The fourth movie of the marathon is Invincible, a Disney movie starring Mark Wahlberg as a 30 year old walk on special teams player in the NFL during the 70s
Invincible is the football equivalent of a nice punt. Nothing too thrilling about it, and its nice and safe. The film strictly adheres to sports movie formula and doesn't really strive for a whole lot more. Wahlberg is a substitute teacher who is laid off and goes to work as a bartender to make ends meet. When Eagles coach Dick Vermeil (played by Greg Kinnear) holds open tryouts, he is encouraged to join by his friends. Papale's speed and work ethic gets him onto the team, and much like Rudy or Rocky, he gets a chance to live his dream.
The way some of the characters are written is pretty odd to me. Wahlberg plays Papale in a dark and brooding fashion. You get the feeling that all the punches life has thrown at him may be the reason, and this is fine. But where is the JOY when he steps onto the field? This guy has overcome the odds and you just never really get the feeling that he is all that excited to be there. Before the final credits, they show some real life footage and Papale looks happy as a clam. Interesting that Wahlberg chose to play the character the way he did. The other character that just seems out of place is Janet Cantrell (played by Elisabeth Banks). This character is supposed to be interesting because she's the love interest and because she's the girl who knows about sports. The movie needs roughly a half dozen scenes to show that she is "one of the guys". Gets annoying and repetitive fast. Lastly, the movie really seems to strive to bring Philly to life and make it a "character" in the film, the way a Woody Allen or Spike Lee film/joint would with New York. Doesn't do it so well. For some reason, the sky is bronze (like in the picture above) for like 1/3rd of the film too. Weird.
As is the formula in all the Disney sports movies, everything is heightened toward the main character(s), as if the story isn't good enough to breathe the way it happened in real life. The world has to fucking revolve around Mark Wahlberg. Dick Vermeil is sitting in his house with his wife just hoping making this guy the last player on his roster won't bite him in the ass. You'd think if your team sucks so bad, you'd be more worried about, you know, every other player on the team. In his first game, Papale misses a tackle on the opening kickoff. Of course, this leads to Dick Vermeil grabbing his facemask on the sideline and angrily reminding him "I STUCK MY NECK OUT FOR YOU!!!". Then, the top story on the sports news is essentially "Local boy Vincent Papale SUCKS!". Now I watch a lot of football, and roughly 90% of the time the kick returner, who is one of the best athletes on his team, makes the first would-be tackler miss. Hardly the end of the world. I hate when I movie feels like it has to spell it out for you. THIS CHARACTER IS HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING ACCLIMATED TO THE NFL. Thanks. It's annoying as shit.
Despite the off-putting dumbing down of just about anything football, the movie remains entertaining enough all the way through. Not something I'd watch again, but worth the rental.
Football Movie Marathon Rankings
1. Brian's Song
2. Varsity Blues
3. Invincible
4. Two For the Money
hey hey despite paragraphs of bashing it I called it "entertaining enough"
ReplyDeleteBesides, he made Max Payne and the Happening in 2008. If he wanted to track down all the critics who gave his movies a bad review after those two piles of crap, he would have literally 1000s of fish to fry before he got to me.