Rocky VII - A Football Story

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2007)

The real life events of Philadelphia native Vince Papale (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's Mark Wahlberg) incredible ride into the NFL as a member of the Eagles. Vince was an out of work teacher and bartender who happened to make it to the NFL via Dick Vermeil's open tryouts, with no prior college or professional experience.
If you have seen Rocky, you kind of get the idea. It's Philly, its a blue collar town and during the 70's was in the grips of a severe recession. The director, Ericson Core (who's major contribution to this point was as cinematographer on the horrible Daredevil), does an adequate job of portraying this. Basically this is not really a football movie. I was having major flashbacks of Rudy. The whole point of the movie isn't football, but rather the underdog, the "American dream" accomplished. This isn't to say there isn't football in the movie. Most of it involves training camp and a few plays from the first few games. It is used to show that his accomplishment did not occur overnight, nor that it was easy.
Overall this isn't a great movie, but its hard not to care about Vince. These movies make us care about these people, by making the point that if they could do it, why can't we. They could be us, so it is easy to relate. The standout moment of the movie is at the end, where we are given archived footage of the actual Vince and some of the plays he made. It single-handed validated the movie for me, to see the energy, pride and character of Vince Papale. This movie would be a welcome DVD to my collection, right next to Rudy, the Replacements and the Longest Yard (the original 70's version... please don't soil that movie with thoughts of Adam Sandler).