Invincible - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Invincible': More jock schlock from Disney

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

There must be money to be made with cliched, feel-good sports movies, for Disney has just cranked out another one. Surely it is just a matter of time before the studio's latest by-the-numbers slice of inspiration, Invincible, is packaged along with Glory Road, The Greatest Game Ever Played and other jock shlock in a DVD boxed set to help get couch potatoes through the off-season.

Buena Vista Pictures

'Invincible'

C-

The verdict: A no-surprises inspirational assault as a long-shot street player beats the odds and makes the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles 30 years ago.

Director: Ericson Core
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Greg Kinnear, Elizabeth Banks, Kirk Acevedo, Lola Glaudini
Run time: 108 minutes
Release date: August 25, 2006
Rating: PG for sports action and some mild language.
See showtimes

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

To answer the future trivia question now, Invincible is the one about Vince Papale (a gee-shucks Mark Wahlberg), a 30-year-old part-time bartender who beats the odds by climbing onto the roster of the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles from a publicity stunt open tryout.

New coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear, who seems much more comfortable in Little Miss Sunshine) gives lip service to the talent search, but after seeing the woeful — and amusing — turnout, he gets wowed by the scrappy Papale's ability. And like Seabiscuit, the horse that inspired the nation in the Great Depression, Papale helps take Philly's minds off its economic woes.

The football game footage is upstaged by the tryouts, so the movie's forward motion dwindles after Papale makes the team. Director Ericson Core (cinematographer on The Fast and the Furious) then pads Invincible with romance clichés as Wahlberg woos Elizabeth Banks, whose only drawback is that she's a New York Giants fan.