great sports film from Disney

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2016)

Both Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear are such naturals in delivering their characters. When in fact, from the production notes, Wahlberg went through actual football training/coaching, being there with the team for every play and practice, gaining insight into his portrayal of a real living person. Both met their inspired 'hero'. For Kinnear, he received confirmation when Vermeil's son indicated that he got his father's mannerism/cadence spot on. The operative word here is 'genuine,' caring and intensely so. They worked hard preparing and learning to correctly portray the two NFL notables.
The film focuses on our hero and to a large degree his neighborhood friends and what it was like for a 30 year old bartender who only played organized football in high school and how he showed up one Saturday at an unprecedented open try out for a professional football team and how he was selected....not selected to join the team automatically.
No, he was only selected for a spot to possibly be on the team. It took a few weeks of being with the team and surviving 'cuts' until he was actually part of the team.
The fact that he did make it, against all the odds, is certainly your classic fairy tale come true.
Disney manages to show rough guys from a rough part of Philadelphia and rough professional football players realistically without ever having to utter one profanity on the screen or use gratuitous violence or vulgarity to do it. That's an accomplishment Disney should be proud of.
Honestly, as a movie buff, it's been a long time since I've gone to the movies where I was able to stay engaged throughout the running time of the movie.
The movie isn't pretentious nor does it take the easy way out in telling its story of rough blue collar characters-by employing vulgarity, overt sexuality or excessive violence.
It relies on tried and true methods like a good story line, taking the time to establish a good foundation in the beginning of the movie, letting the audience get to know the characters involved and then when the bigger more dramatic moments come it doesn't need to rely on over the top special affects to get the audience involved.