2010: The Year We Make Contact [Blu-ray]

Overview

This belated sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is directed by Peter Hyams. Roy Scheider plays the astronaut/skipper of a U.S.-Soviet space mission, sent to find out what happened to the missing Discovery flight that carried Keir Dullea into the beyond in the original 2001. Scheider's polyglot crew includes Americans John Lithgow and Bob Balaban (the latter a computer whiz, responsible for the notorious HAL 9000) and Russians Helen Mirren, Elya Baskin and Natasha Schneider. The reason for this international mixture is that the world is on the brink of nuclear war, and it is hoped that the space mission will assure east-west solidarity (in this respect, 2010 dates far more than 2001, given the collapse of the Iron Curtain). When the astronauts catch up with Dullea, still in orbit around Jupiter, producer/director/writer Hyams attempts to demystify the enigmatic climax of 2001. Arthur C. Clarke, author of the story upon which 2001 was based, appears in 2010 as a man on a park bench. Incidentally, the voice-over credited to Olga Mallsnerd is actually Candice Bergen. (The name Mallsnerd is a play on the name of one of the characters created by her ventriloquist father Edgar.)

Product Details

Release Date:	04/07/2009
UPC:	0883929051069
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	11,898

Special Features

Vintage featurette 2010: The Odyssey Continues; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Roy Scheider	Dr. Heywood Floyd
John Lithgow	Dr. Walter Curnow
Helen Mirren	Tanya Kirbuk
Bob Balaban	Dr. R. Chandra
Keir Dullea	Dave Bowman
Madolyn Smith	Caroline Floyd
Dana Elcar	Dimitri Moisevitch
Taliesin Jaffe	Christopher Floyd
James McEachin	Victor Milson
Mary Jo Deschanel	Betty Fernandez
Elya Baskin	Maxim Brailovsky
Savely Kramarov	Vladimir Rudenko,Dr. Vladimir Rudenko
Oleg Rudnik	Vasali Orlov
Natasha Schneider	Irina Yakunina
Vladimir Skomarovsky	Yuri Svetlanov
Victor Steinbach	Mikolai Ternovsky
Jan Triska	Alexander Kovalev
Herta Ware	Jessie Bowman
Robert Lesser	Dr. Hirsch
Natasha Shneider	Irina Yakunina
Larry Carroll	Anchorman on TV
Cheryl Carter	Nurse
Ron Recasner	Hospital Neurosurgeon
Delana Michaels	Commercial Announcer
Gene McGarr	Commercial Announcer
Arthur C. Clarke	Man on Park Bench
Douglas Rain	HAL 9000
Candice Bergen	SAL 9000
Penny Perry	Actor
David Shire	Composer

Technical Credits

Peter Hyams

Peter Hyams	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Richard Edlund	Special Effects
Henry Millar	Special Effects
James Arnett	Stunts
Penny Perry	Casting
Gary Morgan	Stunts
Mic Rodgers	Stunts
Freddie Hice	Stunts
Robert Harman	Stunts
Julia Phillips	Producer
John Meier	Stunts
Warren Hamilton	Sound Editor
Michael Kohut	Sound/Sound Designer
Gene Cantamessa	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

Peter Hyams wrote and directed this financially successful but hugely disappointing sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, that revisits many of the mysteries introduced by that earlier picture. The story concerns a group of astronauts played by Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren and others, who travel to Jupiter to learn what became of interstellar voyager Dave Bowman, the spaceship Discovery, and the computer HAL 9000. The combination of the central premise and the movie's star power sounds tantalizing enough that it isn't difficult to see why MGM/UA greenlit the project. Though creating any sequel to 2001 means setting the bar exceptionally high, 2010 falls far shorter than one might expect. The delight of the Kubrick film lay in its enigmatic qualities - the cosmic riddles that it outlined but never solved. In attacking this sequel, some critics have accused Hyams of deflating Kubrick's mysteries. This isn't exactly true - we never learn the origins of 2001's monoliths, for example, or the true nature of the embryonic Star Child. What we get, instead, is in many ways far more upsetting: a series of constant promises that "something wonderful is going to happen" and then an idiotic conclusion that desecrates the movie - and that seems ripped-off from the denouement of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Even more unfortunate is the fact that Hyams avoids creating the sort of timeless science fiction parable that he could have constructed, and instead ties the picture's conclusion to mid-1980s Cold War tropes and ideologies - which makes the film feel hopelessly dated. To its credit, 2010 does contain some excellent performances by its three leads. It also benefits from excellent special effects (created by Dick Edlund) that outstrip the original. From scene to scene, Edlund and Hyams skillfully bring off the haunting vastness of space, and a few sights here (such as the out-of-control Discovery, spinning frenetically on its central axis above Jupiter, and a bizarre aberration that eventually forms on that planet's surface) are chilling to behold. But why the decision to almost completely omit the Star Child from the drama? For two hours, promised by the film's posters, we wait for that magnificent being to materialize - rounding the bend of one of the planets or suddenly manifesting itself as a colossal entity in space. But that never happens; instead, it only appears for a couple of seconds as a tiny apparition in one of the spaceships. Lame. Fans of the original picture who haven't seen this dud are strongly advised to avoid it altogether; it's a senseless waste of time and effort from all concerned.

All Movie Guide - Nathan Southern