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Created Feb 09, 2008 01:31PM PST • Edited Feb 03, 2019 08:58PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Invincible is a great football movie, tough yet sensitive in a manly sort of way. Relationships between fathers and sons and buddies and girls-who-wear-jerseys are all well mined for emotional wallop.

   The movie has added resonance for those of us familiar with Philly and the 70s, especially Philly in the 70s. The music (Nugent, Edgar Winter, et. al.), The Vet, the plaid slacks, it’s all here in its funky glory.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Nice work by a bevy of charismatic stars, especially Mark Wahlberg, in one of his patented self-effacing performances, and Greg Kinnear as real life coach Dick Vermeil. The women in their lives are attractively and intelligently played by Elizabeth Banks and Paige Turco.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Well produced football action, combined with the feel of the importance of football to down-on-their-luck blue collar fans, make this more than just a trite movie.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Great 4.0

    Surprisingly savvy dialogue proves affecting and engaging.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Great selection of ’70’s rock: BTO’s Let It Ride, Steely Dan’s Do It Again, Carol King’s It’s Too Late, How Long by Ace, and most especially Ted Nugent’s Stranglehold and Edgar Winter’s Free Ride. Who said 70’s music sucked?

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    The Italian ethnic enclave of South Philly is shown to great effect, as is the cold upper reaches of the Vet.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

    Hard football hits are well shown. As for the salty language, you got a problem?

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    So it turns out that the real Vince Papale was 6’ 2", some 7" taller than the movie star shrimp who plays him as the ultimate underdog. Further, he played two successful years on the Eagles’ minor league team before getting a personal try-out invitation from Dick Vermeil, not the cattle call depicted in the film.

    Finally, Papale emerged from Prospect Park, not from the more urban South Philly depicted in the movie.

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0