Not exactly 2001

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2005)

This movie promises us 2001: A Space Odyssey, but gives us Shootout at the OK Corral.
This is a movie for teenagers and people who like teenagers and people who want to be teenagers. Check the message board: it's teenagers arguing about the worth of this movie, from a pool where both ends are shallow.
I wish Keanu Reeves and L. Fishburne all the good fortune in the world, but acting at this level will wash them up before they're fifty.
This movie is all special effects and razzle-dazzle. There's just nothing to it. Of course, it's listed very high on this site's list of great movies, because there are so many young kids here voting on movies.
My indictment of this movie and its sequels is similar to my indictment of this web site - it was a good idea; it's still a good idea; but it just doesn't deliver. It's certainly not the fault of this site that most of the people writing are too young to be on their own in the world, but I hate that IMDb panders to them, much the same way that I hate how these movies pander to them.
Yes, they're the ones who go to the movies more than anyone else. It's just a plain fact.
And yes, the Academy Awards are a joke. Put all of this together, along with our Ratings System, and you have the reason that American movies that could be Great, are not.