Friday,
September 01, 2006
Movie:
The
ANNOTICO Report
Although
Vince Papale had played only one year of high
school football, he was a track star in college, and had made it into the World
Football League as a receiver, playing two years at about $800 a game before
the league folded, but at 30 he was relegated to a rough
"touch football" league, that provided most of the
fodder for neighborhood bar talk. He was divorced, sharing an apartment
with two other guys. Drove a beater. Ran six miles a day through the old neighborhood, staying in shape.
In
1976, When Dick Vermeil took over the lowly Philadelphia Eagles, he held open
tryouts. Papale shows up at the tryouts and
slaughters everybody. Of all the ex-jocks, wannabes and good athletes who
turned out, only one man got invited to training camp: Papale.
He survived and became the oldest rookie in league history. Papale was even
captain of the special-teams unit.
A
sportswriter dubbed him "The inVINCEble Papale," and a legend was born. He
This
is a combo "Rudy"/ "Rocky" movie!!
"Invincible" debuted as the top weekend movie with $17 million.
From
Neely
Tucker
September
1, 2006
The
phone is ringing off the wall, the BlackBerry is
buzzing, a photographer is calling for directions to the house, and you have
radio interviews stacked up like planes in a holding pattern.
All this nearly three decades after the cheering stopped and Papale
They leave that stuff out of the movies, you know, the part about the rest of
your life.
And yet, somehow, here he sits, tall and athletic at 60, barefoot, big smile,
sparkling eyes, light streaming through the huge
picture window in the living room: Larger-Than-Life Vinny
Papale. Glory, once again.
"When I heard that Disney had bought the rights to the film," he
says, "I just went primal. Went out of my mind. I
was going,
This time around, when
In 1976, Vince Papale was a 30-year-old guy from
Glenolden, a working-class suburb just south of
Papale had a marketing degree, taught business
classes at his old high school, tended bar at a friend
He was divorced, sharing an apartment with two other guys. Drove
a beater. Ran six miles a day through the old neighborhood, staying in
shape, one of these relentlessly enthusiastic guys you meet in a bar, telling
you about his most recent game in a rough touch-football league "see, man,
there was this pass across the middle"
When Dick Vermeil took over the lowly Philadelphia Eagles, he held open tryo! uts.
Papale shows up at the tryouts and slaughters
everybody.
Of all the ex-jocks, wannabes and good athletes who turned out, only one man
got invited to training camp: Papale. He survived and
became the oldest rookie in league history. Eagles
fans went nuts, some guy coming down out of the stands and making the team,
right there with Harold Carmichael! He was even captain of the special-teams
unit. A sportswriter dubbed him "the inVINCEble Papale," and a legend was born. He
Papale retired from football at 34 and went through
several jobs before landing one in local radio for eight years. He went into
the mortgage business, where he met Janet Cantwell, a world-class gymnast
turned real estate agent, who would become his third wife.
But then "Monday Night Football" did a segment in 2002 about his
Eagles heroics.
"
MOVIE
REVIEW
By
Michael Phillips,
August
25, 2006
In
"Invincible," bartender-turned-Philadelphia Eagle Vince Papale drives a tough, weather-beaten 1970s Chevy Nova.
That
You never know who
Much like the recent soccer film "Goal! The Dream
Begins," "Invincible" has just enough human beings and
semblances of human drama to sideline the clichis.
Director and cinematographer Ericson Gore may use up his slo-mo
quotient by the third reel. But then, a football film without a surfeit of slo-mo is like a cheesesteak
without the cheese.
In 1976 the Eagles, like
At the sly urging of his father (Kevin Conway) and a chorus of go-get-
The film glides along a well-greased track. Shrewish,
short-tempered wife? No problem, she
In real life Papale became a Cinderella man the same
year as "Rocky" triumphed on movie screens. The film ends in 1976,
though Papale played wide receiver for four seasons
before a shoulder injury forced him to change careers. Screenwriter Gann and
feature film directorial first-timer Core glance on the Rocky Balboa parallels.
They also glance on some real-world issues ? alcoholism, working-class socioeconomics, the strike down at
the Westinghouse plant. The operative word is "glance." We
The actors make it work. Greg Kinnear
All the South Philly trappings are there: The cramped row houses, the dingy
bars, the "Rocky" echoes.
"Invincible" features an astutely cast collection of neighborhood
palookas, chief among them Kirk Acevedo (as Papale
There
MPAA rating:
PG for sports action and some mild language
A Walt Disney Pictures release. Director-cinematographer Ericson Core. Screenplay by Brad Gann.
Producers
Gordon Gray, Mark Ciardi, Ken Mok. Editor Jerry
Greenberg.
Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes. In
general release.
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