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2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

With Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

It is no surprise that one of the world's most accomplished directors would be the creator of one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
This is not the kind of film post
Alien / Terminator / Independence Day viewers would have much patience for. While I can enjoy at least two of the above mentioned, many other cinefans will have the capacity to get engrossed by both an action packed romp, as well as a more intellectual excursion beyond our orbit.

This brilliant quest expands across time, inner- and outer space, from creation to the future, with evolution, technology, religion, and metaphysics all playing a role. Made before the first man walked on the moon, this visionary classic is not only scientifically meticulous, but as perfectionist in its visual delivery.

Our protagonist Dave Bowman is confronted with an intense predicament near the planet Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery after an incredible find calls him into space where mortality, logic, humanity and artificial intelligence clash - all against a galactic backdrop of wonderfully selected classical pieces.

While the story dissolves amid the amazing visual narrative, set design, music, FX and sparse dialogue, you find yourself sucked into this sensory experience, instead of trying to figure out the who, where and what of normal cinema to which we'd become so conditioned. Watching this in anything but widescreen format is pointless.

PS. I'll never forget a friend's younger sister exclaiming her disdain with this "boring" movie when she saw it on TV in the mid-'90s, disappointed that no alien showed up! A masterpiece like this doesn't need an alien to blow your mind.

6 / A
- PB


0 1 2 3 4 5 6
A - B -C


click below for the soundtrack



never let a review decide for you, but for those who need a rating, see the Flamedrop scale below
6 - Volcanic
5 - Blistering
4 - Hot
3 - Smolder
2 - Room Temperature
1 - Fizzled
0 - Extinguished

A: Multi-Viewing Potential

B: Could Enjoy A 2nd Look

C: Once Should Suffice



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