Add This to Your Netflix Queue: The Bucket List

Rob Reiner has done some pretty decent movies:  The Princess Bride is a classic (“Hello.  My name… is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”).  The Story of Us is a great film about the struggles of keeping a marriage together.  The Bucket List is a good film about the reality of death, and living your life to the fullest before it’s too late.

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman (two of the greatest actors of all time) team up as two unlikely hospital roomates who are diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Freeman’s character starts writing a bucket list–a list of things to do before you kick the bucket.  Nicholson’s character, a wealthy business man who privatizes hospitals, decides to finance an excursion to fulfill everything on the list.  On the way, they skydive, drive their dream cars, and travel around the world.  In the process, Morgan Freeman rediscovers his love for his wife, but then succombs to the cancer.  He asks Nicholson’s character to finish out the list, which he does before dying himself… many years later.

The movie isn’t perfect.  You don’t see much of the real affects cancer can have (which was probably intentional).  The premise is kind of far fetched.  Having said that, the film has some really good scenes about faith and existence and living with purpose.  It’s a tough watch at points, but can definitely start conversations about facing death, life after death, and living life the way it should be lived now.