Football Movies

So last time around I covered a couple of comedies that I caught at the theater recently. With this entry, we switch to the inspiration sports film, in particular the football movies Invincible and Gridiron Gang (both of which I caught at the theater several weeks ago). You just gotta love a good, old-fashioned inspirational sports movie, especially if it’s a football movie. I’ve always been partial to football movies as far as sports movies goes (probably because football is about the only sport that I actually don’t mind watching on TV, since I’m not really much of a sports person). I do have to add, though, that I really liked Miracle. But by and large my favorite sports movies are all football movies.

Let’s start with Invincible, the true story (which goes without saying, since pretty much all inspirational sports movies are based on true stories) of Vince Papale, a Philadelphia Eagles fan who gets the opportunity to attend open tryouts for the team, and out of everyone who tries out, is the only one to actually make it onto the team. As is to be expected, this movie pretty much follows the standard formula for this sort of movie by the numbers. We’ve got our hero, the underdog/outsider, who’s not liked by his fellow players, and doesn’t know if he has what it takes to make it as a pro. But he sticks with it, proving to himself, his teammates, and the fans that he can make it in the pros and contribute to the team.

Comments are often made in regards to movies such as this about how formulaic they are, and I wouldn’t argue this point. But I would say, the reason for this is that the formula works. Everybody loves to see the little guy triumph, to see the underdog make good and become a hero. It’s just a great storyline that you can’t really go wrong with. And so there’s no real reason to mess with it. Invincible is no exception to the rule.

Mark Wahlberg does a good job in the lead role, but he’s a very talented actor who does a good job in every role he takes, so that’s no surprise. He makes the character likable and believable – somebody you want to root for (which is exactly what you want in this sort of film). All in all I really liked this movie. Anyone who enjoys sports movies, or just good, wholesome inspirational movies, I think will enjoy this one. I highly recommend it.

Our next movie also follows the same basic formula as Invincible, but has a number of noticeable differences. That movie is Gridiron Gang, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. One of the big differences is that this movie features high school football as opposed to pro ball. Now, as a rule, I generally don’t enjoy high school football movies as much because too often there’s too much focus on parent issues and teen angst and other assorted melodramas that have little to do with football (Friday Night Lights, for example, I wasn’t impressed with at all). Gridiron Gang, however, managed to keep this to a minimum (although it was still present in a few scenes), so I can’t complain about that too much.

The Rock does a really good job in this movie, and I have to say I liked his performance. The fact that he actually played football before becoming a pro wrestler I think helps a lot with his character, and makes him pretty believable. The other actors all do a pretty good job as well. The fact that the kids are all in juvenile detention makes for an interesting twist, and they handle the issue of gang violence pretty well in the movie. I also loved the idea of bringing girls from the girl’s detention center to be cheerleaders at their games was pretty damned funny, too.

So in the end I enjoyed Invincible more of the two movies, but they’re both pretty solid films, and anyone who enjoys this genre of films will not be disappointed with either movie (at least, in my not so humble opinion).