Mitch Albom's For One More Day (2007)

What makes it different from others?

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

not as good as all the hype

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I really honestly do NOT like any sport that uses a ball. I am the consummate anti-sports fan.But this story lacked any central plot - character development was lacking -- and starkly, no music, to enhance viewing. It was bare naked, and quite ugly, imho. There was NO chemistry between the characters at all.A lot of "time switching" present to past to? and it was a little hard to follow where I was at, at any moment in the movie....They seem to go through the motions, but it did NOT dispel my disbelief.Based on what I saw, I will NOT read the book. Besides not liking sports, this just didn't do anything for me. When I keep looking at the clock figuring out how much time is left, oh yeah, this isn't going to be good.Very disappointing, considering his other two novels/movies were very good: "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet when you get to Heaven" I usually do things bass ackwards -- I see the movie first, THEN I invest the time to read the book. Pass. This one really vacuumed!

I must say that I feel as if I got taken. I mean, this movie has to rank as one of the most disappointing films I've ever endured. I did rate the movie with 2 points for Imperioli and Burstyn, but that's all I could muster, all it deserved at best. It just goes to show how far Oprah's name goes. I associate Winfrey with quality. That is why I must ask this; Did Oprah actually see this thing. I think not for if she had, it would not have been released. Certainly not have had her name put right out front with "top billing." Hard even to describe, when I feel cheated out of at least two hours waiting for something to develop. Oh well, I blame myself for not turning it off sooner.

Contrived, poorly written, clichéd, Too-important-for-itself. Kept watching in case there was something redeeming, but there wasn't. Ellen B's acting was superb, as always, and she is aging so gracefully. Really have nothing better to say. Unfortunate. I'm usually a sucker for these things and was really looking forward to it. I wasn't a fan of "5 People...," also felt it seemed too important for itself -- trying too hard to deliver a message, while lacking a story to do so. This however, I had higher hopes for. The previews intrigued me, the actors intrigued me, and as I said, I usually like this kinda stuff. Very disappointing.

Broken sports dreams have provided some of American movies' most poignant moments, from Field of Dreams to Resurrecting the Champ. This year's best sport flick, and one of 2007's Top Ten thus far (among the 295 films I've been able to see in theaters) is director Seth Gordon's documentary King of Kong, featuring real-life hero Steve Wiebe, a laid-off Boeing Aircraft engineer whose moment in the limelight for his high school nine's state championship try was ruined by an injury to his pitching arm, leaving his psyche nearly too fragile to take on the classic gaming establishment decades later in his successful quest to post the first legitimate million-plus Donkey Kong score in world history.Even though USA Today's TV critic panned One More Day (the official title "Oprah Winfrey presents Mitch Albom's One More Day" was automatically shortened to "Oprah Winfrey presents Mit" on my spreadsheet program; I thought she'd endorsed Obama?), I decided to make it my first made-for-TV film of 2007 because 1)I'd given 10 stars to Albom's previous TV project, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and 2)the premise echoed Steve Wiebe's story of recovering from a shattered baseball dream decades later.Unfortunately, as much as I like Mitch and baseball, I can only rate this effort 6 out of 10. Unlike Five People, you can see the twists and the supposedly Big Reveal at the end coming from nearly a mile a way here (from the center field warning track, in other words). Though Ellen Burstyn provides a little classier maternal advice to protagonist Chick (Michael Imperioli) than the 1926 Porter in the late sit-com My Mother the Car, seeing her prattling away to a former Soprano while moon-lighting as an ectoplasmic hairdresser to several of her expiring lady friends produces a kitchen klatch claustrophobia which may well have been relieved by more flashbacks to the nine years between the death of cup-of-coffee major leaguer Chick's mom and his exclusion from his only child's big day. Emily Wickersham, as Chick's grown daughter Maria, should have been given more to do; her character's typescript for her draft of "One More Day" got more air time than she did.Detroit Tigers fans will note that long-time Detroit Free Press sportswriter Albom snuck in the names of at least two long-gone bengals (Deivi Cruz and Ramon Santiago) in the background. My son still has the dollar bill Ramon signed for him at Tiger Fest years ago, but I doubt this flick will add much value to his currency.