The movie's monkeys were scratching their heads for ticks and fleas while I was scratching my head saying:

Rating: 4/10 (14 February 2005)

WHAT? Huh? What? Dawn of Man Crap--I don't come from monkeys who were men in suits by the way--Look how one touches the monolith--it's a dead giveaway. Approximinately twenty minutes of meaningless chimp crap which includes see monkey learn about killing something and ooh ooh freaked out simian excitement over black slab. One of the awesome moments in the early part of this film is the switch over to the future and then we're back in snooze-ville. Ship taxi-es in, music--Sit upright during this portion folks otherwise you'll be put to sleep. Thanks to the chimps and the ships and the murmured babble about another slab--ooh a breath of a plot at last--
With all this bogging down the pacing, It's well into an hour before the film reaches the best, and sad to say, shortest segment. Bowman, Poole and HAL, who after Star Trek the Next Generation's Mr. Data's got to be the sexiest voice of anyone pretending to be a mechanized being in the history of movies. HAL's also the most heinous of them all and due to his actions the film's most chilling moments take place. Then and only then Kubrick whips up the pace while and injects horror film imagery and incidents via creepy HAL.
"Beyond the infinite" is the right title for the last segment. It's a real--belief suspender. I figured this out after watching this film a second time (I was a teen the first and did not past the rotating space station before giving up) There's only one way to get through the probe into the slab--Imagine you're getting into a car for a leisurely HALF HOUR(or so it felt to me; actually I think the running time is about 7 minutes) drive. Then after Bowman parks, dumping me into--Huh what's with sanitized hotel room? What's with the big Cute baby. Movie over. What was all that about?
Visually a knockout, the plot, a tick picked out and tossed away by a chimp. I see some of the elements from Kubrick's later (and IMO) greater work, "The Shining"--vast scenery and atmospheric lighting and effective use of classical music but that's all 2001 is. It just exists and does nothingzzzzzzz....