Rating: 
Summary: Boring, Tedious, Pretentious
Review: I finally sat down to watch this movie. Having read so many reviews that claimed it was a masterpiece. I do not understand why so many people think this. They must have low expectations when it comes to well made movies.This movie is just about unwatchable. Long moments of nothing happening. Meaningless dialog (there is hardly any dialog). I love Sci Fi films. But I just can't see what the fuss is about with this. Nothing happens. It is boring!!! If you want great Sci Fi, watch films like Gattaca, Blade Runner, AI, The Matrix, or The Abyss.
Rating:
Summary: Not so special effects
Review: The special effects may have amazed audiences 30+ years ago, but modern viewers will wonder what happened to the plot. Dare I say it, the book was much better!
Here is my recipe for film genius status. Make a boring, pointless and unintelligible movie. Pretend that it is a great work of art. Hint that anybody who doesn't appreciate it isn't intelligent enough to understand it. Watch pretentious film critics fall all over themselves to praise your movie.
Rating: 
Summary: A great movie if you have read the book.
Review: I have seen this movie before and I did't understand it at all. I recently read the book, and this time I found the movie quite enjoyable. Read the book first.
Rating: 
Summary: A religious experience.
Review: '2001' has been called Kubrick's most optimistic film, the most explicit presentation of religious or spiritual impulse more tacitly glimpsed in films like 'Paths of Glory' or 'Barry Lyndon'. With its monolith as godhead; tuning fork of the universe; the infinite made material; the solar system made crucifix; the revelation to man at his dawn; the warning to man at his most hubristic; the comfort to man in his despair and fear; connector of sun and moon; arbiter of Kubrick's beloved circle, an anti-Enlightenment circle of life that negates the linear progress of history, that suggests that nman is fundamentally un-improvable; but, more benevolently, perhaps a circle that returns man to his Creator, the Universe, the Infinite, makes him a child again, as he begins new life after death. It's up to you whether you buy the idea that '2001' is some kind of secular-sacred allegory: maybe it's just a coincidence that Kubrick uses Ligeti's 'Lux Aeterna' so crucially throughout. I like to see Hal the super-computer, ironicially, as a projection of the human soul, a receptacle of all those emotions airbrushed out in this perfect futuristic utopia, where everything is clean, and everyone speaks with polite, robotic articulacy. He is, to adapt Robert Warshow, the No to this world's Yes - I am not the first to suggest he has more character than any human in the film. Is Hal a genuine tragic hero, that common Kubrick figure, the man in control, in power, who spectacularly loses it? Anyone who prefers misanthropic Kubrick (as I did when younger) will find plenty of material too, especially in the spectacularly cynical prologue, where the Dawn of Man - a phrase conjuring Enlightenment visions of reason, craft, hunting, farming - is a sermon on man's grotesque nature, his base instincts of greed, fear, violence, schism etc. The godhead monolith doesn't awaken a sense of humility or goodness, but a brutal, nihilistic hubris, a desire to conquer the unknown. Kubrick's famous cut, from a bone to spaceship, suggests the unlovely instincts we have watched are not so much ironed out in the bright new 21st century, as channelled, or refined. Of course, '2001' has the tendency to bring out the pseud in anyone who falls under its spell. An important part of its mesmerising power, however, like all Kubrick, is its comedy, which is often deflating. The bone of a dead animal becoming a fantastically elaborate spaceship might be a profound philosophical statement, but a spaceship that becomes the floating pen of a snoozing passenger, or the idea of gravity-defying lavatories, are surely bathetic. It is no accident that Strauss' 'Also Sprachen Zarathustra', a piece that suggests the majestic, the otherworldly, the beyond, is replaced by 'The blue Danube', which somehow lacks the stature for space, suggesting more the idea of holiday, carnival, reflected in the spaceship that looks like a carnival ferris wheel. This is to suggest that Kubrick is always keeping things in balanced tension - cynicism/optimism; philosophy/comedy. The Melville-like emphasis on process, on man ritually doing things slowly, in real-time; the idea that movements are patterned, obeying unthinking processes, suggests an ancient, more primal world or spirit beneath the futurism. Surely it's enough that '2001' is one of the cinema's most beautiful films, each dazzlingly, delicately choreographed camera movement slamming open a doorway in your mind, culminating in the gorgeous, ice-grey apartment of my dreams.
Rating:
Summary: no words
Review: I am speechless after watching this film. Simply the greatest cinematic work of all time. The ultimate thinking man's science fiction movie. There are so many messages and ideas in this film, it's a one of a kind. People who don't understand should watch a few more times. It will change the way you look at life and man's place in the Universe. Kubrick was an awesome genius, how he could think of this story remains a miracle. 2001 is a part of our civilization and our consciousness. Kubrick was on a mission from God when he made this film. HE wanted to send out a message to us and used the director's genius mind to do so. You can not call yourself a movie fan if you haven't seen this unbelievable achievement of a movie. You would also be missing out on a part of life.
Rating: 
Summary: wow
Review: this movie is quite difficult to understand around then end, and the fact that there are so mnay different opinions on what happened at the end proves that its hard to figure out. whats good about this movie: its real, and its believable. in space, there are no big "waaaah" sounds and sound effects like in start wars, this is what space is like. kubrick has made this film very real and believable. whats not so good: the movie is a bit confusing, and there is a lot of symbolizism, and if you're not in the mood to watch a movie where you need to think a lot stay away from this movie. i still can't believe this movie is this old. . .the effects are so great even to todays standards.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing moment in the movie history.
Review: I had to edit my review in homage to Sir Stanley Kubrick, who I certainly admire as a stunning cinematographer, and please movie funs don't take the things so seriously...There's a place for all, when we have grace of living.
(Kubrick said, in the first release of the movie that anyone can give a personal interpretation of the masterpiece, after all we live in a free world...don't we?? He was a liberal free minded). Keep breathing as Dave with the helmet on...facing the fear of the unknown...thrilling!!!!
This movie is the bridge to a defiant and odd future. The movie brings us a smashing series of questions that for many centuries the mankind has confronted and not answered yet. I still did not agree with the apes in the opening sequence, or the evolutionary theory either. I grab my interests after the dawn of man, to be more specific in the chapter 24 "Open the doors" the battle begins man x machine, and after Hal has been disconnected, Dave in the Pod, starts a journey into the unknown; in the final sequence, when Dave head his finger toward the black monolith (as in the creation of man of Michelangelo's picture in the Sistine Chapel), we understand that God is the answer in the ultimate moment of The Odyssey, or quoting Carl Sagan:" We are not alone in the Universe and we belong to Someone Greater than ourselves...." In the moment that the Star child appears Kubrick give us another outlook, now as have been done for all existence, a baby child, a fetus of a man has been conceiving in a human belly; it creates a parallel with the hypothetical beginning with the evolutionary simians; that moment the question isn't anymore: How do we came here?, but, Where are we going to? Can we come back from the dead? Moreover, at that point we come back to start of the history, Dave reborn and look to the earth, to the infinite...but his journey is not finished yet, how many years we need to accomplish something? For billions of years the mankind has fought with the dilemma "We must accept God, or not?" Kubrick gives us the chance to analyze all the facts and theories using the silence and the spectacular movement of the camera. Speech still is the way of understanding each others point of view and Kubrick give us a silence to think and re-think, to question the ordinary things and the disturbing too. We must check all the things and get the good ones. Reflecting we can solve many problems, and Kubrick leave us something to think of...an intriguing moment in the movie history and a total mystery for mankind, but for how long now?
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Boring Film and an Average DVD
Review: ...I find 2001 extremely boring and regretted buying the DVD. But then again, that's just me. Many of you that have seen the film will agree with me, and many of you will not... Guess what? I thought it was very boring. Some examples, the 3 minutes of darkness at the beginning of the film before the ape scene was unnecessary I thought and also the 2 minute or so darkness after the "Intermission". Others included the multi-color lights as Dave travels through the Infinite - way too long and boring. Of course, that's Mr. Kubrick's artistic expression; I'm just giving you my opinion of it. .... Some people always read too much into things. For example, there are people that look at abstract art and see the world, whereas I see just blobs of paint. The same goes for films. Does that make me wrong or stupid? I don't think so... I dare say that I'm quite intelligent and have a great attention span, but I still found 2001 very boring... Other notes on the DVD: Many times the sound effects is so loud, that you have to turn it down (the breathing in the space suit, the sounds of the ship, etc. - which are all necessary by the way). The problem this creates is that the dialog is then barely audible. I had to adjust the volume several times throughout the film and I never had to do that with other DVD's. My recommendation: If you've NEVER seen the film, do yourself a favor. Go rent it first at Blockbuster's. If you decide that you like it..., by all means, buy the DVD. But if not, you can save yourself the [money].
Rating:
Summary: This is a DVD Review, Dave.
Review: This film is a masterpiece. That said, it should've been done with much more respect and quality on digital transfer. I'm not sure how many versions of this film are out there on DVD. That is the first mistake, why are there so many? There should be one definitive set for this film. I can't stand to see such an important & groundbreaking film (1968!) released on DVD with all the care of "Purple Rain". Here is a description of the one I own: My review is of the widescreen version that has the picture of the original film poster (the painting of the space station and the departing ship) on the cover. The top of the cover reads "Stanley Kubrick Collection; Digitally Restored and Remastered". It comes in the dreadful, cheap, snapper case (which should have been extinguished long ago) The special features consist of one (count them, one!) short theatrical trailer and the usuals (languages, scene access, and interactive menus; big deal!). The redeeming special feature I didn't list is that the film has been remastered and "restored" digitally with a 5.1 soundtrack in dolby digital. So the music should sound great through your stereo. The feature of an interview with co-writer, Arthur C. Clarke is no where to be found on this version. Nor is this the version with the 8 page booklet with information of the film. The 3 1/2 by 4 1/2 senitype collectible card (a small version of the film poster from 1968) is included and the CD itself is colorful. I was told through a certain DVD "club" that this is the latest version of this film on DVD. My question is: Why did they bother releasing yet another version without special features and in another snapper case? I honestly don't think you have much of a choice in purchasing the film on DVD right now. I am pretty sure that you get the exact same disc in the boxed set (which also includes a separate soundtrack cd.) I hope that some day the film (along with other Kubrick essentials, "Clockwork" and "Shining") is released with much more extra features, like more trailers, tv spots, interviews with Clarke, cast, and maybe even some input from Kubrick; how about a "making of" featurette? To give you an idea of how ludicrous releasing a classic film like this in a "bare bones" fashion is - A film like "The Toxic Avenger" was released with trailers, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes, stills, and audio commentary! Another example is "Night of the Living Dead", another film from 1968 (also groundbreaking) and released on DVD with 15 minutes of new footage, a featurette, trailers, stills, audio commentary, and a collector's booklet, etc. - I rest my case! "Clockwork" is available in the same manner as "2001"; "Shining" is an exception with a making of featurette, and "Strangelove" has been blessed with extra features. "2001" should be redone and by people who have much more appreciation for this one of a kind motion picture. If you need a copy now this is the best you can get, but I am hoping they will release this and all of Kubrick's films either in separate definitive editions or as a collectible set worthy of actually being called "The Stanley Kubrick Collection".
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's classic done to perfection!
Review: When I found this movie on DVD, I watched it for the first time in its entirety and was amazed. Then came this collector's set. I didn't think the original version could be improved upon, but I was wrong. The collector's set DVD is a vast improvement, widescreen (of course), fully restored (148 minutes vs. 139 minutes), and it looks and sounds incredible! The only way to improve the sound would be to have a DTS or THX format. But aside from that, the one thing about this movie is that it not only holds your attention, it also makes you stop and think after you finish watching it, especially about the monolith and HAL's state of mind. And then you have the music - oh what absolutely beautiful music, highlighted by "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and "The Blue Danube." For those of you who enjoy the music in this film, the collector's set includes a CD of it.
A collector's set that has the movie on DVD - fully restored, its entire soundtrack on CD, a collectible senitype film frame, and an informative commemorative booklet! What more could one ask for? If you want this movie on DVD, I strongly recommend that you purchase this collectible set! Accept no substitutes!
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