 | magellan (152)
02/03/2007 | It's hard to top Al Pepper's review of this movie, and I'm not really going to try. Despite the Disneyfication of the story, I enjoyed it. Invincible will probably touch a nerve with any guy who is passionate about their home town team, and considers themself a pretty good athlete. Could it happen today? You never now. You just never now. The fact that it did happen for Vince Papale is pretty inspiring in itself.
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 | Randyman (101)
09/04/2006 | Great review Al. I saw the movie too, and I also made the "Rocky" comparison, it was pretty hard not to. Now I don't really follow football, but you just can't help loving a good underdog movie, which I do. Mark Wahlberg does a decent job and so does Greg Kinnear, but it was the story itself that was so compelling. As for South Philly being a total slum, I gotta agree with you, it's not. I was there a couple of years ago and it was anything but. It had it's eyesores yeah, but then so does L.A.
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 | alpepper (21)
09/04/2006 |  Being from Philly and a big fan of the Eagles, you knew I was going to fall in love with Invincible. And it was a great movie. Even my wife, who hates Philly and hates football even more, liked Invincible.
When done right, the Rocky theme of a nobody overcoming insurmountable odds to succeed makes for compelling drama. And the Disney bunch got it right (though it would have been hard to screw this one up).
The true story of Vince Papale, who played special teams for the Eagles in the 1970s, does a great job of capturing the ardent soul that burns in the heart of every Iggles fan. In some ways, Eagle fan may be as great a fan as the do-called "Red Sox Nation."
The acting was quite good, particularly from Greg Kinnear, as Dick Vermeil. Vermeil has god-like status in Philly. Kinnear has come a long way from the lame "Talk Soup" gig on E! Mark Wahlberg does well as Papale; but sometimes he strutted around a bit more like Dirk Diggler than Vince Papale. Like "The Sixth Sense," the city of Philadelphia also shows well. Of course, all they show are the really ramshackle neighborhoods and gritty grimy underside of the city. I get the feeling that most people watch these movies and think Philadelphia is one giant slum (which it really isn't).
The story stays fairly faithful to the truth. But here are some things that were never mentioned in the movie.
- Papale didn't play college football because his college (St. Joes) didn't have a football team. He did run track though.
- Papale was not a total neophyte to professional football, as depicted in the movie. He did play professional ball for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League before his tryout. [Reminds me of the story of the player (Tony Griggs, I thing) who got cut from a team in the USFL and ended up having a long career in the NFL]
- [Don't read this if you plan to see the movie]!!! The movie bent to truth when they showed Papale scoring the game-winning touchdown against the Giants. He did recover the fumble -- but in the NFL, you can't advance a muffed punt return.
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