| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Wahlberg, 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.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
The actors make it work. Greg Kinnear's Coach Vermeil exudes Southern California good vibrations without a lot of fuss or attitude.
|
| 75 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Sure, 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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| 75 |
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
So 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.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Another surefire sports biography from Disney.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
One gigantic pile of cornball clichés, but there's no denying the movie works you over anyway.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Core, 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.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Kyle Smith
It has grit.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
The movie contains few surprises but has plenty of heart.
|
| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
A 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.
|
| 70 |
Wall Street Journal
Joanne Kaufman
Audiences will be rooting for him all the way to the end zone.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
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.
|
| 70 |
Variety
Robert Koehler
Handling both directing and cinematography duties, Core invests both with a clearly impassioned sense of place, period and perspective regarding this fanfare for common men.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Core has a touch with actors, too, and there are surprisingly fine performances here.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Wahlberg is effective in the role and carries the movie nicely.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Invincible doesn't offer any surprises. But it is a well-made, fairly exciting movie that, like its hero, has heart.
|
| 63 |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The 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.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Has the problem of drifting in and out of authenticity.
|
| 60 |
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
A touching, stirring story even if it has been given the Hollywood treatment.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Jeannette Catsoulis
Invincible counters its predictably inspirational trajectory with close attention to historical detail and blue-collar hardship.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
There's too much slow-mo and too many music cues, but there's a low-key buzz to Wahlberg's scenes with Greg Kinnear.
|
| 58 |
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Papale'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.
|
| 50 |
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The movie is straightforward in a way that makes it feel less manipulative than it might.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jennie Punter
Despite its title, the movie admirably sticks to its game plan of ennobling the everyman as opposed to turning Papale into some kind of Superman.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Invincible is like a thick, sweaty slab of NFL comfort food.
|
| 50 |
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
From the poor set design to the mediocre acting to the paint-by-numbers screenplay, this is TV fare at best.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The genre shows serious signs of wear in this needlessly fictionalized feature about Vince Papale.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
The movie is shamelessly manipulative.
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