Kubrick at his best

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2008)

As great as "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Shining" are, "2001" is always gonna be Kubrick's best. When it was first released, some people loved it; some people hated it; some people just didn't get it. It's one of those flicks that's anything but ordinary. It was so robbed at the Oscars for that year; it wasn't even nominated for Best Picture of the Year, but it definitely deserved that award. Nothing like it has been seen before or since, or will be seen ever again. Still, it's something I wouldn't mind seeing in a theater, preferably on a big, curved Cinerama screen or in IMAX 3D, if they ever do it someday. It doesn't look as old as it actually is at all. No CGI of any kind was used for the effects.
The first couple times I saw the movie I couldn't sit through it. The Star Gate stuff at the end scared me to death. I couldn't watch it all. The trailer for the film's nationwide release gave me nightmares just by itself! Another thing about "2001" is it's funny as hell, especially at the part where Dave goes back into the Discovery manually through the emergency airlock because the HAL 9000 wouldn't let him back in through the pod bay doors. HAL realizes that he made Dave mad big-time, so much so that he disconnected him, and HAL even reconsidered Dave to "sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over".
After I saw it with my Dad on New Year's Day 2008, we talked about it for a while, and I decided I had to get this on DVD. 4 months later, I did.
If only movies were this good these days....