POPEYE (1980) ** Sweet Pea the baby is very funny and silly and cute and good, and the fear of the villagers is both palpable and poetic. Somehow the social commentaries inherent in the comparison aren't exactly what you're looking for in a Robin Williams movie about Popeye the ultraviolent sailor man. The key is in the spinach-Popeye doesn't know about it, doesn't like it, won't have it...and it's what turns the comic on. Some of Robin's physical humor is very funny, and Shelley Duvall's even funnier (and her singing! yea!), Robert Altman's angles of Malta and a rundown town so sad and over-taxed that you have to have flags up to even know it's supposed to be America are artistic beyond the milieu, but with no center there's nowhere to go. It's not even like a better picture was lurking in there and they put it together wrong, and it's not exactly like throwing artistic pearls at a swine of a script/concept, it's more like serving a swine rubberized nuts and bolts to eat. That's kind of unusual but the pig of a scenario won't know what to do with it.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!