40 years on

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 2006)

Interesting to note the way this film has dated, or rather how the real world has changed in a divergent way from the one envisaged by the film. The "futuristic" of 1968 seems ludicrous at times. In reality we've had less space travel but a lot more social and linguistic change, and even technology has developed in a manner unforeseen by Clarke or the designers. Pan-Am, Kenneth Kendall on BBC 12 and the clipped RP the announcers use, the 60's-ish fashions. All amusing stuff. No mobile phones either.
2001 is a marvellous piece of work - intelligent and quirky. It shows once again how the brain-dead studio system with its dumbed down garbage movies act against all our interests. The genius of people like Kubrick keeps culture going, because his kind of film lasts. And in the end makes more money than a dozen short-term market exploitation efforts