Working class mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is diagnosed with cancer, and finds himself sharing a hospital room with self-obsessed billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson). When both men’s illnesses turn terminal, Cole utilises his inordinate wealth to fund an around-the-world adventure where both men can get the chance to fulfil the dreams they always wanted to achieve.

What initially seems rather lightweight and frivolous in The Bucket List ultimately comes off as rather unpleasant and cynical. If there is a message to be found in this 2007 comedy, which was directed by Rob Reiner, it is that if you are going to be diagnosed with terminal cancer then you will be better off if you are enormously rich. The film is clearly not intended as a savage critique of America’s privatised and for-profit health system, but the shameful reality of it all leaks from every pore. In this case, money really does buy happiness as Chambers and Cole spend a dizzying few weeks visiting multiple countries and famous locations. It seems par for the course for Cole – a workaholic quadruple divorcee living a reality where money simply has no relevance – but it is a rough deal for Chambers’ resentful, weirdly unsympathetic wife (Beverly Todd), who gets to spend her own husband’s final days waiting back at home. The film treats her character horribly, despite Todd’s best performing efforts, and when it finally swings around to reunite husband and wife it chooses to punish her even more.

The cynicism of Reiner’s film extends to its production values. Almost all of Cole and Chambers’ international adventure is presented via deeply ropey and cheap-looking digital effects, which distract from the action and haphazardly puncture any chance of suspending disbelief. It actively feels lazy. If Reiner was not bothered to do the actual leg work in presenting his film, why should his audience bother to watch it.

The laziness and cynicism of The Bucket List is particularly disappointing because the film does still present two of the USA’s greatest living actors and throws them together through a series of well-performed, regularly funny conversations and arguments. It invites its audience to laugh, and to be completely fair the occasional hit of hilarity does strike, but it cannot overcome the manipulative and sleazy structure of the story and the premise. Every time Justin Zackham’s screenplay inspires warmth, there is some side issue or underlying element that immediately prompts disgust – even contempt. In Zackham’s hands, almost every problem can be solved with money.

Sean Hayes deserves a brief shout-out for his performance as Cole’s long-suffering personal assistant Thomas, but honestly that is about it.

Be rich. For everybody else, in the end, this movie is probably as funny as terminal cancer.