Invincible

As far as inspirational-sports-movies-based-on-true-stories go, INVINCIBLE is okay. Mark Wahlberg plays Vince Papale, a 30-year-old part-time bartender in Philadelphia who attends an open tryout for the Philadelphia Eagles and against all odds makes the team. That's it for the plot. What makes this movie work is the performance by Wahlberg, who actually looks and moves like a football player. The photography is also very good. As a long-time NFL watcher, I ought to remember the real Papale, but I don't. I do remember watching the real Brian Piccolo playing for the Chicago Bears in the late Sixties, and of course, the movie about him, BRIAN'S SONG, sort of reinvented this genre when it had fallen dormant. And before BRIAN'S SONG, sports movies were usually about baseball, like THE BABE RUTH STORY, THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, and FEAR STRIKES OUT. But to get back to INVINCIBLE, the football scenes are good, the scenes with Papale and his blue-collar buddies are also very good, and it's an entertaining film.