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Invincible
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (18th February 2007). |
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The Film
 Everybody loves a good underdog story. Well, except for people that feel like they have everything. Those people tend to get really nervous around underdogs trying to reach above their station. The best kinds of "overcoming adversity and all the odds" story are the ones that are based on true events. Because most people relate to the tale of someone beating the odds and if it's true...well, that just gives hope to the rest of us, doesn't it? As you may have gathered, "Invincible" is one such underdog story. It follows the true story of Vince Papale (played here by Mark Wahlberg), a thirty year old bartender who had never even played college football. But a new coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, Dick Vermeil (played by Greg Kinnear), calls for an open tryout for the losing team. This is Vince's shot and he has to reach deep to show everyone, himself included, that he means something. Along the way Philadelphia got someone to believe in. There are two main problems with this type of story. The first is that the ending is not really in doubt. Not only is it marketed as an inspirational tale, but it is based of true events that obviously caught enough attention to make a film about it. So you pretty much know what you're getting right from the start. Now this can be seen as a positive by many. You know the film is friendly and safe. You know that, as long as the film isn't a big bag of crap, you will leave the film feeling a certain way. If that is what you're after then you've succeeded. If you wanted more from your movie-watching, you've made a poor choice. The second is that we've already seen the greatest underdog story on film and that was "Rocky" (1976). The bottom line is that nothing has, and likely ever will, beat "Rocky" in this category. Every film of this nature takes its cues from Sylvester Stallone's tale, whether it's in the sport montages or basic story structure. In particular, this film even came into existence because Vince's story was part of a TV special commemorating the 25th anniversary of "Rocky", and it captured Hollywood's attention. And when you come down to it, while the movies might be safe and not necessarily bad, you are always inevitably left with a sense of "I've seen this before...and it was better last time." As it pertains to "Invincible", a capable job is done of exploring the underdog genre. The direction is competent and some of the football scenes will leave you feeling the bumps. Again, it's nothing you haven't seen before, but it still works. The director also seems to enjoy using the golden tinted lens that apparently makes films look grittier and more like the real world, rather than a Hollywood picture. The cast all do well considering the basic nature of the tale. Wahlberg does the role he is best at: standing around looking like he doesn't know what he's doing. While he's not the greatest actor in this generation, I've always liked Wahlberg, and he does his best work when portraying someone out of their depth. Kinnear does that thing he does, where he turns up to do a role that doesn't have much to it on the surface yet he manages to keep a healthy presence on-screen. The thing that makes Invincible stand out is that it does feel believable. There are plenty of scenes that should, by all rights, make you laugh and have you shaking your head, but here they work. It's a combination of factors that cause this but the important thing is that they achieve something that is quite difficult: cheesy Americana that doesn't result in a sickening feeling deep in your stomach. This movie moved up a whole rating point from me based solely on that factor. The film is nothing you haven't seen. This is obvious. But it's a feel-good tale that achieves almost everything it could realistically set out to. Unless you were making a serious error in guessing what this film would be like, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Its entertainment and it does a pretty good job at that.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this high-definition 1080p transfer was created using MPEG-2 compression, the result is a solid effort displaying the films sepia hues well as well as its washed out palette quite well. The image is sharp and displays detail quite well, good examples of these are the various games portrayed in the film the stadiums look amazing. Blacks hold up well and shadow detail is exceptional, I noticed some very minor grain in parts but that all goes towards the overall look and feel of the film.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included an uncompressed English PCM 5.1 track as well as English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. For the purpose of this review I chose to view the film with its PCM 5.1 track, which is another in a line of well mixed dynamic soundtracks that not only present the film exceptionally well but immerse the viewer totally into the film. Dialogue is crystal clear, the ambient sounds are subtle and natural sounding, the score makes fine use of the sound space and the effects sounds are aggressive and impressive, just make sure to turn your volume to a high level during the football game sequences you'll feel like you're in the stadium with all the fans. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film with the same extras as seen on the standard DVD with one additional exclusive bonus, these extras include two audio commentaries and two featurettes. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by football player Vince Papale whose life this film is based on, co-producer Mark Ciardi and screenwriter Brad Gann. The track is occasionally screen-specific as the producer discusses his introduction to Papale's story from the NFL films special they produced as a pre-game clip, Papale provides real-world reference to the scenes as well as talks about the cast admiringly. Writer, Gann, provides some insight into the story elements and choosing what specifically to focus on as well as the compositing of various real people into several characters for the sake of the story and time. Some history us provided along with production issues makes this track occasionally informative, overall there were a few quite spells here and there with a lot of back patting. A second audio commentary is included with director/cinematographer Ericson Core and editor Jerry Greenberg. This screen-specific track takes is through the story, the process of getting the film made as well as making the film. They comment on creating a mood and tone from the opening credit sequence, as well as provide background into Papale's story and the challenges they faced in getting things right, getting the character right and also in designing the look of the film. Editor Greenberg mostly agrees with whatever Core says and occasionally injects his own opinion. "Becoming Invincible: The Story of Vince Papale" is a featurette which runs for 25 minutes 38 seconds, this clip takes a closer look at the Philadelphia Eagles during their slump in the 70's, how the management held open trials and the eventual discovery of Papale. Papale faced a lot of criticism mainly from inside the Eagles organization and managed to prove himself to all the nay-sayers that a 30-something rookie that never played High School football can actually make it in the NFL. We learn about the impact he made on the Eagles as well as the city of Philadelphia. Finally providing a look at how the story was picked up by producers and eventually fast-tracked by Disney into production. "Recreating the Vet" is an exclusive extra on this Blu-ray disc, the featurette runs for 7 minutes 30 seconds, this clip takes a look at the creation of the Veteran's Stadium in CG for this film. Since the stadium no longer exists the filmmaker sought special effects to recreate it for this film and takes a look at that process. Also included is "Movie Showcase" which jumps to three key reference scenes that show off the high-definition quality.
Overall
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