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83Wahlberg, with shaggy hair and a pumped bod he wears more convincingly than any actor, plays Vince as a guy who truly doesn't expect to win. That makes his rib-bruising triumph all the more believable and touching.
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The actors make it work. Greg Kinnear's Coach Vermeil exudes Southern California good vibrations without a lot of fuss or attitude.
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75One gigantic pile of cornball clichés, but there's no denying the movie works you over anyway.
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75So yes, you'll roll your eyes when the coach defies Papale's naysayers by insisting that "he has heart." But if there's a single surprise on this familiar field, it's that the movie does, too.
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It has grit.
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75Core, a cinematographer who helms both camera and directorial duties here, creates a vivid sense of time and place without letting the period music, clothes or art direction intrude. The performances are likewise understated and unpretentious, especially those of Wahlberg and Kinnear.
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75Another surefire sports biography from Disney.
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75The movie contains few surprises but has plenty of heart.
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75Sure, the unlikely ascendance of 30-year-old Vince Papale from working-class suds-pumper to Philadelphia Eagles benchwarmer is a victory for the little guy, but it's still more of a personal victory, and that's what makes it touching.
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70A neatly packaged Walt Disney Co. picture with bone-crunching football action; a nice sense of the blue-collar, male-dominated milieu that nourishes football fanaticism; and a few too many tugs at the heartstrings.
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70Core has a touch with actors, too, and there are surprisingly fine performances here.
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Invincible joins "Rocky" or "Hoosiers" or "Breaking Away" as one of the few satisfying sports movies in which the foundation built upon a heap of clichés holds strong.
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70Handling both directing and cinematography duties, Core invests both with a clearly impassioned sense of place, period and perspective regarding this fanfare for common men.
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Audiences will be rooting for him all the way to the end zone.
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67Wahlberg is effective in the role and carries the movie nicely.
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63The film's depiction of life among the salt of the earth is blandly cartoonish; and the "Super Sounds of the '70s" soundtrack meticulously matches songs to action, as though the filmmakers didn't trust viewers to figure out what these one-note characters were feeling.
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63Invincible doesn't offer any surprises. But it is a well-made, fairly exciting movie that, like its hero, has heart.
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63Has the problem of drifting in and out of authenticity.
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60A touching, stirring story even if it has been given the Hollywood treatment.
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Invincible counters its predictably inspirational trajectory with close attention to historical detail and blue-collar hardship.
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60There's too much slow-mo and too many music cues, but there's a low-key buzz to Wahlberg's scenes with Greg Kinnear.
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58Papale's story is more than any fan could dream of, which is why it's frustrating that Invincible feels the need to embellish it. While mentioning he never played football in college, the film ignores that he did play in a semipro league prior to his Eagles tryout.
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50The movie is shamelessly manipulative.
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50From the poor set design to the mediocre acting to the paint-by-numbers screenplay, this is TV fare at best.
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50Despite its title, the movie admirably sticks to its game plan of ennobling the everyman as opposed to turning Papale into some kind of Superman.
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50Invincible is like a thick, sweaty slab of NFL comfort food.
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50The movie is straightforward in a way that makes it feel less manipulative than it might.
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50The genre shows serious signs of wear in this needlessly fictionalized feature about Vince Papale.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 33
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Mixed: 3 out of 33
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Negative: 2 out of 33
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SamM10Great cast, I really thought wahlberg was an awful actor till I watched this. A truly remarkable and moving story. 10 for me and i hate football.
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R.L10
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JackB.8