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2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey Image
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Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 188 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea
  • Summary: 2001: A Space Odyssey is a countdown to tomorrow, a road map to human destiny, a quest for the infinite. To begin his voyage into the future, Kubrick visits our prehistoric ape-ancestry past, then leaps millenia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Dullea) into uncharted realms of space, perhaps even into immortality. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." Let the awe and mystery of a journey unlike any other begin. (Warner Bros.)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Only a few films are transcendent, and work upon our minds and imaginations like music or prayer or a vast belittling landscape...Alone among science-fiction movies, 2001 is not concerned with thrilling us, but with inspiring our awe.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Renata Adler
    60
    The movie is so completely absorbed in its own problems, its use of color and space, its fanatical devotion to science-fiction detail, that its is somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring.
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    10
    A crackpot Looney Tune, pretentious, abysmally slow, amateurishly acted and, above all, wrong.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 72
  3. Negative: 13 out of 72
  1. Paxster
    10
    This is movie as art in its fullest and most stunning format. How Kubrick made this look so futuristic in the year of 1968 it beyond me and probably most people on this planet. How much is covered in the short span of this film. It might just be the only film that seems to cover the whole history of the universe in a film. Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, KUBRICK.… Expand
    • 4 of 4 users said yes
  2. CritiqueGirl
    4
    It is way to long and drawn out. I suggest you read the book. There is no reason to sit through the process when you can curl up with a good read. It actually is like watching paint dry.… Expand
    • 0 of 3 users said yes
  3. History-Dude
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A random, slow movie with no definite plot, the twenty minute screensaver at the end was, and is, not a necessary part of any movie. I don't want to insult anyone's love for sci-fi movies, but it was a terrible movie. The only positive thing was the science behind spinning to create gravity with several other scientific ideas and the digital animation for it's period.… Expand
    • 0 of 11 users said yes

See all 72 User Reviews

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