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Summary: Poor Quality Transfer for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY on DVD
Review: "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" was a great innovative, thought provoking and enigmatic space epic. Stanley Kubrick's visuals uniquely represent his vision for the future on one hand and on the other asks the viewer to expand his or her thinking into multi-dimensional avenues, which will always remain irrational for the conventional thinker.As for this DVD, it is in definite need of some multi-dimensional repair. This is one of the poorest transfers I have ever seen. There are cracks, scratches and frame jumps in the film. The print used for the 25th Anniversary edition of "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" on VHS letterbox and Laserdisc was in pristine condition. That print and presentation was excellent. The Dolby Surround was also much better on the 25th Anniversary edition than the Dolby Digital 5.1 on this DVD, which seems contrived.
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Summary: Quick Clip: Classic film...incredibly poor rendering on dvd.
Review: "2001" is one of those relatively rare movies that are so memorable for many movie-goers, that they are able to vividly recall the occasion of their first viewing. Unfortunately, MGM's recent release of the DVD version of this film serves only to make one long for another actual theatrical experience (in Cinerama?), rather than the visually distorted and audibly unsatisfying rendering of the disc. Although the movie is still spectacular and amazingly prophetic in its vision of our "future" in space (and the included "short subject" of author Clark's comments is enlightening), I recommend that fans rent, rather than purchase, this offering on DVD.
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Summary: 2001's a great year already
Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a movie that can be sometimes difficult to put into words. I think the reason is mostly because it's a movie that speaks for itself. But, I'm glad to see a movie that remains mostly ambiguious, letting the audience think of their own solutions and wonder what the film is trying to say. Two astronauts, Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) are sent on a deep-space mission to Jupiter for a reason that they do not know. The ship's onboard computer, which helps them on their journey, is HAL (voiced by Douglas Rain), who begins to act strangely and starts seriously malfunctioning. I can't stress enough how great of a job that the film does in challenging your mind. It starts off with apes in prehistoric Africa learning to survive and ends with mankind evolving beyond his physical means in one of the most beautiful and heavily debated endings in motion picture history. It took several years for director Stanley Kubrick to fully realize this film which, not only paved the way for smarter, deeper films, but showed us that special effects can be convincing and important to the story. The effort and time putting into making this film what it was is to be truly commended. This is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.
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Summary: Thus Spoke Zarathustra.....
Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the greatest movie ever put down on film by the greatest filmmaker to ever walk the face of the earth, Stanley Kubrick.
The dumbed-down masses of American cattle have the attetion span equal to that of a fly while not having a capacity or want to explore more profound thoughts on life, preferring Big Mac's and meatball wedges while viewing such classic films such as "MIB II" or "Bad Boyz".
Kubrick's vision of interpreting Nietzsche's evolutionary theories through interpretations of Richard Strauss' musical interpretations of Nietzsche's works is the most mind-blowing masterpiece of performance art ever made.
Contrary to some other reviewers, Kubrick makes no attempt to "tell" you what to think about whatever message emanates from this film. It's up to you, but there's a lot of meat on the bone for chewing up your mind for days and weeks after viewing this most extraordinary masterpiece.
It's aged beautifully since 1968 and makes Star Wars look like a has-been."2001: A Space Odyssey" is Kubrick's ultimate and timeless masterpiece. I only wish that the DVD would have had extra features about the film.
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Summary: An excellent DVD
Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey" looks and sounds fantastic on this DVD. However, if you don't have the proper connections, you may think the DVD is of a poor quality. You need a good TV, like a Sony Trinitron, and an S-video cable connection, which gives you the best picture quality. Beware of those who claim that this DVD is not worth the money! As for the movie itself, it is an awesome experience. Watch it and let your mind ponder the possibilities of space travel, evolution, and contact with alien intelligence. It's a science fiction movie that allows your brain to do most of the work, which is pretty rare.
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Summary: A classic and a monument to the visual potential of film!
Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey" may very well be the best science fiction film ever. Near the beginning, the movie has one of the most memorable scenes in film history: the enlightening insight of an early ape-like man who discovers the tool. A couple of scenes later we see early man find the tool's more destructive potential as a weapon. A simple but true statement on humanity's condition. But it doesn't end there, the movie continues to emphasize humanity's outward reaching mind. A multi-million year flash forward takes us from early man to space - another frontier built upon insight and imagination. In space we get the beautiful "Fantasia"-like musical sequence that stands as one of my favorite scenes of any movie, simultaneously showing the beauty and peacefulness of space and the triumph and ingenuity of mankind. From there we get a good science fiction story that continues to hint at the loftiness in the beginning of the movie while providing a connection to the audience. Though the stargate sequence dates itself as being a product of the 60s, the ending, even as incomprehensible as it is, further emphasizes the outward reaching of humanity. "2001", with the brilliant direction of Stanley Kubrick, does not rush mindlessy along like many of today's movies. Instead, by keeping a slow pace and by having minimal dialogue, the movie provides a mystical atmosphere to support its theme. Even the most mundane scenes (like an astronaut doing exercise) are directed with such masterly skill. The special effects look great even today. Plus, the film contains hard science - it is the only outer space movie I have seen that does not show sound in space. Truly a visual masterpiece and an intelligent, thoughtful piece of science fiction.
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Summary: The greatest film ever made!
Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey", is one of those films that everyone must see. There is no other film that even compares to it's greatness and originality. It's a Science fiction film that is unlike any other film of it's kind. A film that raises many questions, and one that lets you answer the questions for yourself. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the most visually stunning film ever made, one that surpasses even the high tech modern day films from directors such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. Watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" for me, is more than a movie experience...it's like a great dream you never want to awaken from. This is more than a film...this is a work of art. I've seen "2001: A Space Odyssey" more than 200 times now, and I recommend that everyone who hasn't seen it, that they see it...but keep in mind to only view it in the Widescreen format. Viewing the film in Pan and Scan is awful, and it doesn't have the same effect as the widescreen. If you love this film as much as I do, you will be happy to know that there is a planned re release for the film on midnight, December 31, 2000.
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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.
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Summary: I can't make any sense out of it.
Review: '2001: A Space Odyssey' has some brilliant sequences along with some of the most uninteresting characters and dialogue I've ever seen and heard. It is a visual treat, but doesn't make any sense. People have tried to debate the meaning behind it, but that's only Kubrick's trick.
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Summary: I Waited Forever to See This Movie . . .
Review: . . .AND BOY WAS I DISAPPOINTED! I watched it twice (a total waste of time) and still could'nt find a stinkin' point to the movie! I know I am not supposed to badmouth the work of a recently deceased movie maker, but I really hated it. I've seen a lot of artsy-fartsy movies, but this is the limit.
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