The flicks
T2 TRAINSPOTTING is right on track for success with the return of bad boy Renton and crew, but FIST FIGHT fails to box clever when it comes to the punch
T2 TRAINSPOTTING (R18+) Director: Danny Boyle ( Slumdog Millionaire) Starring: Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner, Anjela Nedyalkova. Rating: ***1/2
THE original Trainspotting was just about the coolest film there was in the 1990s (if not, it ran a close second only to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction).
Based on the book by Scottish author Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting cheerfully lobbed a Molotov cocktail of high spirits, low-life desperados and hard drugs at its audience.
The movie instantly blew up as a countercultural phenomenon which, though now long gone, is remembered fondly by all who experienced it.
So hardline Trainspotting fans can be forgiven for any trepidation they may hold over a sequel finally dropping so long after the fact.
However, if devotees can keep a tight lid on their expectations, they will be pleasantly surprised and fully engaged by this return to an Edinburgh that is as down and out and in your face as ever.
Bearing in mind the bleak note on which the first movie ended, there is little hope of T2 Trainspotting turning into a jolly reunion at any point.
Renton (Ewan McGregor) is no longer the happy-go-lucky heroin addict who cheated his buddies out of a sizeable cash score all those years ago.
However, after absconding to Amsterdam and cleaning up his act (he’s now a fitness nut), Renton has never dared show his face again around his home town. Until now.
Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) no longer answers to the nickname Sick Boy, but his unhealthy pursuits continue unabated.
He now runs a blackmail racket in conjunction with his Bulgarian sex-worker girlfriend Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova).
The first meeting of Simon and Renton does not go so well — the latter ends up beaten unconscious — but the pair soon join forces on a slick, get-rich-quick scheme that involves transforming a grotty old pub into an upmarket brothel.
The ever-endearing Spud (Ewan Bremner) has never fully kicked his smack habit. After Renton rudely interrupts his attempt to end it all, Spud also pitches in to help with the dodgy bordello project.
And where does the beloved potty-mouth psychopath Begbie (Robert Carlyle) fit into all of this? Don’t worry. He will be making the right kind of entrance at exactly the wrong time. First of all, he has to escape from jail.
While T2 never gives off the same contact highs as the original Trainspotting — or for that matter, plummets to the same confronting lows — the writing, direction and performances are all primed to deliver a valid new perspective on these characters.
Twenty years ago, the arrogance of youth had them thinking they could “choose life” if and when they saw fit to do so.
Now Renton, Simon, Spud and even Begbie are realising it was life that never chose them all along.