So far the only one that I haven't really like was "2001: a space oddysey". I couldn't make sense of it. If anyone has the meaning behind that movie please clue me in.
Just watched it again last weekend from the same Blockbuster plan you have. It's one of my favorites. All of Kubrick's movies are open to interpretation, but this is one that he refused to explain, preferring to let viewers come up with their own ideas. But here is my take which is pretty consistent with general consensus.
*Spoiler Alert*
The movie is divided into three movements. In the first, "The Dawn of Man", the focus is on prehuman apes. A tribe of them encounters the smooth, black monolith and are drawn to it. When one ape touches it he learns to pick up a bone and use it as a tool. The apes learn to use the bones to kill and eat other animals. After eating meat, presumably for the first time, one ape uses a bone to kill another ape from a rival tribe. This is the beginning of human development as after touching the monolith the apes learn to use tools to influence the world around them.
The second movement occurs millions of years later and focuses on a space mission in which a second monolith has been uncovered, intentionally buried on the moon. This has been kept completely secret. Dr. Heywood Floyd approaches and touches the monolith just like the apes in the opening movement. The monolith emits some type of horrible high pitched noise and all of the astronauts are in visible pain.
The movie then cuts into the third movement which takes place 18 months later on board the Discovery One near Jupiter on another secret mission which is not known to the crew. The onboard computer, HAL, malfunctions and tries to kill the crew. When David Bowman manages to shut HAL down, a recorded message from Dr. Floyd (of the second movement) plays explaining the finding of the second monolith and the nature of the Discovery's mission. He says that the monolith sent a radio signal to Jupiter (which was the shrieking noise) and the Discovery was sent to explore it. The Discovery one docks with the third monolith which is in orbit around the planet. The planet aligns with its moons and the monolith and Bowman is transported across the universe to a Victorian style room in which he watches himself age and die as a fourth monolith appears. As he reaches to it he is tranformed into a fetus (called the Starchild) and the movie ends.
I think the monolith represents a higher form of intelligence that guides and inspires human development and evolution. It pushes apes forward into humans. When humans have aquired the means to find it again (buried on the moon) it triggers deeper exploration into space. The human that finds it again by exploring even further is reborn as the Starchild, which sybolizes the next step in evolution, whatever that may be. It really helps to watch it a few times to get deeper into it.
Hope that helps.
Demo Dick