Part 1 of "Let's watch some iconic SF movies from the 60s while +Kay Hill is studying that decade in high school history" Week. For which I owe my daughter a profound apology. If not for the scenes and memes that have become iconic, this movie would be unwatchable.
A ★½ review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Rarely has such self-pretentious and over-indulgent twaddle ever risen to such culturally iconic nature. There’s about an hour of good movie in the 2-1/2 hours of 2001. Unfortunately, it’s not just a matter of editing out vast tracts of visual FX, or chopping all the various space ship scenes in 1/2 to 1/3, but the entire movie is paced at a stately crawl, as if Kubrick insists on showing us how slowly things (and people (and action)) move in spa…
Umm, Dave? Most of the late 60s "BIG" movies are in the same vain:
Bridge over the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
And so on, it was the style of the big movie back then.
Also, 2010 was barley Sci-Fi and (it took place in space) and mostly Action Picture, so yeah, of course it has closer edits.
Oh man, I hated that one. Honestly, I've never seen a Kubrick film that I genuinely enjoyed; they merely separate into the painful and the tolerable.
+Stan Pedzick FWIW, Kwai is 1957 and Lawrence is 1962.
I think Lawrence is a great movie. I don't remember much about Kwai — though, coincidentally, it was the first movie I can remember going to (at a drive-in, and, pre-glasses, my memories of it — guys standing around without shirts — are pretty blurry).
I re-read the 2010 synopsis this morning, since I recalled very little of it besides "It's full of stars." I remember that one in the theaters, too, and how it was a disappointment (for different reasons). None of the recollections invoked make me want to rewatch it.