Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

There's nothing appallingly awful about Rob Reiner's latest about two elderly strangers who find out they both have only a few months left to live and decide to spend it together as kindred spirits carrying out a list of everything they've wanted to do before they die. One is billionaire hospital mogul Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson); the other is mechanic Carter Chambers (professional narrator Morgan Freeman), who has worked every day of his life with only his loving wife and family to show for it. Cole, on the other hand, has an estranged daughter and a persnickety assistant named Thomas (Sean Hayes) to show for his life's work. When the two men end up in the same hospital room, they concoct their master list of things to before they kick the bucket, and Cole sends Thomas to arrange activities such as skydiving, riding a motorcycle across China's Great Wall, sitting atop the Great Pyramids, eating the finest food and racing sports cars around a racetrack.

Sounds like fun, right? The problem is the movie confirms my number one truism about films in general: there is nothing more boring than watching other people have fun.

Granted, when the people are Freeman and Nicholson, things are a little less tedious, but that doesn't take away from the fact that simply observing these life-changing events one after another grows tiresome. With Reiner at the helm, you might expect the film to be overly jokey, but the truth is the film is sometimes too sentimental for its own good at the expense of humor. Subplots about Freeman trying to trick Nicholson into reconciling with his daughter and Freeman's wife chastising him for not spending his final months with the family really drag down this tale, which is a tough thing to do in a film that barely cracks the 90-minute mark. But THE BUCKET LIST's goals are far from lofty, and I'll admit I feel a bit guilty coming down on it so hard. The truth is I liked seeing these two Oscar-winning pros together in a film; they play off each other nicely. Freeman's "gentle-soul" routine softens Nicholson's characteristic wise-ass persona, while Nicholson inspires a bit of edginess in Freeman. Both adjustments are greatly appreciated.

Rob Reiner crossed the 60-year-old milestone last year, and I can't help but think that this film (from a script by Justin Zackham) is meant to commemorate that in some way. He's never been a subtle filmmaker with either his dramas or his comedies, but when he succeeds in entertaining (which he did as recently as his last film, Rumor Has It), for some reason it makes me happy. He made some of the pivotal films of my youth (THIS IS SPINAL TAP; MISERY; STAND BY ME; THE PRINCESS BRIDE; and WHEN HARRY ME SALLY, to name a few).

I hardly think I'm cutting the man any slack with this review of THE BUCKET LIST, but the truth is I was entertained by it more than I wasn't. That's hardly a rousing endorsement, I know, and that's because this film doesn't quite deserve it. But it's an easy film to watch, even if doesn't rock your universe as much as another film on the subject of "How to Spend Your Final Months on Earth" potentially could.

Capone