Movie Review: Invincible
Stars (Out of 10): 5
One Word Summary: Déjà vu

       'Invincible” is the greater-than-Hollywood-fiction story of Vince Papale, a part time bartender and would be substitute teacher who's, you guessed it, down on his luck. His wife's just left him, he's out of work, and he's already in his thirties. The only thing he has going for him is raw football talent that hasn't translated into much more than bragging rights for his friends in their local league. When first time head coach Dick Vermeil takes over Papale's beloved Philadelphia Eagles, however, and organizes an open tryout for players, his friends push him show up. His effort wins him a spot in the team's training camp, and hopefully for Papale and his friends, maybe even more.

       Sitting through the beginning of 'Invincible” I had the oddest feeling of déjà vu. I'd seen this movie before, and I liked it more the first time… when it was called 'Rudy” and took place at Notre Dame.

       Maybe that's not fair; there are a lot of inspirational sports movies around, but most of the others seem to bring something new to the table—'Invincible” doesn't. It's not a bad movie, and I'm not saying I wasn't, at times, entertained, but watching a movie you feel like you've already seen multiple times just isn't that much fun.

       How many sports movies have you seen with a main character who: a) is down on his luck financially and/or personally, b) is an outsider who no one thinks can 'make it,” c) is hated by his teammates because of it. I can name handfuls.

       Mark Wahlberg is well-cast as Papale, but his performance seems to lack the spirit to have the audience really care about his characer. Sean Astin and Sylvester Stallone brought out the heart of Rudy and Rocky respectively. That's why we cared about their characters. Most sports heroes have the desire and not the talent. Papale has the talent (which he gave up in the middle of high school for a reason that isn't addressed in the movie) but doesn't seem to have a desire to do more than step onto Veteran's Field and see where his adventure takes him. This makes for a much less interesting character.

       Ericson Core, making his feature film debut, shows his inexperience on this one. The NFL stadiums look like cheap CGI, the football action looks phony (it would have looked like WWE wrestling has it not been for good post-production sound mixing), and if the slow motion running montages had gone on much longer I might have cried. (Seriously, who can run from sunup to sundown—with only one brief interruption—and then not even be out of breath!) Core's specialty is cinematography, and 'Invincible” is a pretty looking period movie, but the rest is really lacking.

The Bottom Line is that 'Invincible” is trite from its title (oh, his name is Vince and the title is 'Invincible;” you're so clever) to the closing sequence. It's like every other sports biopic (especially the Disney ones) you've ever seen, except with less heart and no originality.