Most people hate this rambling, Robert Altman-directed comic strip movie, but I loved it as a kid and I still love it.
Comment
05/26/06
Popeye (1980)
58
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:15
Rotten:11
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist.
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: The classic comic strip and cartoon hero comes to life in Robert Altman's film adaptation of the adventures of the spinach-munching sailor. After he's thrown from his ship during a storm, Popeye... [More]
Starring: Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston, Linda Hunt
Director: Robert Altman
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Reviews for Popeye
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.
06/24/06
A thoroughly charming, immensely appealing mess of a movie, often high-spirited and witty, occasionally pretentious and flat, sometimes robustly funny and frequently unintelligible.
08/30/04
Top CriticPopeye is a sustained eureka.
06/30/03
The fantastically cartoonish look isn’t enough to compensate for the plodding story and overall disinterest I had in the characters.
06/05/04
He 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.
10/23/04
Top CriticIf you strip away the film’s loyalty to its source material, it’s not difficult to see that, in many ways, Popeye is Altman’s comic spin on McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
06/19/03
The plotting of this 1980 feature -- outsider in a hostile environment -- is personal to Altman, though few of the feelings survive the clutter.
04/16/07
Top CriticAltman's job was to convey the spirit of the old cartoons, not dish up some ultraslick Hollywood sitcom fodder. He gets the job done right.
06/23/03
A wacky treat.
02/05/04
I reeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy hated this movie...
07/10/07
Kooky and odd and brilliant in the most warped way imaginable.
05/16/04
A good idea gone down the drain under Altman's spotty direction.
04/16/07
Top CriticIt 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.
04/16/07
Top CriticAltman's live action take on the comic strip sailorman is typically idiosyncratic and wilful, but, sadly, far from being any good.
05/24/03
Top CriticSplendid live-action cartoon from Altman. In need of reassessing.
08/21/03
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.
12/27/04
No review available.
08/22/03
Latest News for Popeye
November 21, 2006:
Auteur Robert Altman Passes Away at 81
Robert Altman, the esteemed and venerable director of "M*A*S*H," "Nashville," and "The Player," died Monday from complications due to cancer. He... More...
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