The Bucket List just missed out on a green 'recommended' opinion from me. For when it came to the crunch and I asked myself 'who exactly I would recommend the film to?' I generally drew a blank; though with some exceptions, hence the limited recommendation I arrived at in the end. On the plus side the film is (on the surface at least) pro-God, pro-family, pro-friendship, pro-reconciliation and even it could be said, pro-life. Which all-in-all would normally be deserving of a higher accolade. However, the film is let down by being far too weak in several areas. First of all the screenplay is weak; there's too much time spent jetting and racing (quite literally at one point) around the place, with little benefit to the overall messages the film is trying to communicate. If anything, these activities distract from the messages the film is trying to put across. For example more could have been made of Edward's (Nicholson's) broken relationship with this daughter, and similarly Carter (Freeman) seemed to have little excuse for jetting off around the world and leaving his wife alone - some kind of back-story here, or a little getting to know his wife first, would have helped a lot. Second, the morals of the production are weak: I'm getting more and more sceptical of the '12' rating we have over here in the UK, it screams out to me of weak writing - were the elements that make this a 12 rating (in this case 'one use of strong language' and 'moderate verbal sex references') really necessary to include? Were these the only ways to add depth to the characters in question? In my opinion they were not, and for me these inclusions help to take the film away from being a film that can be recommended watching for all of the family. Another major point on the morals front was Carter declining the advances of a woman in bar with the concluding words "but I appreciate that". Excuse me? you appreciate the advances of a complete stranger offering you the opportunity of casual sex; and in less than a few minutes of conversation at that too? I appreciate the manners, but I'd prefer them with some morals too. And finally, the third major weakness is in the film's overall philosophy; at the beginning of the film Carter Posthumously tells us that he believes that at the end of your life "You measure yourself by the people that measure themselves by you" and at the end of the film he tells us "My Pastor always says that our lives are like streams flowing towards the same river of whatever heaven lies in the mist beyond the falls". The first of these statements generally has some truth to it; I think people that have lived lives in accordance with Christian principles are generally those that are looked up to the most. However, there's a lot of room for leeway in that philosophy, and ultimately it places us and not Jesus as the role models for others. The second statement sounds more like a Buddhist philosophy than something a good Christian pastor would say; it strongly infers that all souls are on course to go to heaven and discounts the existence of hell altogether. Again, it's a troublesome saying. All in all, this film may lead a few souls to start searching in the right places but I regret it wasn't bolder and clearer in its proclamation of where true happiness, peace and joy are to be found.