2001: A Space Odyssey

[jackass]

it sounds like a waste of time

Its not a waste of time. Its the most meaningful film you'll ever see.

Yes, its a bit slow in some places, and its very strange & confusing, but its good.

I'm sure you would of heard of it, with the computer called HAL (Picture below!)

Heres the ending - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3sM2eElcI (Don't see it if you want to see the film, it will ruin it!)

[Neversoft]

Well aparrently Dave travels through space and time and gets reborn as the 'star child'. I had no idea what the hell was going on either. I wonder if Kubrick did...

From IMDB.
It's not explicitly discussed in the movie. We see Bowman go on some kind of a journey after meeting the Monolith around Jupiter, arrive in a Renaissance style room, age, die before one of the Monoliths, and return as the mysterious "star child" watching over the Earth.

As noted above, there is a very clean, literal "hard sci-fi" version in Clarke's novel, but the director felt that viewers should be left to puzzle it out for themselves.

As for the monoliths. They seem to help things evolve, such as the apes in the Dawn of Man sequence learning how to fight with weapons and stuff.

Again, from IMDB.
The monoliths are either aliens or manifestations of an alien intelligence. They were placed to observe and assist in the transformation of humanity. Each of the three monoliths encountered appear to have a different purpose. The apes' contact with the one in the 'Dawn of Man' sequence is what sparked the development of human intelligence. The one found on the moon served as a beacon to send a strong radio signal to Jupiter when it was unearthed (i.e. when the Sun's rays hit it). The third, located at the Lagrange point between Io and Jupiter, served as the stargate that transported Bowman to his destiny. A fourth and final one appears at the foot of Bowman's bed, apparently to transform him into 'The Star Child'.

The film isnt a waste of time. It's a master piece. It was made in 1968 and looks brillient. It might be hard to understand but thats the whole point, as Kubrick said, he wants the viewers to work it out for themselves.

[Misawa]

The film is left for you to make your own interpretations. If you think it's bad because you don't undertand it, you're missing the point. And you need to watch it again.