42
Metascore
34 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThe 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.
- 67The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThere 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.
- 60VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyA 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.
- 60Village VoiceVillage VoiceTurns 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.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenYou'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.
- 50Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustLos Angeles TimesKevin CrustFreeman 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.
- 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDirector 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.
- 38USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe entire undertaking feels like a waste of time and talent.
- 30L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasDirector Rob Reiner’s atrocious cancer “comedy” marks a new low in Hollywood’s self-flagellating “things to be thankful for” tradition.
- 25PremiereAaron HillisPremiereAaron HillisThis 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.