2010: The Year We Make Contact - The Best Sequel You Never Saw

one has to admire the ambition of making a

sequel

to perhaps the most influential science fiction film of all time and no, I'm not talking about Star Wars, I'm talking about Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Silly, that's what it is. was the movie that forever changed what anyone thought a sci-fi movie was capable of up to that point, it was mostly seen as some kind of kitty or throwaway genre, but 2001 A Space Odyssey was a cerebral masterpiece So how do you

make

a movie

sequel

? so when, of course, Stanley Kubrick had no interest in making a sequel, you would go with the only obvious choice: director Peter Himes, this is crazy, I bet he's the one who had directed Outland and Capricorn.

Well, well, maybe it won't be such an obvious choice later. everything, but I have to say a pretty inspired one because

2010

, the

year

we made

contact

, is a really underrated movie and it's the

best

movie this month you've ever seen about tea. Good morning, Dr. Chandra, that's how I'm ready for my first lesson, so this one. picks up nine

year

s after 2001's A Space Odyssey. Dave Bauman, the astronaut who of course became the star child in 2001, disappeared

never

to return, cure delay, he played him in 2001 and would also play him in

2010

. So in this movie, Discovery's mission supervisor 1, Haywood.

Floyd, who was the character in 2001 who was talking to his daughter on a satellite phone and everyone was shocked by the fact that you could talk to someone on a video screen, which of course we do now all the time, we'll be able to talk to each other Yeah. seen on television Haywood Floyd played by Roy Scheider this time he has the opportunity to participate in a joint mission of the USSR and the USA to see what went wrong there is only one problem the two countries are on the verge of an all-out nuclear war and The tension between the American and Soviet teams seeks to unleash an already impossible mission: a Russian ship on loan from Russians transporting a few poor Americans who need our help, so this film not only stars Warshider but also co-stars a young Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban and Kier de lie of course returns from 2001.

It has a really interesting score by David Shire and is written and directed by Peter Himes creating a sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey definitely sounds like mistakes from Fools, fools, that's what it is, which is one of the most acclaimed films ever made to be judged a success, the sequel would have to be some kind of masterpiece. In 1984, director Pierre Himes was coming off the success of Capricorn, which at the time was one of the most successful independent films. ever been made and it is definitely a little gem worth seeing. He had also made a couple of mid-level studio programmers like Star Chamber with Michael Douglas, which is now a completely forgotten film, but is actually a lot of fun and the underrated lead of Outland.

Sean Connery basically in a midday sci-fi twist decided he was going to try it and it's actually not as crazy an idea as it sounds because author Arthur C Clarke who wrote 2001 A Space Odyssey had also written a good one. . received the sequel to the book on which the 2001 original was based and MGM celebrating its Diamond Jubilee gave Heims a really healthy $28 million budget that was comparable to, you know, something like Return of the Jedi with stars Roy Scheider coming off Blue Thunder, which was a huge hit in 1983 and co-star John Lithgow recently scored back-to-back Oscar nominations for everyone according to GARP and terms of endearment, for a while it looked like 2010 was going to be a solid hit with Kubrick himself giving the film. his blessings reserved, even in some kind of strange cameo he plays the Soviet premiere, not in person, but there is a photo from Time magazine where the premiere is on the cover and it's actually Stanley Kubrick, so Hyams said that actually He went to see Stanley Kubrick. exactly what was going on and I wouldn't actually do the movie unless he approved it and I didn't necessarily think Stanley Kubrick was going to do it, but he said, sure, go ahead, I don't really care, he actually also told him not to do it. .

Be afraid and just

make

your own movie, which I think was pretty solid advice because 2010 really stands on its own. In fact, if you think 2001: A Space Odyssey isn't the masterpiece, everyone else seems to think it was you. You might still like 2010. It really does its thing and is a great little sci-fi movie in itself, unfortunately 2010 was little more than a middling hit at the box office, reviews were respectful if not overly enthusiastic and contrary to what popular. In my opinion, the movie was actually not a big financial failure, it made a very decent amount since 1984, $40 million and beat Dune at the box office and also did very well at the then Mason Home Video Market, even more .

The years that the film has banished Into Obscurity were not helped by the fact that, of course, the Cold War ended shortly after the film was released and that made the premise that the United States was on the brink of war with the Russians were prematurely outdated. In many ways, 2010 has always been something of a curiosity for fans. Now I'm not going to defend that 2010 is a film that comes close to Kubricks' film; It's not, and in fact I think making a sequel was a bad thing. idea in the first place because you can't really make a sequel to a genre-defining classic like that, it's always a bad idea, like making a sequel to Casablanca or Citizen Kane, silly, that's what it is, but Peter Himes really deserves something. credit for making a pretty decent sci-fi drama that would probably be held in much higher esteem if it weren't a sequel to what many people think is the

best

movie ever made.

It's an interesting counterpoint to the quintessential Blockbuster of the 80s that he always painted. Soviet villains as bloodthirsty maniacs, most children hear that the conflict between the two nations is presented as mere ideology and that, when you break it down, Soviet astronauts and their American counterparts are not that different in finding common ground. common from the beginning. The way the film is actually a compelling plea for peace, while it's certainly a bit quaint to see a film set in 2010 where the political issues haven't evolved beyond the '80s, it helps that Himes has put together a great team. that attracts a large number of people. a better-than-average cast, including Roy Scheider, who was still in his post-Jaws sweet spot as the quintessential Hollywood everyman.

They may be too blue-collar to play the intellectual Haywood, but he's a likable hero. Helen Mirren is the Soviet captain. for an intriguing counterpoint, as the respectful, if slightly adversarial, relationship is conveyed well throughout the entire film. I also appreciate the distinct lack of romance between the two, which would have been very cliché. The same goes for John Lithgow, who is fantastic as the designer of Discovery One and the great Bob Balaban as the in-house programmer because yes, Hal is back in the movie. Sorry for the delay, my voice recognition circuits are not fully restored although as you can see they are improving and in fact probably the greatest achievement of the film was that not only would Kier delay He would play Dave Bauman again, but Douglas Reign was going to return and voice Hal once again.

Now one of the big changes to the CIA vehicle is that Hal is now kind of a good guy with some dialogue explaining that Hal was reprogrammed for meddling. White House spies and now that he has been cleared of his bad connection he is a benevolent figure, in fact at the end he almost presents himself as some kind of Christian figure as he sacrifices himself to save everyone and if I don't proceed with the lean off and everyone in it could be destroyed, it's a nice twist and it would have been easy for homes to use how you meet a villain again and make it a generic Thriller and that's something he avoids since he really is the most heroic.

In the film, they also somehow forget about classical music, of course, which was one of the things that defined the year 2001, opting for an electronic score by David Shire that, while dated, is quite good. Overall, this movie is much more Apollo 13 than 2001 A Space Odyssey, but I really like that it does its own thing. Now there are some really nice moments in this movie that depict the gradual warming of relations between the Russian and American crews, and there are two in particular that are really nice of you. I know they're pretty emotional for a movie like this is the part of the movie where a dangerous move happens.

Roy Scheider is taking shelter and a tearful cosmonaut walks in because he basically just wants someone to hold her. I thought this was a really nice moment. and he is also devoid of any romance even though the cosmos is quite attractive and there is also a great scene with John Mithco's character when he panics while spacewalking and is saved by a Russian astronaut. Moments like these really elevate In my opinion, the movie is pretty watchable in 2010, it's available on Blu-ray and digital HD, and it looks a hell of a lot better than when I watched it on VHS over and over again in the '80s and '90s. now Peter Himes is a very interesting director and he's one of our favorites here at the best movie you've

never

seen.

I've talked about many of his films in the past, including Running Scared, which was his follow-up to this one with Gregory Hines, and Billy Crystal and I have always thought he was an excellent journeyman director and it's interesting to hear Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery pay tribute to him repeatedly on the new Video Archives podcast while reviewing a couple of his films, including Busting and The Relic, which Tarantino seems to think is completely underrated, he's generally considered something of a journeyman due to the fact that he opted to primarily film studio programmers, but I don't know, I mean, he wrote a lot of these movies and he was also always their director of photography.

He is also a very good cinematographer and shot many of his son John Himes' films and, for the record, John Himes is also an excellent director. Some of Peter Himes' movies are excellent, like Running Scared or Outland, some of them are pretty terrible. including perhaps the worst Ray Bradbury adaptation, A Sound of Thunder, but 2010 belong to songs from I think probably his best film, Capricorn, as an example of him as a top-notch Hollywood director, again, this is nowhere near the level of a Stanley Kubrick film. but it's much better than he had any right to be and is worth a look so the curious fan can separate it from the original goodbye, Dr.

Chandra.