BulletPoints: Robin Williams Movie Review Tribute

This was supposed to come out last week, but it didn’t for two fairly solid reasons. One, I wanted to do more movies at once and two I just had a somewhat busy week getting things in order and dealing with distractions. That said, this is our tribute to the late-great Robin Williams! Sadly, I’m still in the process of seeing all his movies. With any luck, I’ll be able to finish my list and get to some for next week. Until then, here’s a quick list of the films I’ve seen and will do short reviews for here and now. It’s a Robin Review episode! Woot! 

Popeye – Good god… what the hell did I watch when I saw this? All respect to Robin, he did a fantastic job trying to bring this character to life. It’s a shame the rest of the movie is pretty much flat-lining the whole way through. This film probably could have been better had it taken more aspects from the original show it’s based on. For example, the Popeye cartoons were only maybe 5 minutes in length for an episode. They were short bursts of action, comedy, and animated adventure. And when it takes 30 sodding minutes to introduce your hero, heroine, and antagonist in a film based on that… yeah… the pacing of that really doesn’t work in the slightest. Not only is it hard to watch just because you’re sitting through scenes of almost nothing happening for a good long while, but none of the other characters really stand out except for Olive… and that’s only because she has to, not because she’s actually that great. One of the few black-eyes on Robin’s record, but certainly he could have done worse.

World According to Garp – Jumping from Popeye to this, you can really see that it was solely the movie that was holding him back before. Garp is a film based on a book about the life of a young man named T.S. Garp who is raised by a woman who, for the most part, hates men. He grows to be a writer, and, interestingly enough, so does his mother. I won’t spoil much for those who haven’t seen it but it does have a fair share of surprises and enjoyably gags. It’s also fun to point out this is Glenn Close’s first movie (or one of her earliest ones). It also has a noticeably fair share of female breasts, if that’s your fancy. If I had to complain about anything, it’d be the heavy-handed foreshadowing that basically puts a big flashing neon sign that says, “This character will die in 20 minutes”. But you get a little Williams comedy, tits, and John Lithgow in drag and that’s got to be worth something… I guess.

The Fisher King – First, I wasn’t aware that Jeff Bridges came unattached from his now rather consistent facial hair. I would have sworn he was born with that beard. But here he is without it and doing a rather fine job I might add. Fisher King starts off rather dark and depressing and kind of dances over the line, debating if it wants to be a depressing movie that makes points about how society treats homeless people or a hopeful and fun movie that teaches friendship and promotes the idea of not judging people because they’re homeless. Interestingly enough, this dance really goes almost to the very end when we get the happy ending we generally expect from pre-Nolan Hollywood. What I was reminded of most in Robin’s performance in this movie was Aladdin and his role of the genie. The manic and hyperactive performance of a character who seemed to just be detached from reality… yeah… that sounds like genie alright. But instead of being a magic creature from a lamp found in a cave… he’s just a dirty man living on the streets who sees little obese fairies telling him what to do.

Aladdin – My first Robin Williams movie and still probably one of my favorite. To think that his performance in this changed the landscape of voice acting in films and TV for years to come. Before him, celebrities of his caliber didn’t really partake in the realm of voice acting. Since him, it’s been a tradition for movies to have at least one or two big-names in the cast. For better or worse, Robin made voice acting and animated movies, by extension, more popular with audiences and production companies and I’d say that’s a net positive… As for the movie itself… It’s fucking great. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and check it out because it’s a Disney classic you clod.

Jumanji – People think that a movie about robots turning into cars and fighting for energy is dumb. People think that a story about a hyperactive hedgehog fighting an obese scientist who enslaves animals is dumb. But here we have a story about a board game of unknown origin that basically curses players with a jungle-theme until one of the said players is capable of beating the game. Unlike a good number of Robin’s movies until this point, he plays basically the straight man of the film in a role very similar to the likes of Brendan Fraser from The Mummy, the big-angry surrogate father to a group of characters caught in a situation well beyond their understanding. It’s silly, but the visual effects were surprisingly good when this came out and a lot of imagination was packed into a very simple and, again, silly idea. It’s not for everyone but it has CGI monkeys causing mass chaos, and that’s A-Okay in my book.

Dead Poets’ Society – Yeah… it’s pretty good. To keep things short and simple, it’s an inspiring film that many, if not most, Robin Williams fans turn to as an example of one of his best works. It’s hilarious to think that some of his best movies are ones where he isn’t even the central focus of the story, but just a supporting role to the main event. Regardless, this really felt like more of an ensemble cast, relying on the strength of the group of characters/actors putting together a performance and having excellent synergy. And it really feels like Robin is the kind of actor who was capable of pulling groups of actors together to do just that without much problem. Also features Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. Wilson of House MD) in one of his roles as a younger gentleman and he’s quite talented here as well.

Man of the Year – I knew nothing much about this movie going into it. But to see it as a satire of American politics that is not only somewhat true, but also follows the same political mindset I have (ie parties are dumb, government is corrupt, etc) was a little shocking. Even more so is that it had a great cast of comedians keeping the plot alive such as Christopher Walken and Louis Black. Is it a great movie, not especially, as it is fairly predictable a straight-forward. But it’s still fun and it’s another excuse for Williams to do stand-up in a movie, just like Good Morning, Vietnam and I don’t think anyone is going to complain about that.

That’s all for this week’s edition of BulletPoints. Check back next week for more Robin Williams movies. I want to also send a special shout out to Billy Crystal for his wonderful tribute to Robin Williams at this year's Emmy Awards. He will be missed. 

Also we’ll be having a review of Legend Of Korra: Book 3 later this week along with a review of Telltale’s Walking Dead Season 2. And, of course, don’t forget to check out our Game On: Dokapon Kingdom and Game On: Power Hour videos on YouTube as well.