Movie Review

Invincible (PG)

Kit Bowen

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Hollywood.com Says
It’s hard to knock something as inspiring as a true story about a local guy, with no football experience, trying out for his home pro team and making the cut. But Invincible does nothing to improve on the already very tired sports underdog theme.

Story
Invincible is Rudy and The Rookie all rolled into one. Set in the mid-‘70s, Mark Wahlberg stars as the real-life Vince Papale, a blue-collar Philadelphian down on his luck after his wife leaves him. His only solace is playing football with his cronies and rooting for his beloved Philadelphia Eagles, who are in a real rut. Newly hired head coach, the legendary Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear), decides to infuse some new blood into the team by holding open tryouts. All of Vince’s friends think he’d be perfect and urge him to go for it. He does, makes it and is soon playing with some of his idols, much to their chagrin. I mean, who is this punk anyway? Sure, he’s got some excellent instincts, but can he really be a NFL player with no experience? Yes, in fact, he can, proving to all those regular Joes out there you can live the dream. Yeah, yeah.

Acting
Unfortunately, none of the actors really add anything either. Wahlberg is definitely a natural to play this kind of role, having already done so in Rock Star. At least in Invincible, he gets to show off some of his athletic abilities, rather than just his bare chest in black leather pants. But the performance is run of the mill. As is Kinnear, who, as Vermeil, takes on the headaches of turning a losing team into winners, all while his supportive wife sweetly reassures him he’s doing the very best he can. Seen it. To their credit, some of the supporting actors—including Kirk Acevedo (The New World), Michael Kelly (Dawn of the Dead) and Michael Rispoli (Mr. 3000)—paint a convincing picture of genuine camaraderie between local Philadelphians. And Elizabeth Banks (The 40 Year-Old Virgin) rounds things out as Vince’s cute love interest (and eventual real-life wife), who knows a few things about football, by golly.

Direction
You’d think Invincible would be a no-brainer, feel-good kind of sports flick. It’s based on a real-life person, has that whole underdog thing going for it and it’s football. What could go wrong with that? Nothing really, besides the fact it’s been done about a hundred times over—and has now been left in the hands of newbies. First-time director Ericson Core, a former cinematographer, and writer Brad Gann are clearly green, doing things by the play book, line for line. It’s scary helming a feature film for a big studio like Disney, who had such sport hits like The Rookie and Remember the Titans. Perhaps Core wanted to go more out on a limb but was reigned in. Who knows? The football scenes are definitely the highlight, and Core handles the action well. I mean, you do want Papale to prove himself the natural athlete he truly is and make all his homies proud. But the rest of it is just blah.

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