Mark Wahlberg plays a football (should I say, grid iron) fan who so happens to be out of luck in finding work, and in life in general. An opportunity arises when the team / club he follows holds open try outs for the new season. Did I mention this is a Disney movie? Well, you probably know how it goes then. It's also supposed to be a true story on the life of one Vince Papale, but you know how things get lost/edited in translation to the silver screen. :P
If they were really invincible they'd play like the Aussies and not wear armor.
Acting wise, everything is ok - especially all of the pub gang. I didn't quite feel the chemistry between the love interests though. Also there are a lot of sepia toned shots which while they set the era fine actually became annoying for me. Obviously there's a fair bit of football here too, and numerous shots that only serve as name dropping for actual fans I imagine. Overall it's a decent enough movie and one I give two and a half touchdowns out of five to. Don't really have a need to see it again though.
Papale was a walk-on guy in the same way the movie presented.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I remember when the movie came out there was an interview with Dick Vermeil about Vince Papale, and he said that the years Vince was on the team, he was one of the last couple of people kept. Everybody on that last round of cuts was about the same level of physical skill, so Vermeil opted to keep Papale on the team because of the intangible of him being a connection to the fanbase.
I suppose if Papale had been a local product who'd gone to college and played football at, say, Penn, and had gone on to play for the Eagles he'd have the same intangibles for him. It wouldn't have been made into a Disney movie, however.
Moral of the story: It's good to have fans? :P
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