“The Bucket List” earns two stars strictly because it has two stars: Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It is only the force of their prodigious screen personalities and career-earned goodwill that gets this cheesy, preposterous piece of facile hokum a barely passing grade.

It’s all Jack and Morgan, all of the time, with a high-concept premise that might have had promise with a director other than the now officially washed-up Rob Reiner (“Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally”) and a screenwriter other than already doomed newbie Justin Zackham. Call their distasteful buddy picture boondoggle: “Grumpy Old Terminal Cancer Patients.” Or, maybe: “The Odd Couple on Chemotherapy.” Or, how about, “The Most Lethal Weapon: Malignancy”?

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