Wonderful

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2006)

For those who are fans of professional football, this movie is as good as the film "Hoosiers" was for high school basketball fans. The game of football is only for those who are not only tough, but determined, especially at the professional level. Injuries are common. Mark Wahlberg shows that he has what it takes as he continues his masterful portrayal of lower middle class characters, who overcome lack of education and poverty to show courage and insight and determination on the way to the achievement of success and victory. Greg Kinnear plays the legendary Coach Vermeil, who took an unmotivated and disheartened Philadelphia Eagles to victory in the mid 1970s and eventually to the Super Bowl.
Wahlberg and Kinnear have something in common. Both men started their careers doing something else than acting, Wahlberg as a rap musician and Kinnear as a talk show host. Both have achieved the ability to morph themselves into their respective roles in a convincing manner.
This is also another delightful depiction of the mid-1970's era, similar to that found in "Boogie Nights," also starring Wahlberg. Wahlberg seems to have an affinity to films of that period, so full of chaos, violence, change and drama.