I'm a big Rob Reiner fan. Huge. But Reiner's best work definitely hasn't been in the last decade. So when I say that The Bucket List is the best thing Reiner has done in a long time, that's not exactly saying much. But it is something.

The Bucket List, debuting on DVD and Blu-ray this week from Warner Home Video, is a positively charming little film that feels more like a stage play than a movie, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's an aggressively "moving" dialogue between two men, both with cancer, who each find out in the same few minutes that they are going to die. Consequently, they make a list of all the things they want to do before they die and then set out to do them before the clock strikes their final hour.

It's a touching, wonderful little film about how easy it is to squander life -- and how easy it is to get it back, at least for one, last wild ride. The movie has an immense amount of heart and two wonderfully drawn characters. Jack Nicholson's Edward Cole is the embodiment of callous corporate greed. He's rich, he's powerful, and he has built an empire on the notion that hospitals aren't meant to be day spas. It's a notion he holds on to until he's confined in one. Morgan Freeman's Carter Chambers is a family man who, despite his incredible education, has spent the last 45 years working under the hoods of other people's cars. As expected, this unlikely duo becomes the best of friends when they're staring down the reaper, and their exploits and arguments become the body of the film.

The Bucket List's only real flaw is that, while it's entirely about two old men facing death with a grin while visiting a bevy of exotic and beautiful locales, they never really go to these places. Oh, sure, their stunt men do. But the film is marred by a CG technique that puts the faces of Freeman and Nicholson on other people's bodies in a way that's distracting and a bit creepy. It never quite looks right. And whether they're hunting on the plains of Africa or riding motorcycles along the Great Wall of China, or even when they're skydiving, you are taken out of the movie and reminded that these characters aren't actually there. It gives an unnatural quality to the film that robs it of some emotional resonance. We're supposed to awe and marvel at this incredible journey that the actors couldn't be troubled themselves to actually go on.

But when push comes to shove The Bucket List is an entertaining film with moments that will delight you, and it has one of my favorite final lines in a recent movie. I mean, come on, this is Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. With Morgan Freeman narrating and Jack Nicholson philandering. It's about as iconic as it gets. And let's not forget the discussion on the existence of God between a guy who actually played him and another guy who once played the Devil. So yeah, it's worth checking out.

If you're a DVD features fan, however, you might want to make your own list of things you'd like to see because The Bucket List is quite short in that department. There's a John Mayer music video for those with a penchant for such things. There's also a short "origin of" piece that promotes (a) the book about how the movie came to be, and (b) a book you can buy with celebrity "bucket lists" in it.

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