Altman's naturalism and the unreal subject matter that makes Popeye so interesting and unusual... a genuinely original atmosphere.

| Jul 26, 2022

Despite the evidently affectionate reproductions, as it were, by Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall as Popeye and his girl, Olive Oyl, and some loyal support, I don't think this comes off at all; but then, I have no fond memory of the originals.

| Jun 17, 2022

Popeye may be uneven and at times wilful, like many Altman films. But it is still very much the enjoyable fable it should be.

| Jun 17, 2022

One succumbs to a state of glazed indifference. The fault is not in the performances by Williams and Duvall, but rather, I suspect, in Altman's refusal to allow any movie star to violate the one-dimensional texture he's created.

| Jun 17, 2022

Being immersed for nearly two hours in the claustrophobic comic strip world of Popeye is like being trapped in a stalled elevator or a doomed submarine with raving lunatics without fresh air.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 16, 2022

A flawed extravagance, but if you can survive its stumbling pace, its mumbling actors and its dreadful songs, you will eventually experience a charming, unique fantasy world quite unlike anything you've seen before.

| Jun 16, 2022

Nobody could actively dislike Popeye, but that's scarcely the kind of apology anyone should be making for an Altman film.

| Jun 16, 2022

When they return to the plot, it all gets laborious, and leaves adult audiences to explain it away as a children's film; though children, equally, are as likely to disown it.

| Jun 16, 2022

[I]t turned out to be one of the most wonderfully bizarre family films of its time and holds up beautifully today.

| Dec 10, 2020

Those who can get on its wavelength will appreciate its eccentricities; those who cannot will find its whimsy the equivalent of waterboarding.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 5, 2020

Some delight in its comic revelry (me), while most look back on it with distain (just about everyone else). ... in the 40th anniversary of Popeye, bursting with nearly 30 minutes of bonus material and a display that looks like it ate its spinach.

| Dec 4, 2020

Without the frenetic wordplay that made him a breakout star, [Robin Williams] revealed an even deeper talent: he convincingly portrayed a tragic figure searching for his pappy.

| Oct 19, 2020

The soundtrack is the one place where it seems to have ended up as exactly the film it set out to be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2019

It is evident that Robert Altman has crafted a painstaking, serious, and exemplary movie.

| Aug 21, 2019

Reputation be damned, Popeye is a wonderful movie, beguiling and deeply strange. It's also a stealth remake: McCabe for kids.

| Jul 31, 2015

An eccentric take on Popeye and friends.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2011

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."

| Original Score: C- | Feb 21, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 4, 2007

The plotting of this 1980 feature -- outsider in a hostile environment -- is personal to Altman, though few of the feelings survive the clutter.

| Apr 16, 2007

A good idea gone down the drain under Altman's spotty direction.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 16, 2007