Invincible--A Movie Review

By Justin Fencsak 

From the guys who brought you such Disney sports movies like Miracle and The Rookie comes Invincible, the true story of how a 30-year old South Philly bartender became the NFL's oldest rookie.

Set during the year of the Bicentennial of America's founding, this film stars Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale, whose dream is to became an NFL star for his favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles. His girlfriend, Janet (Elizabeth Banks), doesn't like the idea of her boyfriend becoming a player of the team she hates, even though she loves him. Yet when training camp begins, he becomes well active for play. As the preseason begins, Vince struggles to  make his team a great one by losing all of their preseason games to more talented teams like the Dolphins and the Steelers. As the first true test of becoming a TV star, he plays his first game against Dallas, unfortunately for him, he gets jacked up and forces his team to lose a shutout to the Cowboys by a touchdown. With his troubles in doubt, Vince practices hard with his friends off the field and gets ready for a big home opener against his girlfriend's team, the Giants. He finally gets his first taste of victory at the very end of the game, when he recovers a fumbled Giants ball to score the game-winning touchdown. At the end of the movie, an epilogue tells that Vince would go on to play two more years with the birds before retiring, even though Dick Vermeil, who coached the Eagles during the mid-to-late 1970's before heading to Kansas City (he's now replaced by Herm Edwards of the Jets), made his team without Vince to the Super Bowl for the first time in the Eagles' history (the team lost the game to the Oakland Raiders, although they would go on to face the Patriots 24 years later with Andy Reid and lose again). Currently, Mr. Papale lives in Cherry Hill, N.J. with his wife and three kids.

After watching this movie in a crowded theatre with mostly kids from summer camp, me and my dad thought that this movie was really good. Chock full of realistic football action, high drama, and some romance and comedy, Invincible is the best sports movie of the year, period.

Coming soon: A review of The Illusionist, the new thriller starring Jessica Biel and Edward Norton.