Marky Mark Straps on the Pads in “Invincible”
Early reviews are giving Mark Whalberg’s “Invincible” the usual accolades granted to a decent sports movie (they’re all the same): it’s heartwarming, family-friendly, etc. But what I am really interested in seeing is how Greg Kinnear comes across as Dick Vermeil. I think Kinnear is an underrated actor (sometimes even great in the right role) and the real Vermeil has such a recognizable persona that it will be interesting to see how Kinnear tackles the role. Unfortunately, most reviews aren’t written by football people, so scouring the blog circuit and newspapers hasn’t given me a good reading on how Kinnear plays Vermeil. Has anyone who has seen the premiere got any thoughts? The film nationwide opens today.
UPDATE: “Invincible” was by the far the number one earner at the box office this weekend, at $17 million. The next-highest earning film was “Beerfest” at around $6.5 million. Thanks to Risky Biz for the info.
August 25th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I was the one who wrote that review that you linked above (thanks) and I thought I’d chime in with some of my thoughts in response to Greg Kinnear. Unfortunately I have never seen the real life Dick Vermeil and therefore have to say first off that I can’t do a comparison in that sense. However, I felt that Kinnear did do a great job fulfilling the role and delivering a great performance. In the review, I was writing the paragraph on acting, and then realized that I forgot to mention him, and that I should (at the end). The reason why I did that, I guess, is that I felt Mark and the rest of his friends in he film overshadowed Kinnear in comparison. Mark was simply fantastic and he had a lot of his friends who were very emotional and strong characters. Kinnear seemed to be just a little more “rigid” in comparison. In the same, I could compare him to how Kurt Russell fulfilled the role of Coach Herb Brooks in Miracle. And to be honest, I thought Kurt Russell did a better job of filling out that coach to the point.
In conclusion, I do agree that I think Kinnear has quite a bit of possibility, however his role in this film was a bit restricting. Yea, he did do a good job, but it wasn’t as perfect as Wahlberg’s (and I think that’s why you’ll see every heralding Wahlberg but not enough of Kinnear). I’d definitely suggest you go see and I really am looking forward to your response to Kinnear from the movie. Either hit me up on my site again or just reply here.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Thanks for the response Alex. I completely agree with your assessment; I think the Vermeil role simply wasn’t as meaty as the Papale one. Not a knock on the film, as it is not really about Vermeil anyway. My preliminary feelings were that Kinnear would be a perfect Vermeil–and I think he was pretty good–but the script didnt really give him much to work with. But, again, not a knock on the film.
September 1st, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Greg Kinnear is a vastly underrated actor. Check out ‘Little Miss Sunshine’–he’s incredible, along with everyone else.