‘Trainspotting’ back after 21 years
IT was the shocking, surreal, drugfuelled movie that defined a generation. Two decades later, the ageing Scottish lowlifes of Trainspotting are back with a new sequel which premiered last night in Edinburgh.
T2: Trainspotting reunites Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner with now Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle.
Renton, the character that launched the career of Star Wars actor McGregor, returns to Edinburgh after years away – and his friends Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud are waiting, as dysfunctional as ever.
Expectations are high after the first film, which was made for just $3-million (R40.8-million) in 1996, won critical acclaim and grossed more than $70-million (R950million) worldwide.
Reviews so far have been largely positive. The Guardian newspaper said it was not as good as the first, but “has the same punchy energy, the same defiant pessimism, and there’s nothing around like it”.
Sick Boy (Miller) is a pimp exploiting the wave of gentrification that has swept the city, psycho Begbie (Carlyle) is an escaped convict and burglar, and Spud (Bremner) is still “on the skag”.
Heroin has been relegated to a bit-part behind cocaine and Viagra, Begbie is even more foul-mouthed and menacing than ever, and there are plenty more gut-wrenching gross scenes to match Spud’s breakfast table surprise in the first movie.