Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman
Fun, sometimes touching but mostly predictable, with any other actors in the lead roles this would be a complete snooze-fest. It's to our benefit then that we have Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman.
Both Nicholson and Freeman are household names, one a famed party animal and the other the very image of wise old sage. Neither actor are playing against type here and, fatal illnesses aside, this could very well be just a film about them as themselves... bonding while travelling the world, proving they can still have fun and examining their own mortality.
The story revolves around Nicholson's business man and Freeman's mechanic sharing the same room at the hospital where they learn they only have 6 months to a year to live. Their common plight and their common desire to experience the things they'd always put off doing forms a bond between them and they go to live out their final days in style.
While some of the situations seem awfully forced (picturesque landscapes of every major city around the world and a skydiving sequence with some dodgy CGI), and their realisations about what matters most in their lives is predictable, the banter between the two actors and their natural charisma is more than enjoyable and makes you care about them more than you might have without Nicholson and Freeman.
So... while very predictable, and schmaltzy even, if you can't feel any sadness or loss after spending time with these two by the time the film ends and they meet their, unavoidable, fates then you must have a heart of stone.
Rating: 3/5
