#40: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

I could have sworn that I had, but I really don't think so, at least not all the way through

BEST SEQUENCE

The scene of Dave shutting down HAL while HAL narrates his own demise

BEST LINE

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

90%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"One of the most influential of all sci-fi films -- and one of the most controversial -- Stanley Kubrick's 2001 is a delicate, poetic meditation on the ingenuity -- and folly -- of mankind."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"When a mysterious artifact is uncovered on the Moon, a spacecraft manned by two humans and one supercomputer is sent to Jupiter to find its origins."

DIRECTOR

Stanley Kubrick

MAIN CAST

Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain

THOUGHTS

• Perhaps more than any other movie that I've ever reviewed, I suspect that I would give 2001 a much higher Thrill Score if I had seen it in the theatre, and especially if I had been alive to see it when it first came out. The visuals and special effects are stunning, and it would have been mind-boggling to see back in 1968, a whole year before Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon
• And the visuals absolutely still hold up today. This movie is mesmerizing, a feast for the eyes (and the ears; the classical music works incredibly well with what we see onscreen). Not surprising that 2001 won the Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects, although it may be surprising to learn that this was the only Oscar awarded to Kubrick personally. He never won Best Director, and none of his movies won Best Picture
• Time to say something potentially controversial, though. It's a good thing that the astonishing special effects are so memorable because not a whole lot happens in this movie. This may be a case of me just not getting it, maaaan, or maybe I'm a bad cinephile who wants a little bit more in terms of plot. The movie is split up into four chapters, and aside from each chapter having some great special effects, I have very little to say about three of them
• The makeup effects used for the hominids depicted in the first chapter are incredibly convincing (way more than in Planet of the Apes, in my opinion, which was wide released in the United States on the exact same day as 2001)
• The final chapter is indeed trippy as hell, but it also kind of luxuriates in the psychedelia for a good long while
• And the second chapter has some very impressive visual sequences and some fun depictions of futuristic technology (most of which would not actually come to fruition in the real year 2001)
• Which brings us to the most memorable chapter, and the one with the most plot. The third chapter is when we meet HAL 9000, one of the first examples of a murderous AI entity that I can think of. The vocal performance by Douglas Rain is perfect, and I love the way Kubrick films HAL's all-seeing glowing red "eye", filling up the whole screen at points
• While 2001 may not have entirely predicted the future, it is funny (or terrifying) to watch it today and note the similarities between HAL and Siri or ChatGPT
• Finally, 2001 was hugely influential, and I was reminded of two movies that I did see on the big screen, and which I remembered as being fantastic viewing experiences - Interstellar and Gravity (which I'll be reviewing eventually, it's on the Readers' Choice list). So I'm happy to add that while it's a shame I haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey in the theatre yet, that will soon be remedied. I already have a ticket to go see it at the Revue Cinema in January

Up next: Well I've dropped the ball a few times now in terms of movie reviews that should have been posted on certain holidays. Reviewing Halloween in March was probably the most obvious example. But I'm saying it now, as God is my witness, I shall review my favourite Christmas movie on Christmas Day this year. That's right, up next is Die Hard (and it is a Christmas movie, dammit!) 

READERS' CHOICE #21: SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

4.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, multiple times

BEST SEQUENCE

Pool cues vs. zombie in the Winchester, set to the music of "Don't Stop Me Now" 

BEST LINE

"David, kill the Queen!"

"What?!"

"The jukebox!"

- There are lots of great lines and sequences in this movie, so I don't want to make it seem like this scene is the only one I like, but I'd be lying if I didn't pick this line as my favourite

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

92%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Shaun of the Dead cleverly balances scares and witty satire, making for a bloody good zombie movie with loads of wit."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse."

DIRECTOR

Edgar Wright

MAIN CAST

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz, Rafe Spall

THOUGHTS

• I really love this movie, but it's honestly a little hard to review it as a horror comedy. I mostly appreciate it as a very funny comedy, with a fantastic script and great performances. I don't even necessarily think the humour undercuts the thrills. The zombie action is actually very well done, and there are fair stretches of the movie that are played quite straight, like most of the climax in the Winchester pub. However, when I'm watching Shaun of the Dead I'm doing it for the laughs, not the scares. All of this is to say, if you think Shaun of the Dead is more thrilling than the 4.5 I'm giving it, I can understand that argument, and it might even be a good movie to ease some of the more squeamish into the zombie genre
• Speaking of the zombie genre, I like that Shaun of the Dead isn't a direct spoof of specific movies that came before it. It takes some inspirations, but it definitely manages to be its own thing. I like the gradual way that this zombie apocalypse develops, culminating in Shaun's morning walk to the shop when he still doesn't realize what's happening, made even more clear when juxtaposed with his walk to the shop on the previous day when everything was still normal
• A while ago I reviewed three of George Romero's seminal zombie movies (Night of the Living Dead and Dawn/Day of the Dead) and nearly every zombie movie made since these ones owes a debt of some sort to Romero's films. Shaun of the Dead wears it on its sleeve as a loving tribute, but not just in the Shaun of the Dead/Dawn of the Dead title reference. My favourite reference is a more subtle one, when Ed yells "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" This is almost a direct quote from Night of the Living Dead and one of its earliest lines, "They're coming to get you, Barbra." Delightfully, George Romero had a private viewing of Shaun of the Dead, and he didn't even realize this was a reference until Edgar Wright told him. Romero also loved the movie, by the way
• As much as I love Shaun of the Dead, though, I think I actually like its follow-up more. I thought about reviewing the whole Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (so named because of their passing references to Cornetto ice cream cones), and I did in fact rewatch all three of them, but we'll just talk about them now. Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop action film, was the second one made in the series, and it's my favourite. The World's End, a sci-fi thriller, came third and it's my least favourite of the series (but I still think it's a lot of fun). Funnily enough (but not surprising, given the format of this blog), every movie in the trilogy directly references or parodies other movies that I've reviewed. As mentioned, there are the zombie influences in Shaun of the Dead. Hot Fuzz even more obviously references Point Break, even going so far as to show clips of it in the movie itself. And finally, The World's End is a pretty obvious riff on Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
• Finally, I felt like mentioning, while I love all three of these movies for their genre pastiches and their hilarious scripts and performances, none of them earn the distinction of being my favourite Edgar Wright movie. That would be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, made in between Hot Fuzz and The World's End. However, I also don't think any of these movies qualify as Edgar Wright's most thrilling movie - I only saw Baby Driver once, in the theatre, but I remember liking it a lot, and I've rewatched some of those incredible car stunt sequences many times, and I think I'm probably due for a rewatch

Up next: And with that, we have finished another block of Readers' Choice movies! So it's back into the American Film Institute's list of thrilling movies, and boy oh boy, do we have some good ones coming up. We're going to start with a movie that I'm a little less certain about, though, and also one that I'm not sure I've seen all the way through. We haven't heard from Stanley Kubrick in a while, his previous movie on the list was Spartacus at #62, but he's back - 2001: A Space Odyssey coming up next