I rarely go to see a first-run movie, either not having enough time to do so or cringing at the price of a movie ticket -- when waiting until it's available on DVD at a movie-rental shop can allow me to see it at my leisure and cheaper.

Until last Friday, when I ventured to Cottonwood Mall to see "We Are Marshall," I think the last time I went to see a first-run movie was when "The Green Mile" (1999; back in the 20th century) was released.

Let me do my best Roeper-Ebert impression here: Two thumbs up. It's a great depiction of the tragedy that claimed 37 members of the Marshall University football team in 1970, when a plane crash killed 75 people in all. Boosters, some players' parents and coaches were on board and killed instantly when the plane crashed just short of landing in Huntington, W.Va.

What happened next, a revitalization of the football program in time for the 1971 season, thanks to Frank Lengyel (admirably portrayed by Matthew McConaughey) and the NCAA ruling that freshmen at Marshall would be eligible to play.

The official premiere, fittingly, was on Nov. 14 at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, the 36th anniversary of the tragedy.

It would have been a great movie plot to have Marshall turn out to be one of the best teams in the land in 1971.

But this movie is based on reality, and the "Young Thundering Herd" wasn't that good, and wouldn't be, until the 1990s.

Still, the movie shows what happened in the team's first two games of 1971, a road loss and then a thrilling home-field victory over Xavier.

It's a great tribute to a program that has turned out NFL stars such as Byron Leftwich, Chad Pennington and Randy Moss, albeit not his first choice - Moss squandered opportunities at Florida State and Notre Dame before winding up at M.U.

But that's another story, and probably not one destined to be a movie.

I've already recommended the movie to almost everybody I've spoken to since seeing it.

And you can bet it'll be added to my growing sports library of DVDs.

There are a few laughs and probably more tears during its viewing, but it's a great movie nonetheless.

Put it up there with other great sports movies like "Remember the Titans" and "Hoosiers," which also featured the exploits of a first-year coach.

On Monday, I finally found the time to watch my new "Invincible" DVD.

It depicts 30-year-old South Philly bartender Vince Papale's 1976 tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles. Papale played one year of high school football and none in college. First-year Philadelphia Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil, hoping to turn things around at the Vet, holds an open tryout and Papale not only responds, but has enough speed to make the team.

In the movie, he forces a fumble on an Eagles punt in a game against the visiting (and hated) New York Giants, and then recovers the pigskin and hauls it into the end zone for a touchdown.

Papale spent a lot of time on special teams with the Eagles, although he was listed as a wide receiver.

Yeah, it's like Rudy goes to the NFL.

Vermeil said he liked Papale's heart; in a meeting with his coaches as they're deciding who to cut, Vermeil says, he likes Papale because "He's got heart."

"People don't want heart, Dick, they want wins," advises an assistant.

He makes the team anyway. (Of course, if he didn't, they wouldn't have made the movie, unless it was a sequel to "Cocktail," a movie about a bartender.)

But Papale wound up playing three seasons with the Eagles, found himself on a Topps football card in 1977, and finished his storybook career with one catch worth 15 yards.

Mark Wahlberg plays Papale, while Dick Vermiel, in his pre-crying days, is aptly portrayed by Greg Kinnear.

Somehting else special, to me anyway, was hearing references to former Eagles great Tommy McDonald, who I wrote a feature story on last fall, and Frank LeMaster, who's been here to play in Robin Cole's annual Celebrity Golf Classic.

Yeah, go ahead and see this one, too. It's a keeper. I'll give it one thumb up.