“Invincible” (2006)

Invincible is a sports movie, with all the attendant cliches. It’s from Disney, so there’s even an extra layer of schmaltz, like the title. Maybe it’s because I married an Eagles fan, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the movie. Mark Wahlberg plays Vince Papale, a 30yo bartender from south Philly who walked onto the Eagles 1976 team from an open tryout held by then new-coach Dick Vermeil. There’s not an unpredictable moment in this film, yet Wahlberg is so likable, and his buddies and father so sympathetic, that the movie charms away most grumbles. The love interest, played ably enough by Elizabeth Banks, felt particularly shoehorned in.

It’s “based on a true story” and the extra feature on Papale is worth watching to get the commentary from Philly sports guys about some of the true stuff (see also the IMDB trivia of the movie), and the similarity of Papale to a fictional character from South Philly whose movie came out in 1976, the same year that Papale made the team. A little of the real Papale goes a long way, though, and something seemed very off about Merrill Reese’s face–his cheeks didn’t move.

A question for other Eagles fans: did Papale really call that audible at the end?

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