Throw me a frickin' bone

Rating: 4/10 (10 April 2007)

So space-age airline food is every bit as gruesome as ours. Too bad. The good news is they still drink coffee in the future, and from a giant thermos too. I take comfort in that. Don't get me wrong. This is one boring monster of a movie. I mean, you'd be halfway through most other pictures before Kubrick gets to the first line of dialog. In essence, this is a three-hour visual essay on how man sets out to fathom the far reaches of the solar system, but all he finds is himself. Sort of like "Star Trek The Motion Picture" meets "Contact", perhaps with a slightly better color scheme. It all comes down to what you want from a movie, but if you're looking for action, emotion, a sense of humor or any plot, this isn't for you. People will go on about how "2001" made history when it came out, but I'm not buying it. Pharmaceutical history maybe. It's a twelve-reel sleeping pill.