The Bucket List - 3 Tubs

I try not to divulge too much of a movie’s story line in my reviews. After all, DirtyMovieCritic is about movie fans, not movies. But the reason I work at a theater instead of a job that pays better (Wal-Mart, sharecropping, Welfare), is because I love to watch movies. Always have. The 21st Century hasn’t produced that many great films, and The Bucket List probably doesn’t fall under that category either; but I enjoyed it. People will say that this movie is too shallow, but I came away invigorated and sensing peace – mostly because I didn’t have to clean the theater after the show. I’ve looked forward to The Bucket List for months now. I was not disappointed. For those who wanted more pathos, all I can say is, “Get a life”. I go to the movies to escape reality not to delve into someone else’s reality. That’s why I avoid political movies by chumps like Michael Moore. My reality is bad enough, I don’t have to adopt someone else’s paranoia.

I can’t remember if Morgan Freeman’s character quoted an ancient Egyptian or a Tibetan saying that, when we die, we go to stand in front of a wall. At that wall we are asked two simple questions: The first – have we experienced joy in our lives? The second – has our life given joy to someone else? Like Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), I have to search my soul to answer the first question because I am a pessimist by nature – something you might have picked up on if you’ve read many of my reviews. And like Edward Cole, I too have to hem & haw over the answer to the second question and find that I can only mumble “I hope so”.

At this movie’s opening weekend, fans flocked to the theater, almost selling out each showing. Thankfully, these are different fans than those of the other new release, “First Sunday”. I would go so far as to say that more than half of the viewers of The Bucket List were kind and considerate and took their trash with them after the movie. There was no contraband found under the seats, just the usual popcorn, soda cups, and an occasional Nerds Rope wrapper. The people exiting the movie were an equal mixture of black and white, mostly middle aged or older, probably college graduates by the way they were dressed and deported themselves. Quite a contrast from First Sunday which let out at the exact same time directly across the hall.

One of the drawbacks of working at a theater – aside from cleaning up after pigs – is that someone is bound to discuss the movie within earshot of you before you get a chance to see it yourself. With The Bucket List, I made a point of avoiding anyone who hinted at what happened in this movie. It was bad enough to learn that Will Smith’s beautiful German Shepherd dies in “I Am Legend”, or that the last two minutes of “No Country For Old Men” leaves people scratching their heads and wondering what the movie was about. When I saw that Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson were starring in this movie, I knew it was bound to be good. Certainly the movie doesn’t dwell on the morbid effects of cancer. I can see that every day in my own home as my daughter battles cancer. What I wanted, and what I got, was to see someone face mortality with courage and even humor. If critics find this movie unrealistic, too bad. Reality is what we make it.

We live, we die, and the wheels on the trash cart go round and round.