Customer Reviews
A Movie That Pleases No One.... 
2008-02-14
...except die-hard Robert Altman apologists who could justify the great director's colonoscopy as great cinema if a video camera had been deployed.
I saw this movie in 1980 with a group of friends, anxious to see the same wit & spirit of MASH applied to the Popeye cartoon world. I had to argue to everyone to stay for the entire stultifying mess.
I couldn't find anything here to please anyone.
Kids will be bored. Adults will be frustrated. Although the cast tries hard and the production values and scenery are topnotch, this movie just LAYS THERE. By the end, I was wondering, "What exactly is Altman rubbing our faces in? Only Ken Russell could gleefully hoodwink the moviegoing public with a lame offering worse than POPEYE."
I don't believe that it's been a national tragedy that Robert Altman never won the Best Director from the Academy Awards. For every NASHVILLE, there was a POPEYE. For every MASH, there was O.C. AND STIGGS (how many of you have even heard of that one? What does that tell you?). When I read that Altman openly mocked Louise Fletcher's sign-language acceptance speech at the Oscars to her face (she was signing her love and thanks to her deaf parents after her win for ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST), I pretty much thought Altman was just another ego-driven jerk and honestly lost interest in his career.
And his films certainly haven't been enough to lure me back.
So if you're some pretentious film-snob parent berating your kids for not liking the vapid and lifeless POPEYE...give them a break. It's not good.
Popeye 
2008-02-11
I absolutely love this movie. It is a bit on the corny side, but their is an underlying lesson of love and the importance of family.
Great underrated comedy! 
2008-01-17
A squinty-eyed big armed sailor named Popeye (Robin Williams) arrives in a seaside town called Sweet Haven for a home and in search of his long lost Pappy (Ray Waltson). There he meets a hamburger addicted man named Wimpy (Pauly Dooley) and a skinny woman named Olive Oyle (Shelly Devuall) who is the fiancee to town bully Bluto (Paul L. Smith), she falls for Popeye's charm and they also adapt a baby boy named SweetPea. Bluto wants to take his revenge on the town since Olive dumped Bluto as Popeye has many adventures especially in trying to find his father and stopping Bluto.
Very entertaining and underrated live-action musical adaptation of the beloved comic strip character from director Robert Altman. Robin Williams and Shelly Devuall were perfect in the roles they were meant to play, i think this movie is faithful to some of the classic cartoons and comic strips. It does have a handful of nice musical tunes by Harry Nielsen especially "I'm Mean" and has a great playful sense of fun thanks to the excellent performance of Willaims as Popeye and the direction of Robert Altman.
This DVD contains no extras at all and not even a trailer but does have a good widescreen transfer.
Wonderful Movie 2007-10-10
Robin Williams and the entire cast are all excellent in this movie!It is a good family movie.My ten year old nephew just saw it and had to get a copy for himself!
Not too bad 
2007-08-28
I really enjoyed this film as a child but I think the reason it wasn't all that popular through the years is because it was a musical when the comic strip and cartoons were not.
Robin Williams is great and Shelly Duvall was the perfect physicall choice of the day, but she is a bit anoying.
The film takes too long to get going and when it does it does not have nearly enough action, as the strips and cartoons did.
It's still a good family movie.
An underrated film 2008-06-30
Yes. Robert Altman never got to make the big ending that he wanted. But this film still has a sweetness and charm that stays with you. It also does an amazing job of emulating the early Fleischer Brothers Cartoons of the 1930's and translating them into live action. I will always wonder "what might have been" had the studio not pulled the plug on this film (shame on them). But I still really like this movie.
Love It or Hate It...Who Cares? 2008-06-14
Sure, POPEYE doesn't fulfill conventional expectations, but Altman chose (perhaps as a snarky contrarian to Disney and Paramount, his financiers) to deliberately produce a film that retained the context of the original Segar cartoons and the Dada antics of the Fleischer cartoons at the expense of making a fun, forgetful, and irrelevant cookie-cutter film for the whole family.
Jules Feiffer, the film's screenwriter and one of the great keepers of the Segar/Popeye flame (and someone who understands the iconic value of Popeye better than anyone I can think of), thought Altman restored the spirit of Segar's original strips, saving it, effectively, from the decades of mainstream mediocrity that Popeye suffered from, largely as a result of the patriotic exploitation of the character in the wake of World War II.
I watch and greatly appreciate this film for what Altman is doing with the Popeye "legend,'" and not for its (lack of) entertainment value (which, ipso facto, makes me an "Altman apologist." Yeah, right. Whatever).
Let's put one ignorant myth to rest, shall we? POPEYE was not a bomb. This tall tale was promulgated by a few egomaniacs in the industry who wanted to bury both the film and Altman's career. It did have a problematic production history, as did dozens of films from this era, a time when the studios were going through a major upheaval and wound up playing it extremely safe in the 1980s. Altman (along with nearly all of the great or at least interesting auteurs of the 1970s) became persona non grata practically overnight.
But let's not let history get in the way of opinion...
Cinematic Spinach 2008-06-12
The late Robert Altman was a cinematic auteur, portraying ordinary people's ordinary lives, be it during the Korean War ("MASH") or at a country music fest ("Nashville"),or even at a British country estate ("Gosford Park"). In "Popeye", Altman attempted to bring the beloved comic books to life. It was a change of pace for him. He was going from arty indie movies to a mainstream one.
"Popeye" was an offscreen disaster. There were problems during production in Malta, and it shows. Onscreen, "Popeye" doesn't work either. Robin Williams is obnoxious as the spinach-scarfing sailor. Shelley Duvall is annoying as Olive Oyl. The plot is oddly timely- the people are suffering from burdensome taxes thanks to the unseen Commodore and his enforcer, Bluto. Instead of voting Reagan into office, they have Popeye come to the rescue. There's a plot that makes sense to the kids! In the meantime, Olive has a psychic infant in tow who may or may not be Popeye's progeny (Popeye procreating-ugh) The movie ends with fisticuffs between Popeye and Bluto.
"Popeye" was a cinematic disaster. Altman realized he had a tin ear with children's movies, and resumed making serious dramas for the grown-ups. Malta forgave and forget. Luckily, Malta is now remembered for the Ggantija Temples (the most ancient free-standing structures in the world,monolithic temples dating back to the Neolithic era), "Final Justice"-a MST3K classic starring Joe Don Baker, and Jason Bateman.
Quick and easy 2008-04-16
I wanted a movie that I have had trouble finding in stores. I bought it. I got it in about a week. I'm very satisfied.
Still a Fun Movie After All These Years 2008-02-24
I loved this movie from Day 1 and had made a poor VHS copy from HBO back when they ran it. I was delighted to see that Amazon carried the DVD. It arrived the other day, and I watched it last night. I've never been able to understand the critics' total panning of this film or Robin Williams' apparent shame over his performance. I think the film is fun and Robin's performance very good, along with that of the other members of the cast. Some accolades must go to the set designers,costume designers and, of course, Malta for beautiful scenery. The setting, costumes and characters are surreal, as they perhaps should be when translated from a cartoon. The songs are catchy and humorous, as when Olive sings about Bluto and can say in his favor only that he's large. The satirical "Sweet Sweethaven" is humorous as well. I'm just glad that I checked Amazon to learn that a DVD of "Popeye" was available and that I bought it!
