Product Details

• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Russian
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.com
No director could ever have hoped to repeat the artistic achievement of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and nobody knew that better than Peter Hyams, who made this much more conventional film from the first of three sequel novels by Arthur C. Clarke. Whereas Kubrick made a poetic film of mind-expanding ideas and metaphysical mysteries, Hyams shouldn't be blamed for taking a more practical, crowd-pleasing approach. In revealing much of what Kubrick deliberately left unexplained, 2010 lacks the enigmatic awe of its predecessor, but it's still a riveting tale of space exploration and extraterrestrial contact, beginning when a joint American-Soviet mission embarks to determine the cause of failure of the derelict spaceship Discovery. Having arrived at Discovery near the planet Jupiter, the American mission leader (Roy Scheider) and his Russian counterpart (Helen Mirren) must investigate the apparent failure of the ship's infamous onboard computer, HAL 9000, as well as the meaning of countless mysterious black monoliths amassing on Jupiter's surface (an interpretation Kubrick originally left up to his viewers). Meanwhile, Earth is on the brink of nuclear war, and an apparition of astronaut David Bowman (Keir Dullea) appears to repeatedly promise that "something wonderful" is about to happen. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Transfer is not standard DVD resolution
Once again, the stupid people responsible for doing transfers do an inferior transfer. Instead of using the standard DVD resolution of 720x480, they chose instead to use something more like 640x427. Honestly, I don't understand why they decide to do it this way, there should be plenty of room on the DVD, since they put the pan and scan version on the other side of the disc. I've run into a few DVDs like this and it pissed me off every time.

The saga continues ...
What everybody should know about 2010: It is not 2001! Sounds stupid, but it explains about everything. 2010 is the continuation of the storyline of 2001, but it tells the story in a completely different way.

2001 was slow and silent. It was filled with emotions and impressions. 2010 offers the same but combines it with a far more interesting plot. On one hand it tells the story nine years after the Discovery Incident, as a team of russian and american scientists try to find answers and on the other hand it explains the fate of Bowman and HAL 9000 ... and ultimately of mankind.

The movie never gets boring and keeps you guessing until the end. The actors are marvelous. The hangar scene between Floyd (Roy Scheider) and Bowman (Keir Dullea) alone is better than any other scene in 2001. The russian/american conflict may be a bit out of date (! ), but it never spoils the movies true message.

2010 is not better than 2001. It is different. It is the answer to a question and the beginning of a new one. You have to watch this film. And i also recommend the other two (book) sequels from Arthur C. Clarke (2061 and 3001).

What widescreen was that?
First of all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable movie--I would certainly give it 4 stars. However, despite the fact that the DVD is labeled as "Anamorphic" *and* the box says "Enhanced for Widescreen", the DVD I received (the October 2000 release) is a rather poor letter-box transfer with a lot of noticeable artifacts. Overall, a very poor showing.

Given the extremely poor DVD transfer on 2001, it is a shame that 2001 and 2010 are now the two worst quality DVDs in my collection. Grrrr.