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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]

Reviews for 2001: A Space Odyssey

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Prepare to be dazzled.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
10/02/07
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon 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.

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

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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
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

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: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
11/19/07
Rob Humanick
Rob Humanick
Slant Magazine

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

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: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/08/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

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

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

What else can such a film be called but ART?

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

Still one of the best

Full Review Source: sbs.is | comment Comment
03/29/06
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
sbs.is

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

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
03/20/06
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

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

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

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
06/11/05
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

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

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
01/15/05
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

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
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
01/20/04
Matt Zoller Seitz
Matt Zoller Seitz
New York Press

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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