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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 critic A-Z)
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Somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment 4 Comments
01/01/00
Renata Adler
Renata Adler
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

If you ask me, Kubrick's effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which were made by human hands, are still unsurpassed.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
11/26/01
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

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

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

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

This is the way this ground-breaking monument was meant to be seen: in mind-boggling 70mm.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

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

A celestial alignment of man, medium, and material.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
11/19/01
Tom Block
Tom Block
culturevulture.net

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

Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | comment Comment
04/08/06
Mark Bourne
Mark Bourne
DVDJournal.com

It delivers in every area.

Full Review Source: Mike Bracken's Horror Films | comment Comment
02/13/01
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken's Horror Films

There is simply no substitute for the cinema experience

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Shane Burridge
Shane Burridge
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Une leçon de cinéma par l’un de ses plus grands artisans.

Full Review Source: Panorama | comment Comment
07/27/05
Louis-Jérôme Cloutier
Louis-Jérôme Cloutier
Panorama

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a landmark, science fiction classic, an epic film containing more spectacular imagery than verbal dialogue.

Full Review Source: Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films

The film creates its effects essentially out of visuals and music. It is meditative. It does not cater to us, but wants to inspire us, enlarge us.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 2 Comments
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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

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

2001 compares with, but does not best, previous efforts at science fiction.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 14 Comments
02/13/01
Robert B. Frederick
Robert B. Frederick
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/29/08
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Doesn't just depict a quantum leap forward in human consciousness — it practically requires such a leap, on an individual scale, from the viewer.

Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | comment Comment
07/09/04
Steven D. Greydanus
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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