Just watched "The Bucket List". It's been out on home video for most of this month, but I've just gotten around to it.

For those who haven't yet seen it, "Whatcha waiting for?" It's got Jack Nicholson at his curmudgeonly best as the irascible billionaire who is totally out of touch with the world and with himself. It's got Morgan Freeman at his most genial humanistic wisdom. These two opposites find themselves in adjoining hospital beds after a diagnosis of terminal cancer, each with perhaps a year of life remaining. Freeman introduces the idea of the "Bucket List", a personal list of all the things one wants to do before he. . ."Kicks the bucket?" sneers Nicholson, adding "Cutesy!" But then he's the one who insists that they should do all the things on the list when their cancer goes into (temporary) remission. On the billionaire's dime, they set out to fulfill their personal dreams, learning to skydive, climbing to the top of the Great Pyramid, visiting the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, etc.

The result is a belly-laugh comedy, with sufficient warm and fuzzy moments to satisfy the most jaded appetite. Two of the world's great actors at the top of their form with characters who draw heavily from the strongest talents of each. It doesn't get much better. And it helps us to remember what is really the point of life. As Freeman puts it, "When you get to the afterlife, according to the ancient Egyptians, they stop you at the gate and ask you two questions; based on your answers they decide whether you get in." And what are the questions?

1. Did you have joy in your life?
2. Did you bring joy to the lives of others?

Probably the best joke in the movie is the one where Freeman (who knows just about everything about anything) tells NIcholson how the very expensive coffee he likes is produced. The coffee is grown in Sumatra. There is a species of tree cat on the island that loves to eat the coffee beans. The gatherers search through the feces of the tree cats, save the beans and grind them. The natural flavor of the beans, altered by the cats' gastric juices give this coffee the exquisite flavor so loved by coffee connoisseurs. Says Nicholson in shock, "You're shitting me!" "No," says Freeman. . .

". . .the cats beat me to it." And then he laughs so hard he nearly chokes, takes out his list and crosses off, "Laugh 'til you cry."

It's quite a moment.


With love under will,

Bob, Adastra,
The Wizzard of Jacksonville