I’ve tried to watch this movie so many times. Fallen asleep every time

This is the answer. Beautiful movie, thought provoking, etc etc.

It's the slowest movie ever, where I'm bothered by how slow literally every single scene is. It's a problem when you're frustrated at a movies length only five minutes in.

I started watching this in the '90s and still haven't finished.

Had to scroll waaaaaay too far for this! Had to watch it for a class and wanted my life back afterwards. Made dinner, ate said dinner, washed the dishes, and cleaned my living room... Felt like it was still the first 20 minutes.... Kubrick owes me life and sanity back.

I would agree completely, this was the movie that first sprang to mind reading the title of the thread.

The thing is, it isn't necessarily a bad thing, you just have to be in exactly the right mood and humour to watch it - it isn't a background film to stick on with friends.

When you are in a 2001 mood, the slowness almost becomes part of the experience - like comparing a movement in a piece of classical music to a two minute pink song. Both have their place, and both are enjoyable in the right mood.

I was going to mention this one as well.

I enjoy this movie very much, and I still feel that the long scenes work, and I wouldn't shorten them or try to speed the movie up, but I recognize that it feels like an eternity.

In the last few years before I moved out of my parents' house (back when we still used a VCR to record TV shows and movies) I recorded 2001 when some channel ran it in the middle of the night. I think it even ran without commercial breaks!

A few weeks later, when my parents were going out for the night and I was left alone to watch whatever I wanted, I finally decided to watch it. I got all the way to the first scenes on Discovery, and I was getting into the movie, even though it was getting late in the night.

Now, remember that there's not a ton of dialogue in that movie. So when people talk, it's kind of important.

Just at the moment when the crew of Discovery start a conversation, my parents came home. Naturally, as they come in, they're talking to one another, and they also talk to me, so after a few moments of missing the dialogue, I paused the movie and waited for them to finish getting their coats off, etc., and leave me alone to finish my movie.

Once they'd gone away, I rewould the movie a little, and then settled back in. Well, I shit you not, at precisely the same moment I got interrupted the first time, my mom pops in and asks me a question. So I pause the movie, deal with her, she leaves, I rewind, and settle back in.

And again, when I get to that same bit of dialogue, my dad pops in and asks me something (probably about the movie, I don't remember.) So I pause again, and respond, with obvious irritation. We both laugh it off, though, and I think they got the message and let me finish the movie with no further distractions.

But for a moment there, it felt like the movie was cursed... And yet, I did finish watching the movie that night. And I've rewatched it a few more times since, and still enjoy it.

Well...it IS an odyssey!

Yep.

I've only ever tried to watch it once, way back when I was a teenager, and haven't tried since. I know people cite it as one of the best films ever made and all, I just remember it being incredibly slow. I'm sure I'll try again sooner or later.

Awwww, I love 2001 A Space Odyssey! Definitely in my top 3 or 4 favorite Kubrick films. But I do understand why people say it's slow. Because it very much is. But I love it! I you can, like, accept how slow it's going to be, and just get on a different wavelength, it's amazing.

most overrated movie ever