Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Movie I've Wattched Stoned
Review: Omg, a couple nights back I got stoned off my ass and watched this movie. I knew it was supposed to be good, but OMG! The beginning was such an amzing moment for me. I nearly cried. It was really funny, though, because everyone didnt look like an ape, instead they looked like they were in such fake looking suits. An the backgrounds looked sooo painted. The classical music really added to the momentum of the whole experience! However, the best part ever, was definately the scene where the guy went through an almost LSD-like trip in time and space. Aging and being reborn, this almost sent me into a trip. What ana amzing experience! DEFINATELY RECOMENDED! But, i suggest you smoke a fat bowl before you watch it, it's AMAZING!
Rating: 
Summary: Odd Indeed
Review: Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey is a visual marvel and a director's dream. Mr. Kubrick reduces the role of the actor in film as only about one quarter of the film has spoken parts (and a good part of the dialogue is from an inanimate object, the HAL 9000 computer) and relies on the unspoken visual to relate the story. The story is starts at the dawn of man on Earth which are represented by apes. They form a tribe and eventually learn the art of killing, we are then transported into outer space on space ship carrying a Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) to the moon on a top secret mission to find out about some disturbances amongst a space crew working up there. We are then taken to the space ship Discovery which is on a mission to Jupiter with two astronauts, Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), and the HAL computer as well as three cryogenically frozen doctors who will be awaken upon their arrival at Jupiter. We are never really told what the mission is all about, but along the way, HAL malfunctions and tries to take over the ship. He kills the three doctors by cutting off their life support and then catapults Frank into space. Dave rescues Frank by taking a small craft out to him and catching him in its claws. He must let Frank go to his death though as HAL refuses to let Dave back into the ship. Dave eventually dismantles HAL and then is transported on a mind-expanded journey that is a visually kinetic splash of lights, colors and sounds. Throughout the film, the one connecting element is a strange large black monolith that appears at the end of each of the three sequences and is never really explained. One is left to guess its meaning. Is it God? Is it some other metaphysical force? Mr. Kubrick never divulged the meaning of it, so one is left to wonder. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a weird film to say the least. It can be very boring and tedious in places, but it is an absolutely beautiful film to watch and the effects are still first rate. With the new home theater systems and wide screen TV's available today, you can recreate the scope and vision of Mr. Kubrick more effectively than on a small screen where much of the film is lost.
Rating:
Summary: Rips your mind free- from the stone age to beyond infinity..
Review: When I finally got a DVD player this was the first DVD that I bought for it. I remember seeing this film for the first time back in 1968. It was so totally unlike, and ahead, of anything else that had then been made that it blew me away. First of all, it had the first truly believable special effects of any science-fiction space travel film- and believe me, I had seen them all up to that time. Secondly, there is a surreal style to this film that deliberately rips your mind free from its safe and established preconceptions. I didn't "get it" at first- and I'm sure that there are some people who still don't. I've heard people say that this film has "continuity problems" for the way it deliberately makes jarring jumps from the stone age, to a space shuttle, to the jupiter mission, and to "beyond infinity." Kubrick designed it that way to point out the huge and jarring differences between primitive man, technological man, and man "reborn through space flight." This is not a boring or trivial film, You're forced to think about what it means. I probably didn't fully appreciate it until a decade or so after I first saw it. If I have a complaint, it isn't really with the film, but with the sad fact that our manned space flight progress has lagged so far behind what was predicted in '68....
Rating: 
Summary: Funny...
Review: I'm neither spiritually transcended, nor upset about the movie. The plot was definitely slow and any apparent explanation of some of the movie's elements does not exist. I think the visuals were great in and of themselves, and my personal interpretation of the movie's plot is intriguing... But who knows what Stanley Kubrick/Arthur C. Clark was trying to convey? Maybe I should've read the book. I don't like saying any movie is "classic"; that sorta places it upon to a pedestal for classic-movie-haters and the like to practice potshots at. I can sorta relate to them, I suppose calling it classic is equivalent to saying art is supposed to be interpreted in only one way. For me, the strongest point of the film is my own personal interpretation [spoiler ahead] in which man achieves a 'higher understanding' (and that *doesn't* have to be infinite, contrary to what so many reviewers have said), however pseudo-intellectual that seems. In and of that alone is a good reason to buy the movie (for me anyway), which for me is way of ahead of its time (even for most of today's sci-fi, particularly sci-fi movies). If you can watch it through the end with a little diligent patience and open, probing mind, you'll *probably* find the movie enjoyable. I have bought the DVD and the picture quality is very good, even on a regular small non-widescreen TV. A melding of the motion and music is still asthetically pleasing, even if your thoughts wonder. Maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey should come with complementary Ritalin pills :-P. Probably even a more entertaining nugget was to find one review conveying how only ivory-tower pseudo-intellectuals could like this film, and then right after it, someone claims to have had a "spiritual+mystical" experience from it! Sometimes more entertaining is the social situations movies can generate, eh?
Rating:
Summary: Give it another chance
Review: I first saw this film in 1990 with a big Kubrick fan. I didn't get it or like it. i thought it was slow and boring. Well it's now 2003 and after seeing it for the first time since then, I have completely changed my mind about this movie. What can explain this change in opinion? I was able to aproach 2001 with an open mind. If you hate kubrick or some ex that made you watch 2001...maybe you'll have a personal problem with the film. If you only like action movies, buy something else. But if you are able to be taken on a wonderful and mysterious journey, buy this dvd. It is spectacular.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking masterpiece.
Review: Just wanted to add my 5 stars for surely one of the best movies ever made. Lovingly crafted, painstakingly faithful to the laws of physics, this visually awesome masterwork never fails to inspire me.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated Garbage
Review: Kubrick is not a genius. This movie is proof of that. To the average movie goer, and in fact, to many critics, this movie is as entertaining as a funeral. However, for some reason it is trendy for movie critics to love anything Kubrick releases. That is why this movie is so "highly rated". Is it because critics actually like it? No. It is because if they show favor for a film NOBODY understands, it makes them look and feel "above" the average person. That is why this movie is highly rated, and why Kubrick, who is mediocre at best, is adored by the people who are "in the know". Like "A Clockwork Orange", this movie is only entertaining for someone on an acid trip. So if you want to appear "higher" than the average man, you can go along with the crowd and say how great this movie is. But if you want to show that you aren't fooled by all the hype, give this movie the rating it deserves. (Actually, this movie does not deserve the 1 I am going to give it. Its a shame there aren't "0" ratings.)
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, but the special effects are terrific
Review: I didn't see this film when it first opened in 1968. In those years I didn't get to movies much. And VCRs hadn't been invented yet. But the film was groundbreaking, and of course I heard about it. And through the years I've seen excerpts, but never the real thing. Now it's the year 2003, and the year 2001 has already passed. But as I soon discovered while viewing the film is that it's not about future scientific discovery; it's about a state of mind, a philosophical statement about man's place in the universe. It starts with apes finding a monolith, then picking up some bones and using them as tools to kill. The scene then shifts far into the future and we see a space capsule with some supposed high-tech features. There's a special mission, which is never clear. And a computer named Hal, which starts to act like a human being. Eventually, the lone surviving astronaut reaches Jupiter, goes though an aging process and gets reborn as a baby. All of this takes 139 minutes to tell. There's very little dialogue, just a lot of classical music. The special effects are so good that they won the film's only academy award that year. And the director, Stanley Kubrick, will be remembered as a genius. The film is his personal view of the world... Personally, I found the film just plain boring. There's a limit on how long I can sit and watch special effects. Most of the time I spent wondering exactly what it all meant. And when I discovered early on that it didn't mean anything, I just didn't care. I really wanted to like this film. After all it is classic. And I definitely hoped the DVD would have some special features explaining its making. Sadly, though, there is not one bit of commentary. The film has to be judged completely on its own. I'm a film buff and so I'm glad I saw it just for the experience. But I didn't like it at all. And can't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: Though this review won't win me any friends, I think I can speak for the AVERAGE movie goer/viewer and say that this movie was pure crap. It seems to be trendy for critics to like (in the public's eyes) bad movies that are supposedly "above" the capacity of the average movie goer. This is one of those films. It is not nearly as good as critics/historians would have you believe. That is why they love it so much. It is trendy for critics to "love" films which have very little entertainment value, or make little to no sense (such as this film). It is also trendy for critics to love the works of Kubrick, even though he put out very few "great" movies, a few average, and many poor ones. Think of A Clockwork Orange. Was that movie really that good? No. Its only considered a classic because it was made by Kubrick. If anyone else had made that, it would be considered nothing more than a demented pornographic film. I highly recommend against purchasing this, unless you want to completely throw your money down the drain.
Rating:
Summary: We could have been there by now.
Review: A film worthy of extensive study. As I watch and rewatch the DVD release, I am struck by how well the film has aged. Hard to believe that Kubrick (and Clarke) put this together in just three years. Buy it on DVD, watch it a dozen times, read "2001: Filming the Future", "Kubrick's 2001", The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey"... or... just have a good friend guide you through it.
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