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Bucket List (The)
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Cameron Murray & Noor Razzak (3rd August 2008). |
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The Film
 "The Bucket list" is the endearing tale of an odd couple who are thrown together through their imminent deaths at the hands of cancer. The couple consists of Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson); a very rich and abrupt man who has little time for friends or people in general, he has made his money by purchasing hospitals that are having financial problems, privatises them and makes money off the back of it, and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman); a humble mechanic who at one point dreamed of being a history teacher, but due to a blossoming family that required a financial commitment he could not fulfill while studying he took the first job that he could and 45 years later he has his regrets of opportunities lost. The two meet in one of Cole's Hospitals where Cole has a strict rule 'two beds to a room, no exceptions'. Through the trials and tribulations of cancer treatment the two start to develop a rapport that as a viewer felt genuine and organic. At the end of their treatments they are both given a prognosis that they have a limited amount of time left in their lives. Carter decides that he is going to do an exercise from his college days of writing down the things that he had hoped to do before he 'kicked the bucket'. Cole finds this list and confronts Carter saying that they should do it and so their journey ensues (this is very much a skimming synopsis). The acting is very enjoyable, but with Freeman and Nicholson you would be extremely disappointed if this was not the case. If your curious, Morgan Freeman does a voice-over but by saying that Morgan Freeman is in the movie it's kind of implied. Perhaps my favorite relationship in the film was not that between Carter and Cole but rather the one between Cole and his personal assistant Thomas (Sean Hayes) which has them exchanging barbs but at the same time having an undertone of caring on the part of Thomas. I enjoyed the movies simple style, it is very much about the actors dialogue than their actions to a certain extent. An unfortunate thing was during the skydiving scene the CGI'ing of Nicholson's and Freeman's faces looked quite obvious. The shooting of some of the world most majestic sites was handled with a suitable level of finesse. Overall I would recommend this film to most people, it's not action packed but running at 93 minutes it's not a taxing film to sit down and blob for. With some genuinely funny moments mixed with some tear jerkers it gives you the rollercoaster of emotions that is dealing with death whether your own (I guess) or someone elses. Realistically what's not to like Jack Nicholson's eyebrows and Morgan Freeman's dulcet tones a great pairing and a good movie.
Video
Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen Warner Brothers delivers a decent transfer of this recent release. As expected the image is sharp, features bold colors and natural skin tones. The image is clean without any dirt or specks, the transfer is free of compression problems and I spotted no edge-enhancement. Blacks are solid although there's some noise amid them but it's nothing distracting. Overall this is a decent image, I would give it an A+ rating but despite the general quality of the image I felt that it was a little flat at times (mainly interior shots, the location footage was stunning though).
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, this film is a drama film which features mostly dialogue based material but there's some scenes that take place in exotic locations which are much more active than scenes that take place in the first half of the film. So there's a fair bit of juggling in terms of this sound mix and I was left a little underwhelmed. Dialogue was clear and distortion free but ambience in the first half of the film was limited and I never felt immersed in the film until the second half when the two characters started traveling around the world. It was at this point that the sound track opened up and felt like it had much more depth. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired.
Extras
Warner Brothers has included only a single extra, a music video for the song "Say" by John Mayer which runs for 3 minutes 58 seconds. There's nothing particularly great out this clip, unless you're a fan of Mayer, but then again you can also easily find this video online anyway... Warner Brother's US region 1 release includes a few more extras which for some reason where not ported over onto this region 4 release, which never makes sense to me. Why not just include all the extras? After all it's not like they don't own the rights anyway.
Overall
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