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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Released By: Warner Home Video   Rating: Not Rated   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: Daniel Richter, Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea, Leonard Rossiter, William Sylvester
Published ID: 1702
UPC: 012569500020, 027616630926, 012569553927, 663286201235, 012569791916, 012569792067, 012569798380, 012569647749,
Plot: A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story {-The Sentinel}, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the Dawn of Man, a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra, a hominid invents the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path. Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head toward Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite, through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission. With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent over two years meticulously creating the most realistic depictions of outer space ever seen, greatly advancing cinematic technology for a story expressing grave doubts about technology itself. Despite some initial critical reservations that it was too long and too dull, 2001 became one of the most popular films of 1968, underlining the generation gap between young moviegoers who wanted to see something new and challenging and oldsters who didn't get it. Provocatively billed as the ultimate trip, 2001 quickly caught on with a counterculture youth audience open to a contemplative (i.e. chemically enhanced) viewing experience of a film suggesting that the way to enlightenment was to free one's mind of the U.S. military-industrial-technological complex. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
Favourite movie, favourite blu-ray
Added 11/25/2009

Seen this countless times and in 70mm, this film is why I bought a blu-ray player and is pretty much the only one that I watch repeatedly. Best picture quality and sound out of all the releases, including the DVD limited box set with the film strip. It looks so much better here, as it clearly should. High Recommendations for this one, and Keir Dullea is prime cool here
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Once you get past the first 30 minutes or so...
Added 11/20/2009

That first half-hour is very long and very boring, but having said that, it is an essential part of the storyline, with the proto-humans discovering the Monolith and not understanding what it stands for.

Once you get past that, it is a well-paced film, with special effects that are nothing short of incredible for the time that the movie was made. The effects look even better on the blu-ray version!

You can't go wrong with this sci-fi classic...

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
2001 Blu-ray: reawakens the awe and majesty
Added 11/20/2009

In my opinion, the best motion picture ever made. The epic sweep of the story, the framing of images, the poetry of motion, the long moments of silence, the vastness of the heavens, the beautifully posed and unanswered questions...all captured in original glory. Some of the behind-the-scenes extras spoil my suspension of disbelief, but still enjoyable. This is the reason I bought my LG 55LH90 HDTV.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
unbiased first time watcher
Added 11/19/2009

This movie is incredibly boring, content-less and primitive. I bought blu ray edition based on 990+ mostly positive reviews on Amazon. Now I am puzzled - how could this movie ever get 5 stars? The only explanation I have it was kind of cool in 1969 and people who watched it back then are nostalgic. Nowadays I do not find it's cool to watch black screen for 5 minutes wondering if my disk/player/projector are OK. That is right - movie has black scenes with nothing for minutes (kudos to "Black Square" Malevich?), accompanied by a most terrible psychedelic music (?) ever. I really had to mute and fast forward it quite a bit. On the other hand movie is somewhat OK if you want to fall asleep, which I did twice (here comes one star from me). Few bright moments of light/action/dialog in the universe of boredom barely occupy a few minutes of footage continued by hours of rotating still images and annoying Windows Media Player type of visual kaleidoscope. You would see all kind of nonsense: Pan-Am waitresses doing a lot of baby steps in circles; pen flying for minutes; annoying "monkeys" jumping and crying for half an hour; repetitive scenes of "space ships" flying up close (one hour?); somebody breathing heavily for 10 minutes into microphone, twice; eating miserable colored humus-like space food for 5 minutes; etc. Sparse dialogs are not nearly as deep as some suggested and reminded me naive baby talks: "[Mummy], please, I will never do it again, I promise", "Hal, do you hear me? Please answer me, please.. (repeated 5-10 times)", "I can not talk about it right now", ... I guess if this extreeeeeeemely long chewing gum is compressed into 10 minutes cartoon for kids if would become average. Otherwise, total waste of my money-time continuum.

1 out of 12 people found this helpful.
2001 - A Classic
Added 11/16/2009

'THE' original Sci-Fi Flick.
2001 has been used as a template for almost all future movies such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien etc...etc..
1960's Special effects are better than many current movies.
HAL is the real star.
Only drag is the hallucinogenic scene - it is too long.

1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
Favourite movie, favourite blu-ray
Added 11/25/2009

Seen this countless times and in 70mm, this film is why I bought a blu-ray player and is pretty much the only one that I watch repeatedly. Best picture quality and sound out of all the releases, including the DVD limited box set with the film strip. It looks so much better here, as it clearly should. High Recommendations for this one, and Keir Dullea is prime cool here
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Once you get past the first 30 minutes or so...
Added 11/20/2009

That first half-hour is very long and very boring, but having said that, it is an essential part of the storyline, with the proto-humans discovering the Monolith and not understanding what it stands for.

Once you get past that, it is a well-paced film, with special effects that are nothing short of incredible for the time that the movie was made. The effects look even better on the blu-ray version!

You can't go wrong with this sci-fi classic...

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
2001 Blu-ray: reawakens the awe and majesty
Added 11/20/2009

In my opinion, the best motion picture ever made. The epic sweep of the story, the framing of images, the poetry of motion, the long moments of silence, the vastness of the heavens, the beautifully posed and unanswered questions...all captured in original glory. Some of the behind-the-scenes extras spoil my suspension of disbelief, but still enjoyable. This is the reason I bought my LG 55LH90 HDTV.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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