels like a waste of time and talent. Read full review
33
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The Bucket List is a movie for oldsters that, paradoxically, looks as if it was made for 15-year-olds. If this is what is meant in Hollywood as "thinking outside the box," then it's time to get a new box. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Director Rob Reiner’s atrocious cancer “comedy” marks a new low in Hollywood’s self-flagellating “things to be thankful for” tradition. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Edward and Carter are like the original Odd Couple, except nobody’s laughing. Read full review
30
Washington PostJohn Anderson
The overall sense, however, is of a movie coasting on an obvious and somewhat flimsy premise, to which no one thought to bring much else besides Nicholson and Freeman. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
White-bread storytelling made by, for, and about people who think joy and meaning can be acquired by simply taking a step or two out of life’s comfort zones and into African-safari packages and skydiving excursions. Read full review
25
PremiereAaron Hillis
This terminally ill, terminally awful dramedy marks a sad cinematic milestone: The Bucket List is the first film in history to feature a truly wretched Nicholson performance -- and we're not talking about the character he plays. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Rob Reiner's feel-good tear-jerker, in which dying well is the best revenge, wants to be heartwarming. But first-timer Justin Zackham's screenplay is so stridently formulaic and disingenuous that the film falls flat at every inspirational turn. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A movie about two old codgers who are nothing like people, both suffering from cancer that is nothing like cancer, and setting off on adventures that are nothing like possible. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The most insipidly innocuous film ever made about facing mortality and living it up before passing away, The Bucket List has as much poetry and poise as its clumsy, clunky title. Read full review
20
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Any moron can make a bad movie. But it takes a special breed of schemer to make a picture as shameless as The Bucket List. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
I don't know if Rob Reiner is the one to blame for this atrocity, but he directed and coproduced. Read full review
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