The Bucket List
Published March 29, 2025
Film info
- Title The Bucket List
- Director Rob Reiner
- Year 2007
- Run time 1hr 37m
- Genres Drama, Comedy
- Tagline Find the joy
Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:50 | Love a film that starts with a quiz. Couldn’t think of any H presidents at all though! |
| 7:39 | “Have I fired you lately?” |
| 9:18 | Was she shaving his head for real? What if they messed up the scene? |
| 12:58 | I hate the way Jeopardy is structured! |
| 23:01 | “Always meant to go back.” Yep, that’s life. |
| 25:55 | Glasses to be able to watch TV flat on your back are amazing. |
| 31:56 | “Not to be judgmental but this is extremely weak.” |
| 39:09 | I probably would want to jump out of that plane, it looks terrifyingly rickety. |
| 41:57 | “Is it Tommy or Thomas?” “It’s actually Matthew.” |
| 48:53 | It is convenient that the answer to why there’s no proof is that you have to have faith. |
| 56:54 | Mmm, TV in the bath. |
| 1:08:07 | “What would a snail have to do to move up the line?” |
| 1:17:45 | He’s a good guy, ringing the doorbell like that. |
Thoughts
This movie popped up as a question on Only Connect - films that had coined terms now in common use. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Bucket List only came into being in 2007, it feels like such an obvious and natural term to use but of course someone had to come up with it in the first place. As a film, this is a nice and gentle watch, seeing two crochety old guys getting up to mischief and learning lessons along the way, it’s lovely. Not perfect, it’s a slow start and you sort of feel like ‘well sure, if we all had the money to do that’ but it’s charming and you can’t fault Morgan Freeman’s endearing performance in this.
Rating: 4 / 5