Word: robin
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ALMOST FIFTY YEARS after the first Popeye cartoon, director Robert Altman and cartoonist-author-screenwriter Jules Feiffer have adapted the sailor to another medium--that of the musical-comedy feature film--using real people instead of animated figures. When such heavies team up with a talent like manic Robin Williams to interpret a piece of American folklore, the result ought to transcend the original material. Instead, they produce a faithful if restrained reproduction of the cartoon version--and somewhat of a disappointment...
THIS PLOT PROVIDES the framework for the usual action--Popeye slugging his way through run-ins with Bluto and other assorted ruffians. The fight scenes underscore the limitations of the premise. Clever camera and stunt work not-withstanding, human beings simply cannot contort themselves the way cartoon figures can. Robin Williams can only cock his wrist a couple of times for the famous twister punch. As a result, the slapstick gains in immediacy but loses the necessary hyperbole...
Shelley Duvall makes a fine Olive Oyl lookalike, but Popeye, as played by Robin Williams, appears to be undergoing an identity crisis far beyond the powers of spinach cure. As a result, his moral force -and he was once one of the great comic-strip exemplars of righteousness tied to a short fuse-appears sicklied o'er with the pale cast of self-absorption. The rest of the characters-excepting Swee'Pea (played by Altman's grandchild, Wesley Ivan Hurt)-are blurs of lost innocence...
...Crimson tried to run out the clock by settling into a stall, New Hampshire guard Robin Dixon intercepted a Fleming to Dixon pass and drove the length of the court for an easy two points and a 79-78 Wildcat lead. Following the inbounds pass, Mannix manuevered to the left side of the key and let loose with the game-winning shot...
...ever, but even the coke commercial kid can't be a one man defense. The "Steel Curtain"--Pittsburgh's defensive line that has given new neaning to the term Cold War--is showing signs of rust. The line averages over thirty years of age, and the comparatively youthful lineman Robin Cole has been out injured most of the season...