Invincible Reviews
Top CriticThere's a sugar coating to the way Papale's story unfolds, but not so much that you'll spoil your dinner.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
When it's good it's very good. When it's bad -- well, it's still pretty good.
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
It may not break new ground, but Invincible is an entertaining film, awash in clichés but leavened by the charismatic performance of Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
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.
It's a hard-earned humanity that gives Invincible its vigor.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
A generic series of pep talks and rock-pumped montages. The only thing missing is a Rocky shot of the character racing up steps.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Invincible is one gigantic pile of cornball clichés, but there's no denying the movie works you over anyway.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
As much as I wanted to root for Invincible, its protagonist comes across as neither ebullient nor vivacious.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
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
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
For a movie about following your dreams, this one is sorely lacking imagination.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
If it doesn't score a lot of extra points for originality, it at least makes it across the goal line without too many fumbles.
| Original Score: B
The most remarkable accomplishment of Invincible is to make a mid-'70s musical soundtrack sound spectacular.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
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.
Wahlberg and the rest of the solid cast sell this ESPN equivalent of a Lifetime movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
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.
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.
| Original Score: 3/5
With Invincible -- hero-worship and unimaginative storytelling have caused the project to strike a sour note.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Unlike most 'feel-good' films in this genre, Invincible isn't blatantly manipulative, and works so well because it is, in fact, understated.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
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.
Invincible is an uplift-the-neighborhood, stand-up-and-cheer, go-Eagles inspirational story about the little energizer that could.
| Original Score: 3/4
Ultimately, the movie fulfills its mission, which is to fire up viewers with its can-do attitude.
| Original Score: 3/4
If you want to see a really good inspirational movie about football, try Remember the Titans. But if you want to see a movie about bad '70s hair and tiresome sports-movie clichés, Invincible is all yours.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
It's a great story. And it has the added benefit of being (mostly) true.
Every so often, Mark Wahlberg gets hold of a role that lets him reconnect with what made him a star.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
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.
A persuasive and enjoyable sports film for male audiences.
One of the few satisfying sports movies in which the foundation built upon a heap of clichés holds strong.
[It] a real-life event and turns it into a well-made, feel-good film.
