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2001 - A Space Odyssey Reviews

1968 DVD Certificate U.gif
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 28,568 members

A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission while hiding the truth from the public. Later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object--but something .. Read more

Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Director Stanley Kubrick
Genres Sci-Fi/Fantasy

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  • Critics' reviews (4) of 2001 - A Space Odyssey

    View all
  • 5 stars out of 5

    This seminal sci-fi work from Stanley Kubrick is now considered by many to be less a supreme piece of cinema than an interesting, innovative product of the 1960s. But the memorable celluloid images still strongly resonate, such as the giant, vulnerable foetus floating through space and the tribe of apes painfully putting two and two together. It is Kubrick's haunting, stylised combination of music and visuals that gives 2001 its eerie, mesmerising quality, but even its most devoted disciples are hard pressed to tell you what it's actually about, and, as a slice of philosophy on how we all got started and where we ultimately go, the movie has little credence. However, it's a must-see if you never have, even though its visual impact is seriously hampered by the small screen.

    • Radio Times
  • 4 stars out of 4

    A lengthy montage of brilliant model work and obscure symbolism, this curiosity slowly gathered commercial momentum and came to be cherished by those who used it as a trip without LSD.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • "...A significant landmark in the history of cinema. It's also, as the original posters proclaimed, 'the ultimate trip'..." -- 5 out of 5 stars

    • Total Film
  • Most helpful members' reviews (3) of 2001 - A Space Odyssey

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  • 31 out of 46 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    The 1984 of films

    A fundamental film. The computer HAL (one letter removed from IBM) is the villain, and is masterfully chilling. Very much ahead of its time and one of those films that it is a cultural necessity to see.

      • A customer from Acton, London
  • 18 out of 26 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Birth, Death, Re-birth.....geddit ??

    This film is simply a masterpiece.

    Any film that can explain evolution of man.....death of man....and rebirth of a new species in little over 2 hours deserves 5 stars.

    C'mon even a film as poor and insignificant as Pearl Harbour lasts 3 hours........3 looooong hours.

    Go to http://www.kubrick2001.com/2001. html

    for a layman's guide.

      • The Goose from England
  • 19 out of 30 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    A long, long film

    What a pile of pants. I'm not going to jump on the whole 'best film since sliced bread' bandwagon just because it was done by Stanley Kubrick - this film had me bored rigid. The computer takes over; great. That's it. Story told. Plus the first 20 mins or so were .... well, just bonkers. Sorry, but it was rubbish. I almost didn't finish watching it, but kept thinking it might get better. It didn't.

      • Ben from Cirencester
  • Most recent members' reviews (2) of 2001 - A Space Odyssey

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  • 12 out of 15 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    can someone explain it to me?

    The last time I saw this film was when it first came out. I had hoped that in viewing it again all these years later, and seeing it through older eyes, that I would appreciate it more, and be rather less baffled by parts of it. This was not the case, unfortunately.

    The only thing I really enjoyed was the music, in particular The Blue Danube waltz (one of my favourite pieces of music) as fitted so perfectly with the scene it accompanied.

      • juthu from London
  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Best film ever, (technically)

    Lets not worry too much about what it's about, although maybe it's not as deep as everyone likes to think it is, or maybe it is? Thats not really the point. Or is it?

    Hmmmm, anyway...

    This film is incredible.

    It was made in '68. Thats 1968! Nearly a decade before star wars (which is also amazing by the way - I'm not some sort of snob or anything).

    And just look at it! It has the best special effects of any film ever. The space ships look real. They move as they would in space (i assume). You see people walking and jogging anti-gravity style.

    It is the future, and also the past,

    It kind of makes sence, leonard rossiter's in it, the tension, the atmosphere, hal, the soundtrack...

    Just watch it.

      • iChristoff from Cambridge
  • 31 out of 46 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    The 1984 of films

    A fundamental film. The computer HAL (one letter removed from IBM) is the villain, and is masterfully chilling. Very much ahead of its time and one of those films that it is a cultural necessity to see.

      • A customer from Acton, London
  • 18 out of 26 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Birth, Death, Re-birth.....geddit ??

    This film is simply a masterpiece.

    Any film that can explain evolution of man.....death of man....and rebirth of a new species in little over 2 hours deserves 5 stars.

    C'mon even a film as poor and insignificant as Pearl Harbour lasts 3 hours........3 looooong hours.

    Go to http://www.kubrick2001.com/2001. html

    for a layman's guide.

      • The Goose from England
  • 19 out of 30 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    A long, long film

    What a pile of pants. I'm not going to jump on the whole 'best film since sliced bread' bandwagon just because it was done by Stanley Kubrick - this film had me bored rigid. The computer takes over; great. That's it. Story told. Plus the first 20 mins or so were .... well, just bonkers. Sorry, but it was rubbish. I almost didn't finish watching it, but kept thinking it might get better. It didn't.

      • Ben from Cirencester
  • 15 out of 18 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    THE ONLY REALISTIC SPACE FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN

    This DVD of 2001 has been done from a virgin print and cannot be faulted in terms of picture quality. This version is full length time-wise, but the original side screen images for the Cinerama are not present anywhere on this disc. I have heard they have been lost.

    The most noticable thing about this film is it's so true to life. The spaceships are graceful and slow to alter course...... just like the real thing. You do not hear the sound of the engines as there is no sound in the vacuum of outer space.

    Even the journey part of the film is supremely realistic in that it is long and tedious.

    All this realism helps to get the audience into the same frame of mind that the astronaut will be in when the final climax occurs, and makes it far more dramatic than it would be otherwise

    Once you have seen this film you will never forget it.

      • CyberDan from London, England
  • 12 out of 13 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Great visuals and music

    Its a tad slow and sometimes theres no sound at various situations. The story is not your usual protagonist, a problem and its solution. The canvas is quite literally huge and the timescale is beyond human imagination.

    Stanley Kubrick captivates the viewers.

    Its sad to see today in 2005 that we havent reached where we might have reached in 2001 as predicted long back

      • Arun from Liverpool, UK
  • 12 out of 14 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 0 stars

    Switched off ater 10/15 minutes

    Couldn't get past the first ten/fifteen minutes. I found this so boring I switched off.

  • 12 out of 15 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    can someone explain it to me?

    The last time I saw this film was when it first came out. I had hoped that in viewing it again all these years later, and seeing it through older eyes, that I would appreciate it more, and be rather less baffled by parts of it. This was not the case, unfortunately.

    The only thing I really enjoyed was the music, in particular The Blue Danube waltz (one of my favourite pieces of music) as fitted so perfectly with the scene it accompanied.

      • juthu from London
  • 11 out of 12 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    visual brilliance

    Here's Kubrick at his very best, sometimes even logic is turned inside out and figuring out how on earth did he make such a film in the 60s is more frustrating than astro physics. An intense film, it's deeper than you think, and you need to understand it skin deep in order to clarify its essence. A ballet of machines, frames finer than a Caravaggio canvas, if you're a genuine film buff then here's your champagne in fine crystal.

      • bumbolla from UK
  • 12 out of 17 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    highly overrated

    This movie is just so painfully slow and dull that anyone born after it was made will want to keep their finger close to the fast-forward button.

    Sure, it's artistic, in the same way that being boiled slowly in a vat of multicoloured paint might be called an artistic experience.

    I usually enjoy old sci-fi movies but I found 2001 horribly tiresome.

      • David Kelly from London, UK
  • 11 out of 13 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    You'll love it or hate it

    Absolutley fantastic- for me this is what the big screen is all about. The visual are brilliant and the film for me has the under tones of a psychological horror. Some of the sound used in the film is extremely harrowing. If you watch this film you will either get bored after the first 10 minutes or you'll already start to like it. If your after a beginning a middle and an end with cheesy lines and loads of space action then this most defintley is NOT for you

      • A customer from London
  • Critics' reviews (4)

  • 5 stars out of 5

    This seminal sci-fi work from Stanley Kubrick is now considered by many to be less a supreme piece of cinema than an interesting, innovative product of the 1960s. But the memorable celluloid images still strongly resonate, such as the giant, vulnerable foetus floating through space and the tribe of apes painfully putting two and two together. It is Kubrick's haunting, stylised combination of music and visuals that gives 2001 its eerie, mesmerising quality, but even its most devoted disciples are hard pressed to tell you what it's actually about, and, as a slice of philosophy on how we all got started and where we ultimately go, the movie has little credence. However, it's a must-see if you never have, even though its visual impact is seriously hampered by the small screen.

    • Radio Times
  • 4 stars out of 4

    A lengthy montage of brilliant model work and obscure symbolism, this curiosity slowly gathered commercial momentum and came to be cherished by those who used it as a trip without LSD.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • "...A significant landmark in the history of cinema. It's also, as the original posters proclaimed, 'the ultimate trip'..." -- 5 out of 5 stars

    • Total Film
  • A characteristically pessimistic account of human aspiration from Kubrick, this tripartite sci-fi look at... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out

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Rating breakdown

28,568 Member ratings
  • 100
5,320
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3,143
  • 80
4,706
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3,933
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3,899
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2,316
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1,830
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1,336
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1,363
  • 10
722

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