Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Popeye is a super-strong, spinach-scarfing sailor man who's searching for his father. During a storm that wrecks his ship, Popeye washes ashore and winds up rooming at the Oyl household, where he meets Olive. Before he can win her heart, he must first contend with Olive's fiancé, Bluto.
Robert Altman's live-action Popeye is an oddity — a big-budget musical adaptation of the comic strip that mixes charm and chaos in equal measure. The plot is thin and rambling, never quite building to a satisfying narrative arc, and the ending feels rushed and chaotic rather than triumphant. Robin Williams is physically committed and genuinely embodies the character, and Shelley Duvall is uncannily perfect as Olive Oyl, lifting the acting above average. The Sweethaven set design and practical production are impressive, and Altman's loose, overlapping-dialogue style gives the film a distinctive texture. Harry Nilsson's songs are quirky and memorable if not universally beloved. The film earns novelty points for being a genuinely strange, auteur-driven studio musical that doesn't quite resemble anything else, but it's too messy and unfocused to be considered a success overall.