Football has never seemed so dull!

Rating: 3/10 (11 August 2006)

*********SPOILER WARNING**********
Rarely have I ever been so disappointed by a movie, especially one I had such low expectations for to begin with. I went into the theater expecting a nice, comfortable, predictable Rudy rehashed, themed especially for my favorite city in the world, Philadelphia. I was not expecting nor did I particularly desire great cinema or stunning originality; I would have happily settled for a well-done version of a marvelously entertaining cliché. What I got was a movie that, more than anything else, seemed hopelessly unambitious; it didn't seem particularly interested in old, stand-by truisms or anything particularly resembling a story. Sure, there were a couple of scenes ripped straight out of Rudy (including one where two guys get into the "pit" and have to hit each other), but mostly it was a a meandering, moping, and unengaging retelling of one man's life in football, totally lacking in any dramatic fire. And I'm a big Eagles fan!
None of the players on the 1976 Eagles are particularly featured, replaced instead with a "general grumbling" about Papale being on the team. So, clichéd though it would be, there is not even an attempt at a "first I hate you then I respect you and finally I stick up for you and help you become an established member of the team" story line between one of the established players and Papale. There is a passing gesture at this sort of plot device, nothing more.
Instead, the story, such as it is, focuses on the relationship with Papale and Dick Vermeil. Even that lacks much dramatic tension; each week Papale is still on the team, until Vermeil calls him into his office and tells him to bring his playbook --- usually what he does right before he cuts a player --- in order to tell him he's made the team. Surprise! There is hardly any dramatic tension here, and this is the crux of the story.
The other subplots are equally lacking in any real rising action, or, in at least one case, sense. Papale's first wife left him and called him a loser, but it's OK because he nearly immediately meets a hotter girl who is a Giants fan but still a good person. Yawn.
In another subplot, Papale's dad supports him, but suggests he should resign himself to the idea that he is just a regular guy and will never be anything more. Boy, does the younger Papale show him! Not only does Vince make the Eagles, but on the day of the Eagles' home opener, his first day in Philadelphia in uniform, he "forgets" to get his Dad a ticket, as we discover when we see his father at a bar, watching the game on TV (but still cheering his son on with a bunch of other barflies --- how nice).
Finally, in the one that makes the least sense of all, one of Papale's best friends continually reminds him what a loser he is, no matter what he does. He gets through the open tryout --- he's a loser. He makes it past the first cuts --- loser. Next round of cuts --- loser. After he makes the team --- loser. After he doesn't play well in his first game against Dallas --- loser. Presumably, this would have gone ad infinitum, but mercifully the movie ended. Why does his friend despise him so much? Even the movie doesn't seem too sure --- it just seemed like it would add something to the plot, I guess, to have this "sour grapes" character there at every turn, to remind Papale that whatever he's achieved is only dust in the wind, and that soon he'll be nothing again.
One positive note: the attention to uniform detail is heroic. In 1976, the Dallas Cowboys, who normally have a stripe running over the crown of their helmets that is blue-white-blue, changed to red-white-blue to commemorate the bicentennial. The movie has the 'Boys in the correct uniform. And the Eagles are wearing that 1976 Philadelphia patch that uses the number 76 to make the crack-and-clapper in the Liberty Bell.
I only wish attention to this type of detail made it worth while. The Vet mostly looks like Franklin Field, with benches where the seats should be. Moreover, the movie's story is decidedly uninspiring --- I can't see how this movie would hold any interest to anyone outside the Philadelphia area.