Film critic Linda Cook reviews "The Odyssey"

[00:00:00]Of course, we usually talk movies on Friday, but it's a special occasion today.

[00:00:05]>> to talk about this movie because it's a phenomenon. Now >> really is. That's Linda Cook. She is sharing one of the most anticipated movies with us now in theaters. Two words, The Odyssey.

[00:00:16]>> Odyssey. And you know, it's been Well, you know how old I am. It's been a long, long time since I even thought about this narrative poem that may or may not have been written by one person. Really no one this this is so old. Uh that no one really knows, you know, did Homer did one person write this? Was it a group of people? How did this come to be? But however it came to be, this narrative piece of remarkable piece of literature uh translated from the Greek has been with us for so many, many thousands of years.

[00:00:50]And talk about staying power, right?

[00:00:53]>> Yeah.

[00:00:53]>> Um and I think Christopher Nolan's movie has that same staying power. Um maybe 50 years from now people will they'll say, "Oh, yeah, you know, Matt Damon, he was an old-timey actor." It won't matter because this movie will become a classic, too, not unlike the narrative that it's based on. Um this is about, of course, uh set after the Trojan War. We do have flashbacks, too. And the idea is that a man named uh Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, is trying to get home when he runs into all these challenges. You believe they're happening. Uh whether it's a witch named Circe or the sirens that he uh that affect your hearing. The word siren came from this poem, by the way, um which is kind of interesting. So much of this has carried over over the years. There is action here. There is romance. There is the idea of home, the idea of how people act and whether they are kind. It is There's so much here to see. And what's cool about this film, you can see it in, you know, regular uh settings. You can see it in 35 mm at the Last Picture House. You can see it uh Some places have it in 70 mm. It was filmed in with IMAX cameras, so in the IMAX, it's incredible. This is truly a spectacle. It is almost 3 hours long. I kind of dreaded that when I went to see it. I was sort of tired and I thought, "Am I going to be able to stay awake?"

[00:02:27]There was no problem, and I didn't feel 1 second of this go by. I was immersed in this. Uh wonderful actors, Tom Holland, Zendaya. I I mean, I won't go into the cast because we'd be here all day.

[00:02:41]It's wonderful. It's a masterpiece. And Christopher Nolan, this has been his a project in the works for a long, long time for him. Finally, it's here. I haven't talked to a single person who's seen it who didn't love it and want to go back.

[00:02:54]>> Wonderful stuff. So, the So, this is a four star.

[00:02:56]>> Four out of four stars for me. This is, you know, come Oscar time, we're going to hear a lot more about this movie. But it deserves to be seen on the big screen.

[00:03:04]>> Yeah, certainly. Maybe even IMAX if you can if you can make that happen. I I do get uh freshman year English vibes off of this.

[00:03:12]>> it's been a long time for me, and I remembered it. I remembered these pieces of the narrative as the story went along, and I thought, "That's just how it should look." So, [snorts] um this is not Ray Harryhausen stuff. Mr. Harryhausen did great special effects uh early on in filmdom's history. Now, we have the way CGI should be used.

[00:03:33]>> Very, very interesting. All right, Linda, thanks so much.

[00:03:35]>> Thank you.

[00:03:36]>> All right, and you can read Linda's full movie reviews on our website, ourquadcities.com.