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Movies / On DVD / 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey

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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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Reviews Counted:50

Fresh:48

Rotten:2

Average Rating:8.8/10

Consensus: One of the most influential of all sci-fi films -- and one of the most controversial -- Stanley Kubrick's 2001 is a delicate, poetic meditation on the ingenuity -- and folly -- of mankind.

Runtime: 2 hrs 39 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis: A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government (while hiding the situation from the public) sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission. Eighteen... A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government (while hiding the situation from the public) sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission. Eighteen months later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object--but on this trip something goes terribly wrong. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Director and (with Arthur C. Clarke) co-screenwriter Stanley Kubrick has created a visual and aural spectacle that stands as one of the greatest achievements ever put on celluloid. The film begins with the "Dawn of Man" segment, about the evolution of apes, and then ventures into the future, taking a look at what the world might be like in the first year of the 21st century. Kubrick's film is a triumph of technological storytelling, with stunning sets and a brilliant, overwhelming soundtrack. Long dialogue-free scenes sparkle with indelible images backed by powerful orchestral music, culminating in an unforgettable, inscrutable tale of birth and rebirth, human evolution and artificial intelligence, the past and the future. [More]

Starring: Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter

Starring: Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Robert Beatty, Douglas Rain

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Oct 23, 2007

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Reviews for 2001: A Space Odyssey

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
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Prepare to be dazzled.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
10/02/07
Channel 4 Film

A beautiful, confounding picture that had half the audience cheering and the other half snoring.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/30/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Its triumph lies in its scope of cinematic splendour and the attempt to marry some of man's most beautiful music to the infinite mystery of space.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/01/00
Almar Haflidason
Almar Haflidason
BBC

Awesome, influential, mind-blowing, cool, obsessional, pretentious -- 2001 is all of these.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/11/01
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine

Its intelligent attempt at exploring human development is as relevant today - long after the date the movie's climactic events are set - as when it was released in 1968.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

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.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
11/08/07
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

It could be the greatest freak-out of all time.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

What else can such a film be called but ART?

Full Review Source: Cinemania | comment Comment
03/30/06
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Cinemania

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

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/08/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If you can surrender to it, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is a mind-shaper.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
07/12/02
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

It's a film based on self-discovery and intellect and contemplation.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

One of the most mysterious, talked about, and intellectually stimulating films of all time.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
07/30/02
Derek Smith
Derek Smith
Apollo Guide

[Retains] its artistic magnificence after more than 30 years.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
11/02/01
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As close to perfection as one movie can be.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

The most influential sci-fi film ever made, 2001 caused culture shock when released, forever changing the conventions, style, and prestige of the previously debased genre

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
08/13/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

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.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Yup, you guessed it -- a religious experience.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment 1 Comment
11/21/01
Glenn Lovell
Glenn Lovell
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A cold, majestic motion picture, a movie that seeks to remind us of the vastness of space and our relatively insignificant place in it.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment 1 Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Pure unadulterated sci-fi and there's nothing like it and probably never will be again.

Full Review Source: Sci-Fi Movie Page | comment Comment
01/01/00
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page

It expresses the hope that we'll soon be done with being idiotic ape creatures and can look forward to superior incarnations.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
07/11/02
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
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