Invincible 09/05/06

I'm reviewing this by-the-books sport film mainly because my brother's an extra in it.... and that's the reason we went to see it on Labor Day. We didn't find him, but in case you're interested, he's somewhere in the Dallas Stadium scene. Oh yeah, and the theatre was filled so we sat in the front row :( Damn craned necks. Anyway, the movie starts out in the 70s, Southern Philidelphia with a whole bunch of businesses shutting down, jobs being lost and angry protestors outside gates. Vince Papali lives with his wife in a run-down apartment and attempts to make money by substitute teaching and working a bar. After a while his wife leaves him with the meanest note ever written. Chair bashing ensues. Vince kicks his buddy's asses at football all the time and the losing Philidelphia Eagles have open tryouts for anyone who wants to make the team. Obviously, Vince is the only one that makes it. The movie does draw quite a lot of comparisons to Rocky, but luckily does this underdog formula well. Like Rocky, the character development scenes are all dark, believable and usually sad. Unlike Rocky, it's a true story. Invincible is predictable and has been done many times before, but this time it gets the emotion right. You feel for the run-down characters and can't help but feel good when Vince makes his first big block. The movie doesn't follow Vince through a whole season, but the games shown do a great job of letting you know how big the events are and just how bad Philidelphia fans are(and since they lefty this little detail out of the movie, here's a real life example: due to constant fueding among fans Philidelphia's arena has a courthouse right under it because of the amount of lawsuits inevitably filed). A predictable but well done and emotionally gripping film that will probably do what the original Rocky did a hell of a lot better than Rocky VI. 3.5/5