Tropic Thunder was absolutely brilliant from start to finish, although if you weren't familiar with what they were parodying, I can see why you might not be entertained.
2001 was genuinely terrible, absolutely nothing was explained during the move. If I hadn't read the book beforehand, I'd have had no idea what was going on from roughly half way onwards.
I just got annoyed that every character I liked died. Real life is depressing enough without watching fiction that also just bums you out.