Emptyin' the Bucket

There was a time—after Brando and before DeNiro—that Jack Nicholson was the actor de rigueur in Hollywoodland, a box office success, a project starter, a critical fave,and easily the most commanding male presence on the big screen. These days Nicholson mostly floats through throw-away trifles, eschewing the same over-the-hill charms or mad-dog screen chewing that we've seen so many times, evoking traces of his greatest hits without seemingly clenching a muscle (acting or otherwise.) Some how poor Morgan Freeman (an actor who came into his own as the twilight of his career began) is teamed up with Smacked Jack and has-been director Rob Reiner in The Bucket List, an erstwhile feel good finding-yerself comedy, a movie that could have just as easily been made for TNT and starred Ed Asner and John Amos. At least Nicholson completists will have another entry along with with Anger Management as Bad Jack’s worst.