Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 12
Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2
Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 53,643
Based on the long-running comic strip created by E.C. Segar (and less on the animated cartoons created by Max Fleischer, which were decidedly different in tone and approach), Popeye follows the sailor man with the mighty arms (played by Robin Williams in his first major film role) as he arrives in the seaside community of Sweethaven in search of his long-lost father. Popeye meets and quickly falls for the slender Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall, in the role she was born to play), but Olive's hand has
PG, 1 hr. 54 min.
Action & Adventure, Kids & Family, Musical & Performing Arts, Comedy
Dec 12, 1980 Wide
Jun 24, 2003
Paramount Pictures
All Critics (28) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (12) | DVD (7)
The plotting of this 1980 feature -- outsider in a hostile environment -- is personal to Altman, though few of the feelings survive the clutter.
It is more than faint praise to say that Popeye is far, far better than it might have been, considering the treacherous challenge it presented. But avoiding disaster is not necessarily the same as success.
Top CriticHe takes one of the most artificial and limiting of art forms -- the comic strip -- and raises it to the level of high comedy and high spirits.
A thoroughly charming, immensely appealing mess of a movie, often high-spirited and witty, occasionally pretentious and flat, sometimes robustly funny and frequently unintelligible.
An eccentric take on Popeye and friends.
A lot of it is klutzier than you may remember it being, and it leads to a wretched climax involving the fakest-looking octopus since Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster.
I reeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy hated this movie...
A good idea gone down the drain under Altman's spotty direction.
You wonder how on earth Altman did it; equally often, you feel you are watching a wacky masterpiece, the like of which you've never seen before.
Most people hate this rambling, Robert Altman-directed comic strip movie, but I loved it as a kid and I still love it.
The film's not much chop, but Williams is right at home as the spinach-swallowing sailor
Curious paring of Williams and Altman in a live action adaptation of the famous cartoon. Altman's odd sound techniques are not well suited for the material.
The fantastically cartoonish look isn't enough to compensate for the plodding story and overall disinterest I had in the characters.
Kooky and odd and brilliant in the most warped way imaginable.
A wacky treat.
People have tried to dissuade me into believing that Robert Altman's 1980 adaptation of the beloved character and story of Popeye is nothing more than a pure Hollywood fiasco. While I'm sure that there may be some truth to that, I can't honestly say that I really enjoy it. Sure there's a pace that doesn't work and a
April 22, 2007
Super Reviewer
My god was this bad! It was like watching Carousel if Robin Williams was the main character. It had very little to do with the series of short cartoons. While it does imitate features of a cartoon, Popeye doesn't seem to be what it imitates. The characters are here but the charm isn't. Robin Williams tends to sneak in
March 2, 2011
Super Reviewer
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