This week comes the most dreaded film on the syllabus: 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that I have seen and failed to understand (much less stay awake during) many times before in the past.

So your intrepid reviewer skipped going to class last night in favor of doing such exciting things as applying for federal student loans for the fall semester, washing out my garbage can with hot water and pinesol and trimming my toenails. Which are the exact activities that one should always consider doing instead of watching 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I hate to say that this film is very boring, but it is. Yeah, I get it, there are monkeys banging bones on a black monolith, Dave and the crew stop at the howard johnson’s on the moon, there is some vaguely psychedelic light show in the middle and Hal the computer goes insane. I understand it, but damn, do we have look at those repeated long montages of instrument panels?

My favorite thing about this film was the comic book adaptation that Marvel comics did that was drawn by Jack Kirby. You could tell that Kirby got very bored with the film too and started to make up his own story that had nothing to do with the film. It’s quite funny in retrospect, though I don’t remember any of the exact details right off hand.

next week on the syllabus: The Harder They Come

jareddriskill