2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

All Critics (57) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (2) | DVD (34)

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is some sort of great film, and an unforgettable endeavor. Technically and imaginatively, what he put into it is staggering.

January 14, 2013

Penelope Gilliatt

New Yorker

Top Critic

The film's projections of the cold war and antiquated product placements may look quaint now, but the poetry is as hard-edged and full of wonder as ever.

May 8, 2007 Full Review | Comments (2)

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

It was a freshening attitude then, though its long-term effects haven't been all to the good.

May 8, 2007 Full Review | Comments (6)

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

For all the essential coldness of Kubrick's vision, it demands attention as superior sci-fi, simply because it's more concerned with ideas than with Boy's Own-style pyrotechnics.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Top Critic

It is an extraordinary, obsessive, beautiful work of art.

July 20, 2002 Full Review | Comments (2)

Michael Wilmington

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

Yup, you guessed it -- a religious experience.

November 21, 2001 Full Review | Comments (2)

Glenn Lovell

San Jose Mercury News

Top Critic

Matched Kubrick's photographic eye to a story about watching, transformed him into a director of the epic, and made one giant leap in sci-fi cinema that's never been matched.

January 12, 2012 Full Review

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the greatest films of all time and it is the director's most profound and confounding exploration of humanity's relationship to technology, violence, sexuality and social structures.

June 3, 2011 Full Review | Comments (8)

Thomas Caldwell

Cinema Autopsy

Perhaps the beauty of 2001 is appreciating that some of the best stories are the ones that are half-told.

September 16, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Phil Hall

Film Snobbery

With his virtuosic adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel, Stanley Kubrick invented the modern science fiction film.

September 3, 2010 Full Review | Comments (6)

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece is still relevant.

August 26, 2010 Full Review

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Kubrick's film not only changed the way I viewed film, but the way I experienced art and life

July 23, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

Dan Jardine

Cinemania

Kubrick set out to make "the proverbial good science-fiction film," but he came out the other side with something far more ornery and profound.

September 29, 2008 Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

My God, it's full of stars: a fitting DVD package for the greatest film ever made.

November 19, 2007 Full Review

Rob Humanick

Slant Magazine

Central to the profundity of the film is the notion that few things are more meaningful than a child's first steps, the emotive impact of this scenario manifest in every one of the film's dizzying set pieces, albeit multiplied to epic proportions.

November 19, 2007 Full Review

Rob Humanick

Slant Magazine

2001: A Space Odyssey is an undeniable masterpiece and one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever committed to film

November 13, 2007 Full Review

Bill Gibron

DVD Verdict

2001 certainly is a colossal bore, unless you're on its wavelength, in which case it's one of the greatest films of all time.

November 8, 2007 Full Review | Comments (17)

Chris Barsanti

Filmcritic.com

...take any frame at random from the film and you could hang it on your wall. (HD DVD Edition)

October 29, 2007 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Prepare to be dazzled.

October 2, 2007 Full Review

Film4

It has reached the status of Art, meaning that it's going to go on provoking strong opinions.

April 8, 2006 Full Review | Comments (2)

Mark Bourne

DVDJournal.com

Home video can't compete with giant wrap-around screens, but Warner's new '2000 digital master' edition offers the best substitute so far.

April 8, 2006 Full Review

Mark Bourne

DVDJournal.com

What else can such a film be called but ART?

March 30, 2006 Full Review

Dan Jardine

Cinemania

• 1. Bowman: Open the pod bay doors please, HAL.
  – Submitted by Dutch E (2 months ago)
• 1. HAL 9000: [as he is being shut down] Good afternoon... gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000... computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant [voice becomes lower & slower] in Urbana, Illinois... on the 12th of January 1992. [voice becomes even more lower & slower] My instructor was Mr. Langley... and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.
  – Submitted by David E (4 months ago)
• 1. HAL 9000: [to Dave] This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
  – Submitted by Jacob H (7 months ago)
• 1. Dr. Heywood Floyd: I'm really not at liberty to discuss this.
  – Submitted by John H (8 months ago)
• 1. Poole: I've got a bad feeling about it.
  – Submitted by Vicky S (9 months ago)
• 1. Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
  2. HAL 9000: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
  – Submitted by Vicky S (9 months ago)