From the busy Disney sports department, an implausible but true story made more implausible and less true (and not made "better" in the process), the football equivalent of baseball's The Rookie, wherein a thirtyish laid-off schoolteacher, part-time bartender, and abandoned husband in South Philly, name of Vince Papale, earns a spot on the Eagles roster at an open tryout under new coach Dick Vermeil in 1976. (Same year as that purely fictional Philly fairy tale, Rocky.) Glossy photography by Ericson Core, who also, à la Peter Hyams, directed; a luxuriance of Seventies hair and explosion of garish fashions; an occasional anachronism ("You disrespecting me?"); a nice, low-key, uncocky portrayal by Mark Wahlberg in the lead role and a complementary one by Kevin Conway as the pessimistic but proud papa; and a passable impersonation of Vermeil by the geeky Greg Kinnear. Vivid vignette: the rookie coach and rookie player throwing up in side-by-side stalls in the locker room (audio only, thank you) before the opening game against the fearsome Cowboys. With Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rispoli, Kirk Acevedo, Dov Davidoff, and Michael Kelly. (2006) — Duncan Shepherd