2001: A Space Travesty (2000)

Leslie Nielsen got a new lease on his long career with the "Airplane" movies...which led to "Police Squad" and the "Police Squad" movies. All of these had a few things in common...excellent writing as well as the Abrams/Zucker alliance. In other words, Nielsen alone was NOT the reason these projects were so funny. This is sadly apparent in a string of films he made with hack writers/directors...resulting in crap films like "Repossessed", "Scary Movie IV" and this one, "2001: A Space Travesty". Watch it if you'd like....but don't expect it to be funny nor worth your time. And remember...it's not just my opinion...the film is #73 on IMDB's infamous Bottom 100 list!

So why didn't I enjoy this film? Well, to put it bluntly, the film was cheap and unfunny. Many of the special effects and costumes were dreadfully bad...especially at the beginning with the "2001" intro parody. Additionally, too often the movie went for cheap childish laughs instead of clever ones...relying too often on things such as farts, rip-away dresses and crude character names (such as Dick Dix and Miss Menage). By comparison, Mel Brooks' worst films seem like works of genius by comparison. Overall, a tedious and mostly unfunny film seemingly written by untalented chimps....very untalented ones.

Fmovies: i guess i have seen this movie. i've watched the first 15 minutes of it several times, and once i even watched the first 20 minutes. why do i keep trying? because i really like Leslie Nielsen. why don't i watch the whole thing? because it's awful. no, it's worse than awful. it's pathetic, and it's embarrassing. the jokes are not funny, not even when they are off-color. ("stifficus" for a constellation? come on, come on.) do i somehow think it's going to be better the next time i watch? i must think so, because i keep trying. and i suppose one of these days i will try again. it's very sad to see a long-time favorite star descend to such depths. i felt the same way with "the world's greatest lover" with gene wilder. well, i guess it's back to "naked gun" and "dracula - dead and loving it."

Leslie Nielsen is one of the most funniest comedians in Hollywood. He should've retired from acting with honour, before starring in this horrible unfunny film!

The jokes were childish, and I squirmed in my seat every time a joke was delivered. It's very sad Leslie has succumbed to this kind of silly nonsense, it was an embarrassment to watch.

I hope Mr Nielsen will go back to his hilarious roots and make more funny movies like the 'Naked Gun' trilogy, and 'Spy Hard'.

2001: A Space Travesty fmovies. Ewww! I saw this on a plane and was thunderstruck over how awful it was. The writing was virtually joke-free, and the direction incompetent. Even the sight gags--which are the easiest part of comedy to pull off, were lame and uninspired. Leslie Nielsen has really embarrassed himself here. In his successful Zucker Brothers spoofs, he's a master at playing ridiculous scenes completely straight, and thereby making the funny stuff work. Here he acts desperate. He mugs just to inject some life into the dreariness of it all, and, as other reviewers have mentioned, embarrasses himself mightily. If you want to see him in a movie devoid of intentional laughs, check out the original POSEIDON ADVENTURE. At least that flick has some inadvertent giggles.

For years I have been suffering Insomnia but then I got my hands on the DVD of 2001 A Space Travesty... for weeks now I have been trying to watch the movie for more than fifteen minutes but I can't... I fall asleep every time. So this movie is absolutely brilliant... as a cure for insomnia!

Now I do like spoof movies, when they are funny and done right. There are some funny spoofs around, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety and Loaded Weapon 1 for example, but the spoof genre has also had some excrement such as Disaster Movie and Epic Movie. 2001: A Space Travesty is not as bad as any of the worst of Friedberg and Seltzer. However, that is not saying much, 2001:A Space Travesty is still a terrible movie, being contrived, embarrassing and unfunny and it makes you think what possessed Leslie Nielson to take on this project.

As I said in the review title, the irony in the word "travesty" is correct. To be honest, while hardly clever or original the title is the best asset of this movie, as well as the end credits which was the only time in the entire movie when I cracked a smile, you know immediately there is something wrong when that is the case. The production values are cheap, with the costumes more reminiscent of fancy dress, shoddy camera work, dismal special effects and wobbly sets. The soundtrack is poorly thought out, In the Navy by The Three Tenors especially felt as though it was shoe horned in.

The story is predictable and almost a non-event, the pace didn't draw me in in any way and the direction was decidedly patchy. Also the characters are little more than stereotypes and caricatures and really bad ones at that with names that felt like poor Carry On lampoons. The acting is terrible, yes including from the talented Leslie Nielson. Nielson shows he can be funny as with Naked Gun and Airplane, which are comedy classics in my opinion, but he overacts and mugs shamelessly here which saddened me hugely. Everyone else either overplay, are bland or seem to be playing themselves. Worse is the humour, the film just isn't funny and is filled with the crude and vulgar kind of humour that doesn't come close to the inspired zaniness of the best of the spoof genre. The homages and references to sci-fis such as 2001:A Space Odyssey(one of my favourite films) are obvious and poorly thought out and the script is abysmal and didn't make me laugh one time.

In conclusion, not the worst of the genre but a mess all the same. 2/10 Bethany Cox