Invincible: Critic Reviews

Every so often, Mark Wahlberg gets hold of a role that lets him reconnect with what made him a star.

Disney's latest sports-underdog movie is the true story of a part-time bartender (Mark Wahlberg) who realizes his dream of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles.

It may not break new ground, but Invincible is an entertaining film, awash in cliches but leavened by the charismatic performance of Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale.

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, who plays newcomer coach Dick Vermeil.

Wahlberg and the rest of the solid cast sell this ESPN equivalent of a Lifetime movie.

One of the few satisfying sports movies in which the foundation built upon a heap of cliches holds strong.

Wahlberg and his co-stars, including love interest Elizabeth Banks, really seem to believe in the story, with a grave intensity that enhances its underdog appeal.

When it's good it's very good. When it's bad -- well, it's still pretty good.

As much as I wanted to root for Invincible, its protagonist comes across as neither ebullient nor vivacious.

The most remarkable accomplishment of Invincible is to make a mid-'70s musical soundtrack sound spectacular.

There's a sugar coating to the way Papale's story unfolds, but not so much that you'll spoil your dinner.

The genre shows serious signs of wear in this needlessly fictionalized feature about Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender who improbably won a spot on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976.

Invincible is an uplift-the-neighborhood, stand-up-and-cheer, go-Eagles inspirational story about the little energizer that could.

Ultimately, the movie fulfills its mission, which is to fire up viewers with its can-do attitude.

They're [Disney] not looking to make a complex, textured analysis of competition and ambition here, they just want a football movie that ends with the audience cheering for the hero.

Even Papale's most famous play, recovering a fumble to set up a touchdown, is embellished, as if Disney can't bear to stick with the facts.

While it doesn't reach the level of visceral -- or dramatic -- impact of Friday Night Lights, Invincible generally gets the game's physical nature right, most ironically via Core's choice of slo-mo action shots.

It has been done so many times, and so often by Disney, that the real surprise in a movie like this is when it does manage to surprise.

Invincible is a working-class jock Cinderella fantasy with the sincerity of a beer commercial, the soul of a Republican incumbent, and the designer-flannel esthetics of an old Bruce Springsteen video.

Invincible is as much a period piece as it is a sports movie, complete with a non-stop soundtrack of familiar hits that, unfortunately, makes one think of That '70s Show a little too often

There's a danger in reducing pictures like this to the sum of their lessons, at the expense of recognizing them as satisfying, if flawed, genre exercises.

With Invincible -- hero-worship and unimaginative storytelling have caused the project to strike a sour note.

A persuasive and enjoyable sports film for male audiences.

It's a great story. And it has the added benefit of being (mostly) true.

What's modestly refreshing about the way this story is told by director Eric Core and writer Brad Gann, is that the person with the largest doubts about going pro is Papele himself.