2001 and A Clockwork Orange

Finally watched both of these in the last week or two. Spoilers below, obviously.

2001: A Space Oddessey

I actually really liked this one. It was slow and fairly boring at times, but I expected that going in, so it really didn't bother me all that much. Also, there was a thread on here about a month ago that someone had posted a link in, and it was a link to a little series of flash videos that seemed to do a pretty good job of explaining 2001. So having watched that BEFORE watching the movie, I was watching along with a little more insight as to what everything meant in the movie.

Overall, I really liked it, as I said. I'd give it about a 7.5/8 our of ten. I thought for the most part, it was a gorgeous movie, and I can definitely see why it is so highly touted at times as a forerunner for special effects in its time. Obviously, the music was pretty fitting as well, and I enjoyed that. On the flip side, I thought that using silence for lots of parts of the film was a great call by Kubrick. Like using the breathing during the space walk scenes..made it feel a bit more intense and real. Also, I thought the whole Space Act was awesome...the suspense with HAL and the two astronauts was great.

Also, the only parts I FFWD'd through were the 3-minute musical black screen at the beginning, and a little near the end when the astronaut goes through the space/time warp thing. I'd be interested to see how I would have rated it if I had seen it in the time when it was originally released though.

A Clockwork Orange

I had previously "seen" this movie before, but only bits and pieces...I had never sat down and watched it in its entirety. It was actually not as good as I was expecting it to be. I realize it's an old movie, and that it was pretty controversial for its time (and likely still is to this day), but I just found it off at times. However, I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was more "British" in nature, so there is admittedly somewhat of a little disconnect there with me.

I love the overall arc of the story though..how Alex transforms from criminal leader to prisoner to victim and then somewhat back to "normal" (his original "normal") in the end. Some of the beating/rape scenes don't hold up for me though. One example that comes to mind is when he is kidnapped and beaten by his fellow droogs-turned-cops. The billy club in Georgie's (I think) was clearly fake, and he didn't sell me on the actual beating. I know that's a fairly miniscule thing, but it bugged me.

Overall, I thought it was a solid movie...I guess I just had higher hopes for it. I'd give it about a 7 out of 10 though, as I still enjoyed it and liked the story. I felt like it could have been about 30 minutes shorter though (some of the scenes just dragged on, but I guess that's Kubrick though), and that would have helped it IMO.


All in all, I thought 2001 was better than I was expecting, and ACO was worse, but both were very solid movies that I'd recommend to anybody who hasn't seen them.

What are ya'lls thoughts on these two classics..?