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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 date)
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Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
tomato
5/5

Rob Gonsalves

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: | comment Comment | Sep., 29 2008 02:38 PM

eFilmCritic.com

tomato
4/4

Rob Humanick

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Nov., 19 2007 09:42 PM

Slant Magazine

tomato
5/5

Chris Barsanti

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: | comment Comment | Nov., 08 2007 07:48 AM

Filmcritic.com

tomato
5/5

Prepare to be dazzled.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 02 2007 06:37 PM

Channel 4 Film

tomato

Jonathan Rosenbaum

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 08 2007 05:28 PM

Chicago Reader

tomato

Dave Kehr

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 08 2007 05:27 PM

Chicago Reader

tomato

Geoff Andrew

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: | comment Comment | Jun., 24 2006 03:39 AM

Time Out

tomato

Mark Bourne

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 08 2006 04:02 PM

DVDJournal.com

tomato

Dan Jardine

What else can such a film be called but ART?

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 30 2006 01:37 PM

Cinemania

tomato
4/4

Stefan Birgir Stefansson

Still one of the best

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 29 2006 11:12 AM

sbs.is

tomato
4/4

Phil Villarreal

Part space opera, part cinematic symphony and part horror story, the film is a shape-shifting painting.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 20 2006 06:40 AM

Arizona Daily Star

tomato
A-

Emanuel Levy

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: | comment Comment | Aug., 13 2005 11:45 AM

EmanuelLevy.Com

tomato
A+

Louis-Jérôme Cloutier

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 27 2005 01:48 PM

Panorama

tomato
4/4

Wesley Lovell

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 11 2005 07:42 AM

Oscar Guy

tomato
A+

Jeffrey Overstreet

2001 speaks by monolith -- that is, by image, metaphor, poetry, and suggestion.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 15 2005 10:38 PM

Looking Closer

tomato
A

Steven D. Greydanus

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 09 2004 06:40 AM

Decent Films Guide

N/R

Matt Zoller Seitz

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 20 2004 05:18 PM

New York Press

tomato
4.5/5

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 30 2003 05:14 PM

TV Guide's Movie Guide

tomato
4/4

Steven Snyder

Those who love it as passionately as I do realize this film is about more than dialogue, plot, or space ships. Its uniqueness permits it to transcend the ordinary, becoming a movie not about one human but the entire human species.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 05 2003 08:49 AM

Zertinet Movies

N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 23 2002 08:27 AM

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 
 
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