User Reviews

Watching this on television the other day, I instantly felt great remorse for star Leslie Nielsen. After the success of the "Naked Gun" series, he has been restricted to a career of playing the same character over...and over...and over....

This time, he is US Marshall "Dick" Dix (the first of many human anatomy puns/so-called "jokes"). I wonder how long it took them to come up with that one in the writing room.

"How about Agent Butt K. Isser?" "How about Agent T. Itz?" "No, wait guys! I've got it! Dick Dix! Haha we're comedic geniuses!" The budget is very obviously on the low end. Special effects are terrible. The film tries to lampoon the space travel segments of Kubrick's "2001" and fails miserably. Nielsen sucks food through a straw and can't manage to get it up the straw the whole way. Hahaha I chuckled all night thinking of that one! Or how about the woman in the back of the space shuttle who has huge breasts and manages to accidentally shed out of her clothes, which float around and slap Nielsen in the face? No, it couldn't have been the ugly fat woman whose clothes magically disappear...it's the busty blonde...I love Hollywood.

I'm curious: doesn't Leslie Nielsen (once a decent actor) read the scripts of the movies he's playing in anymore? It seems that nowadays all the writers or director of a movie need to do is tell Nielsen: Hey we're gonna make fun of some other movies, interested? And Nielsen would just sit there like, 'yeah'!

Instead of what the title would assume, 2001's main victim isn't A Space Odyssey but the more recent Men In Black. But, having said that, I cannot think of one decent joke relating to that movie. Nor can I tell here what the story is all about... it's got something to do with the president being swapped with a clone, or not, or whatever.

By lack of anything good to offer director Goldstein just throws some lusty women into it, but perhaps it says all that no well-known woman apparently would like to take up the job, so we have to do with an unknown French woman and an unknown German one...

In fact, I don't know of any reason why I should recommend this movie. Some lame jokes are just about OK, but nothing more than a 2/10 if you'd ask me.

This is like finding out that 6th grader who's always jumping over stuff with his mountainbike is lactose intolerant. Leslie Nielsen plays a guy called Dick Dix in this movie, and guess what, that's one of the better jokes. It's absolutely painful to see Leslie Nielsen in this movie, desperately looking for one bit of material that he could make work. The script centers mostly around slapstick that doesn't go over at all, but sometimes it takes a break from that and goes for some terrible political satire. This is a movie that gets a Clinton impersonator, and focuses on how he plays the saxophone. That's hard-hitting satire right there. Remember how Clinton always played the saxophone? I do, kinda. Later Nielsen narrates about a woman's finesse while she's beating everyone up. Comedy. Pavarotti also threatens to castrate a guy, the pope swears, the three tenors sing "In The Navy", did Germans write this or something? The type of comedy isn't even consistent, one time it's the aforementioned slapstick, then it's "satire", then suddenly the writers remembered they didn't have any in-jokes yet. So they put in like ten in a row. This thing sucks like you wouldn't believe.

When my nephew picked this out from the video store, I sighed but felt carefully optimistic. After we sat through an hour and a half of this unrelenting hell, I told him to leave and never return.

Let me give you an idea of just how bad this movie is. The end credits are literally the best part of the film. There are enough joke names and bits strewn about to make you crack a smile. The only problem is that to get there you have to slog through ninety minutes of the most unfunny slapstick I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing.

I'm serious: my thirteen-year-old nephew thought this movie was stupid. And it's rated R. What exactly is going on here? There's a zero gravity scene that's so painfully ridiculous that it sucked the humor not just from our living room, but adjoining apartments as well.

Believe me when I say I have done humanity a favor by viewing this film and warning the public to stay away. As bad as Rollerball is reputed to be, it can't be worse than this. All John McTiernan has to say is, "At least I didn't make 2001: A Space Travesty" and people will have to admit that he has a point. Had Albert Pyun directed this, people would have expected an apology.

Once more: I cannot stress how horrendous this movie is. Quit wasting time reading about this and go do something worthwhile, like churning butter or feeding the homeless. I consider this film one of the worst moments of my life thus far.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Leslie, Leslie, Leslie, what happened to the days when you asked us to stop calling you Shirley? To the days when you and that Priscilla whatever-her-last-name-is were laughing while walking out of a movie theater playing, "Platoon"? To the days when--

I guess you get the idea. It's not that Leslie Nielson doesn't have the acting ability; it's that the movie is probably the stupidest and worst comedy to come along in my lifetime. It broke dead even with Mystic River in the laughs department: none (unless you count after the movie, in which case Mystic River is way ahead. Academy Awards, ha!). I kept waiting for something funny to happen and the movie to suddenly go good, for everyone to pop out and go, "Hey! It was all just a joke! We only wanted you to think that the movie sucked because then the rest of the movie is great!"

Didn't happen. Avoid at all costs. I mean, I LOVE Leslie Nielson and it still sucked. Oh, well; at least he's not doing porn.

I have just had the displeasure of viewing what can only be described as an abysmal shambles.

The film starts of as bad as it finishers, with you being drip fed drivel from beginning to end.

It is so bad, it causes friendships to be cut and relationships to end. It ruins the careers of those in it and the lives of those that have seen it. It should have this warning on the box.

I paid £3 for the film, and it was £3 over priced. You should be paid to watch it, not the other way around.

The $45,000,000 budget would be better used in cash to wipe my rear end.

The only reason you would want to buy this is to get the few seconds of pleasure that come from knowing you have taken a copy of the shelves to pop in the bin.

DVD players should be encoded to prevent poor films such as this to even reach display monitors.

If you have considered buying this feature, you should be ashamed and embarrassed of yourself for getting that far.

I drank heavy for 3 days after seeing this film just to try and block the mental images and thoughts of every cast member making a fool out of me and them.

I would like to make an official apology to my friends and family for letting you down and making you watch such garbage.

Avoid like the plague.

I kinda watched this film in a bad mood hoping for a good laugh, Leslie Neilson always makes me laugh. Especially parody movies, since I wasn't into 2001: A Space Odessey, I thought that this was a fun looking movie that would make fun of that film. Well, it turned into something pretty bad, I really couldn't find myself laughing at any of the situations, which is sad, because I find the stupidest situations very funny and I am easily amused. But I was curious if maybe it was my bad mood that killed the comedy for me, but I looked on IMDb before watching it again and it's not just me apparently.

Well, a some what take off of the Naked Gun series, only in outer space situations, Leslie is now Dick Dix, a clumsy detective that is sent to a planet called Vegan where he learns that President Clinton has been kidnapped and cloned and that the clone is on Earth with bad intentions for the world. Or as it seems, Dick actually plants the clone by accident and well... it just wasn't funny.

The jokes tried too hard and the story was just weak, it could have been something special, but unfortunately they took too much advantage of the Naked Gun series, which was pretty sad. I know Leslie can do much better and he has, so I forgive him. For those users who are looking for a recommendation here, I'm not going to give you one because like I said, I thought it was just me that didn't like the film, but I think the rating is enough warning in itself.

3/10

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

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.

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."

Having watched this cheesy piece of pure nonsense made me want to comment on it: The best way to enjoy this movie is to remove your brain. If you don't do so, you'll either wish you'd have done it before or switch the film off after 15 minutes. The best one can expect from this movie are old, washed-out puns from the "Naked Gun" - everything else is just plain silly humour, tasteless "fart-jokes" and cheap boob-thrills. I wonder what makes any director or actor want to take part in something like this - what is the target-group for this kind of cinema? The homages to any science-fiction movie are so subtle, that no one would mention them or they are so embarrassing stupid, that you wouldn't mention them without being ashamed of remembering: Sad, sad 87 minutes for every Leslie Nielsen enthusiast. If I could, I would rate this movie with 0 stars, but unfortunately - as I found out - I have to give it at least one.

Marshal "Dick" Dix is a master of getting himself in awkward situations.He is told that the President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, has been cloned.He is then sent to moon base called Vegan to safe the situation.He is helped by the attractive Cassandra Menage.2001: A Space Travesty (2000) is directed by Allan A. Goldstein.The film parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and so on.Leslie Nielsen is very funny as Dix.Ophélie Winter is fantastic as Menage.Peter Egan is very good as Dr. Griffin Pratt.Damian Mason does terrific job as Clinton.Ezio Greggio is great as Capt. Valentino DiPasquale.Michel Perron gives a great portrayal of Luciano Pavarotti.Same thing with Teresa Barnwell as Hillary Clinton.Recently we lost this great comedian, Leslie Nielsen.He could make any film slightly bit better.Without him this would be a much worse film.Many people call this a total turkey, but I'm not one of those people.It made me laugh a few times watching Leslie causing a riot in outer space and on Earth.The terrorist hostage situation in the beginning reminds a bit of The Naked Gun.And it's quite hilarious when he makes a mess at the villain's office, destroying his Vegan model and spreads paint all over the place.The Three Tenors at the end were hilarious.Leslie Nielsen, I raise my hat to thee.

Movies like the Naked Gun and Airplane are classic comedies. This movie while DEFINITLY not up there it at least was somewhat decent. A lot of the humor is actually quite funny I thought but then there are many stupid I just didn't laugh at. Depending on your type of humor will most likely depend on much you enjoy the movie. Unless you are a die-hard Leslie Nielsen fan, I would definitly say you won't enjoy the movie totally.

6/10

It was a slow day, with rain stopping the play at the US Open. As a result I managed to watch the entire movie. And it can be summed up as: unfunny trash, garbage and total waste of time! Throughout the entire movie I was thinking how could the actors be part of it and not realize how utterly bad this was? Not one joke was funny. And I do not mean "laughing out loud" funny. Not even "a chuckle" funny. If children indulged in that sort of spectacle, maybe one could forgive them. But watching adults, hopefully conscious adults, in this trash defies all explanations. I don't care how much they were paid. Showing the the world that you can lower your standards to this, just to be paid, is demeaning. This movie is a proof that mind altering drug use is rampant in Hollywood, as I can't imagine anybody with clear mind reading the script and thinking that this is a movie they wish to make and have their names associated with.

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!

I quite honestly could not watch much of this movie. I did have it playing all the way to the credits, just to be fair however.

What completely turned me off of it was that the type of humor that was so well crafted into airplane and the first two naked gun movies has unfortunately been made so blatantly vulgar by whoever directed this film that it is not funny. You could watch the same scene in Mr. Neilson's earlier films 3 and 4 times and find a new joke every time.

This waste of celluloid wants to be risqué, but is not willing to deal with adult humor at an honest level. This 'suggestive' humor is not all that funny since the whole point of a dirty joke is to be dirty. The rest of the humor is not complex enough to warrent more than five minutes of attention.

On the positive side- production value is adequate. The film does not appear to be a bargain budget piece that one would see as a Sci-Fi channel original's series.

Bottom line:

Unless you have an unnatural obsession for Leslie Neilson films- skip this one.

What were they thinking. This is the most unfunny comedy film I've ever seen. What it tries to pass off as comedy is sexist and childish. It's almost as if they lifted a script from the 1970s.

I just wanted to make that joke because this movie is painfully awful.

Oh how the almost mighty have fallen. Leslie Nielsen may not be regarded as a comedic genius by anyone's standards, but he has made some stupid, but enjoyable films in his career. In contrast, his latest, "2001: A Space Travesty", is just stupid, a very poor rehash of Leslie Nielsen's "Naked Gun" series and character with dated attempts of humor that just aren't funny.

Leslie Nielsen is Richard Dick Dix, a total rip-off of his Lt. Frank Drebin, his most well-known role from "Police Squad!" and the "Naked Gun" series. As his name and the film's R rating already tell, instead of going for light-hearted stupid slapstick comedy a la most of Nielsen's other films, "2001: AST" attempts light-hearted stupid sexual comedy. This in itself wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't fail so miserably at it. There is a ton of crude toilet and sexual humor, and none of it is funny to anyone over the age of 10 (and the majority of it wouldn't be funny to anyone under that age either). Nielsen's trademark straight delivery of absurd lines and situations is still present, but the material isn't by any means even remotely funny so it doesn't work.

A good portion of the material is not only unfunny, but dated as well. A Bill Clinton impersonator playing the President is OK considering production of the film began in 2000 and probably before the new election, but scenes near the end featuring "celebrities" include impersonations of the Three Tenors, Madonna, Prince, and Hulk Hogan. This dated nature can also apply to the jokes; in reality they are no different than those in "Naked Gun", except that the last film in that series was made almost ten years ago, and sex-based humor has moved on, which would explain why it's just not funny. Director Allan Goldstein and writer Alan Shearman have no expertise in comedy to notice or help matters much. Shearman in particular hasn't written a comedy since 1990, which further explains the dated feel of the film.

Perhaps if this film had been released 10-15 years ago it would be funny. I would still be a child who would appreciate the attempts at toilet humor, and lewd sexual comedy was still on this level. The dated "celebrity" in-jokes may have even made sense. Even then, however, this film would still be known as the worst "Naked Gun" film. Released today, my ideas of comedy have matured much past this simple childish toilet humor, the dated jokes make no sense, and it's just terrible, by far one of the worst films I have ever seen.

A yet another Leslie Nielsen movie. I've always enjoyed his movies since they had an ability to make one laugh... hard. But, lately something has started to go wrong. His last movies were not funny at all. It may be because of Nielsen's age or because of directors presumption that having Leslie in his movie will guarantee a success. Although he tries to make the movie work it fails completely. Moments where you will catch yourself smiling (not laughing) can be counted with one hand and the whole plot fails in the middle of the movie where it is being turned into a boring and long theater scene. The whole idea about having Nielsen play a Magoo like character has failed miserably because it's not funny anymore - this time dear old Leslie doesn't have to play, he simply is old!

Also the FX in this movie don't seem to work well. Although you might think they don't have to for a comedy. But in the case of this movie it's different. The authors tried to use CG but 90% of the time it simply looks fake and stupid, not funny.

So, for me the movie is a complete failure. They would have done better hiring some good script writers instead of trying to use the same old tricks with the same OLD guy.

As a Zucker Adams Zucker fan I would say this is the worst film Leslie has appeared in. It isn't funny, at all. The pacing of the film tries to compensate for its non existent humor. Avoid this unredeemable film.

Attempted viewing this on comedy central, gave it a try for 65 minutes and could not finish watching this crap. This movie would have not been funny in 1925 with old tired jokes and one liners. Poke yourself in the eye with a blunt stick and go to the hospital, you will get more enjoyment of that.

I love Leslie Neilsen, but the fact is he hasn't been in a good movie since Dracula: Dead and Loving it. Wrongfully Accused had some moments, but Mr. Magoo and Safety Patrol were absolutely unwatchable. This isn't as bad as those movies. You could watch this movie at least and even laugh once in awhile. I will admit the three tenors singing In the Navy at the end was a funny bit, but you have to be under ten to really enjoy this movie. 5/10

Lot's of negative reports on this one. But let's face it, it wasn't meant to be a serious movie at all. First take you're daily dose of Prozac twice, otherwise y'll may get depressed, thinking this one should be taken seriously. After that, have a bottle of some strong booze in front of you and look at this one. I liked it, not because it was a good comedy or something, but I respected how someone is capable of making a movie like this. You'll have to see this movie as a game. Use you're remote over and over again, zoom in, play some parts frame by frame and try to recover all jokes (or 'jokes', come on..), idiotic things, and stupidity in this one. I bet that those who have the most negative criticism on this one , haven't noticed for 50% how many and silly stupid jokes are made in it. OK, it's hilarious, but it should be. I enjoyed watching it and even watched it twice, noticing new 'jokes'and 'stupidity' the second time. I'm sure if I see it again I will still notice new 'jokes' e.d. For that reason alone I liked watching this movie. So I'm not complaining that this one is no comedy, it's an interactive game using you're remote and try to find all 'jokes' and other stuff. There many more than one might expect. It's a parody, not a real comedy. If you keep that in mind, it's well worth watching. And remember: Try to find them all........

7 out of 10

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.