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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Universal acclaim
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 60 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Arthur C. Clarke (also story
Stanley Kubrick
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 2, 1968
DVD: August 25, 1998
Running Time: 139 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: G
Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, and Douglas Rain
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.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: A Clockwork Orange Dr. Strangelove Eyes Wide Shut Full Metal Jacket The Shining
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
This is the way this ground-breaking monument was meant to be seen: in mind-boggling 70mm.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Its special effects are used so seamlessly as part of an overall artistic strategy that, as critic Annette Michelson has pointed out, they don't even register as such, and thus are almost impossible to trivialize, a feat unmatched in movies.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A masterpiece that can still leave you dizzy with wonder. As much as any movie ever made, this visionary science-fiction tale of space travel and first contact with extraterrestrial life is a spellbinding experience.
Read Full Review >Empire Angie Errigo
Its faults - sketchy narrative, overblown abstraction - are counterbalanced by its gripping engagement between man and machine, and its rhapsodic wonder at heaven and earth and the infinite beyond.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Still the grandest of all science-fiction movies.
Premiere Staff (Not Credited)
With 2001, Stanley Kubrick proved that a sci-fi movie could be philosophical rather than pulpy, profound rather than pedantic.
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Watching this film demands two qualities that are sadly lacking in all but the most mature and sophisticated audiences: patience and a willingness to ponder the meaning of what's transpiring on screen. 2001 is awe inspiring, but it is most definitely not a "thrill ride." It is art, it is a statement, and it is indisputably a cinematic classic.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Scott Rosenberg
Beloved for many different reasons, including its scrupulous scientific accuracy, its vast reach from "The Dawn of Man" to the next stage of human evolution, its unrivaled integration of musical and visual composition, its daring paucity of dialogue and washes of silence, its astonishingly creative psychedelic sequence and its still-gorgeous pre-digital special effects.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Maintains its artistic magnificence after more than 30 years.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
A beautiful, confounding picture that had half the audience cheering and the other half snoring. Kubrick clearly means to say something about the dehumanizing effects of technology, but exactly what is hard to say.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Renata Adler
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.
Read Full Review >Variety Staff (Not Credited)
A major achievement in cinematography and special effects, 2001 lacks dramatic appeal and only conveys suspense after the halfway mark; Kubrick must receive all the praise - and take all the blame.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
A crackpot Looney Tune, pretentious, abysmally slow, amateurishly acted and, above all, wrong.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 60 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ethan R gave it a1:
Recently, I stayed at a hotel that had a very interesting art style. They had flatscreen TV's running nonstop with strange, enigmatic videos, as a sort of "moving art." This movie would fit perfectly on to one of those screens. Where it does not fit is in a movie theater. As a movie, it is horrible. Immensely boring and repetitive, it lacks character development, relevance between scenes, and any respectable acting. It gives no explanation for any of its many random plot changes, leaving the interpretation up to the viewer, a cop-out way of passing off what was not even artistic as deep and meaningful. I give it a 1 because, for its time, the special effects are wholly impressive. But other than that, this movie is excruciating.
John S gave it a10:
The best audio-visual mediation on the origins, the now and the future of man. The depth of this movie is only revealed over successive viewings. Still waiting for kubrick's successor in the celluloid format.
Dave S gave it a10:
A beautiful and mesmerizing film. I'm surprised by the two comments suggesting it's outdated. 40 years after release the special effects and settings hold up better then most newer films and certainly better then any of it's contemporaries. It's biggest failures were not predicting the demise of Ma Bell and Pan Am and believing that landing on the moon actually was just a "small step".
david b gave it a0:
This movie made me so mad I went on the internet and searched for worst movie ever so I could vote for it.
Daniel R gave it a10:
This film is simply just art. The film includes phemomenal use of music; mankind's best music played against the backdrop of outer space where there is no mankind, the acting present is flawless while never shining, nor does it have to be as this film focuses more on machines and the beauty and mystery of space which is shown beautifully and mysteriously here. The plot may be hard to follow by a lot of viewers but there is no denying that is cinematic art at it's very best and most probably the best film of kubrick's career and possibly the best film ever made. Prepare to be amazed.
Stanley K. gave it a2:
Slowest movie ever made and of course its outdated, hence the title.
Thomas B. gave it a0:
The worst film I've ever seen. What does the film want to be? This is no art it's only crap. Please dont see this film, every euro you would spend on it is lost, lost, lost.
