Year: 2017
Director: Danny Boyle
HERE BE SPOILERS
“Does the sequel have a lust for life?” you’ll read and you’ll want to be out there, pounding down the pavement with store detectives breathing down your neck, arms flailing – direct into the newspaper offices where they write about leisure for your pleasure. Throwing a glass Begbie style into the face of the hack who wrote that “Yous the kind of whiny faced CUNT who says “Costello’s Aim Is Still True” a the end of live reviews.” you’ll be screaming. “it was the sub editor” they’ll whimper but it’s too late. The damage is done – your twentysomething memories have been shat on by a wee fucker.
OK Trainspotting may be better seen as a product of its times and where the audience that put the poster up on the wall were – at uni also purchasing Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Prodigy Fat Of The Land and Taxi Driver or Italian Job posters from the stall in the atrium every Wednesday. It’s soundtrack was a nigh perfect mix of old and new with Pulp, Blondie, Brian Eno, Lou Reed, Leftfield and of course, Iggy Pop’s with Bowie acolytes the Sales Brothers and Carlos Alomar kicking it skyward from the opening moments.
Maybe this could only disappoint but it seems after 20 years of rumour and rejected scripts the film is summed up in a line from Veronika (a poorly drawn tart with the heart, Eastern European of course, it is Brexit Britain after all) to 40 something Renton and Sick Boy as they eulogise about George Best – “You just live in the past, you are clearly so in love with each other its awkward spending time with you, you should just get naked and fuck each other”. You can’t deny a warm feeling seeing the old gang back together but I’m not sure there is much else here besides.
The plot is fag paper thin – Sick Boy is surviving by getting his girlfriend to bugger Absolutely’s Gordon Kennedy, film it & then blackmail the public school headmaster with the film getting several airings in case the brain bleach is working too well. He then decides to open a brothel in his ailing pub with the recently returned Renton and dopey loser Spud. There are a few nice set pieces – Renton and Sick Boy being forced to sing anti Catholic songs at a club they are fleecing the wallets and handbags of is great stuff and Ewan Bremner still excels at slack jawed clowning. But that’s about it. Of course the spectre of Robert Carlyle’s fearsome Begbie is hanging over the film as he escapes prison, seeks revenge on Renton who scarpered with the drug deal cash at the end fo the first film and trying to train his teenage son in the ways of the underworld. The best scenes in the film may well be those between Carlyle and Scot Greenan as Frank Jr as the former struggles with the idea his son wants to go to college to study hotel management – a phrase he spits like phlegm. Unfortunately their plotline also contains an arse clenchingly awful cameo by Irvine Welsh who must be so glad of the cheque. The conceit throughout the film that Spud is in fact, once off the smack, writing the novel Trainspotting is corny as hell.
The film recycles and refocuses scenes or shots from the first film and perhaps knowingly resorts to “Oh you want a bit of nostalgia, d’ya, well ya remember when?” as dialogue between characters but that’s simply not a good enough excuse. You know that tension in Radiohead’s ‘Creep’? That feeling you have before Johnny Greenwood plays those exasperated broken guitar slashes and its all explodes beautifully into a million perfect sunsets? Well the film often builds up the suspense, characters slowly drawn together and then leaves you hanging. The climactic showdown with Begbie goes all Jack Nicholson in The Shining and almost a direct repeat of the endings to T1 and Shallow Grave.
All the cast put in great performances even if any real development in their characters is slight. he female characters really aren’t given much to do with Kelly MacDonald given a cough and a spit alongside the aforementioned Anjela Nedyalkova as Veronika who just stumbles off into the distance.
She’s the Renton of the piece but the act is given no build-up and scant motive other than the oft repeated – for the hard of understanding – “First comes opportunity, then a betrayal”.
The original is not a masterpiece by any means but its is a great time bubble and really should have been left well alone. It’s cheap nostalgia in other people’s misery and if you don’t expect any more than that then its fine. The final shot of Renton back in his bedroom dancing to a slight remix of ‘Lust For Life’ says something about the trap that these characters find themselves unable to escape before it pulls away into the distance a la Time Bandits. Its a rare visual flash and imaginative touch that put Trainspotting on the map in the 1990 but like a university reunion party, you realise your memories are preciously rose tinted and you’ve gone and fucked it all up
Choose wisely
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Jive Bunny and Starsound
Bingo Little says
It sounds a bit like This Life +10.
Question for the group: lovely Olympics openings aside, is Danny Boyle a bit overrated as a director?
Friar says
Yeah. He’s not yet made a masterpiece. I really love the original Trainspotting but I accept that’s purely subjective cos of my age. Shallow Grave is good. Or at least I remember it being good. Haven’t seen it in forever. Slumdog I didn’t think was great at all. The Beach was shite. So yeah. Overrated seems fair.
Oh hang on. I used to really like A Life Less Ordinary. I wonder if that holds up at all. Amazing theme song, one of the best songs Ash ever did, beautiful and aggressive at the same time.
Bingo Little says
The best thing about ALLO is surely the Ash video?
I’d go with Sunshine as my favourite Boyle movie, but even that feels like the promising first flick of a talented newbie director, rather than a really accomplished work. He’s made an awful lot of dreadful pish – The Beach, Trance, Steve Jobs, Millions.
I’d guess 28 Days Later might go down as his best movie, in that it’s fairly clever and proved quite influential. It’s not much of a return for going on 25 years in the hot seat though.
Friar says
I forgot about 28 Days Later. That really is a belting film.
I wasn’t that bothered about Sunshine but I know what you mean. It actually reminded me a little bit of Moon, which *was* a promising flick by a newbie director, after all.
Kid Dynamite says
First two thirds of Sunshine were brilliant, and then the end was terrible. Really, really terrible.
Bingo Little says
Funnily enough, the other night I was moaning to some colleagues about how too many films start high concept and end with a terrible third act. Someone asked me for an example and I totally blanked. Sunshine would have been absolutely perfect.
Leicester Bangs says
Animated films are bad for that. I inevitably love the first act of stuff like Monsters Inc, Lego Movie etc. — the world-building bit — but then lose interest at the halfway mark.
Bingo Little says
Noooo – Monsters Inc has a great ending. In fact, the best bit of the film is the closing credits where we get to watch them perform the musical version of their story – put-that-thing-back-where-it came-from-or-so-help-me, so help me! So help me, get byyyyyy
aging hippy says
Another sci-fi example is Event Horizon. The set up is great but it descends into just another horror splat fest.
Gary says
Personally, I think Trainspotting is a masterpiece. I think it’s one of the greatest British films of all time.
(Whereas I thought A Life Less Ordinary was awful.)
Friar says
I can’t have seen ALLO (ALLO) for 20 odd years but remember enjoying it at the time (I was basically a kid though). I like Delroy Lindo a ton, ditto Holly Hunter, who I remember being pleasingly bonkers. And I loved the Bobby Darin sequence.
Gary says
127 Hours is a good film. In 2010 The King’s Speech won all the awards and acclaim. And I can see why – historically interesting and very ‘worthy’. But I thought 127 Hours was by far the more enjoyable film (if enjoyable is the right word, given the subject matter).
DogFacedBoy says
Slumdog, Shallow Grave are both cracking, As pointed out Sunshine is 2/3 a great film and I hear a lot of good stuff about Millions.
DogFacedBoy says
Yes the This Life +10 is a perfect comparison that I thought of but forgot to include.
Its those Only Fools & Horses episodes after they were made millionaires and given a perfect send off- nice to see the older old faces but somehow not quite right.
Friar says
When the billboard posters advertise it with “Absolutely brilliant” – The Sun, you know you’re in trouble. Disappointing. I wanted it to be really good.
DogFacedBoy says
It may well be a great film for others. It’s just my “hot take” fresh from the brainbox
Gatz says
I’ve lined up Sunday afternoon for this so I watched the original for the first time in years last night (I actually bought the blu Ray from HMV because the disc was missing from my DVD case – blu ray £4.99 or DVD £2.99 with any purchase, bargain hunters). I have my fingers crossed for a sequel which lives up to the original.
Some things that struck me after all these years:
It’s actually a very nippy film. Barely and hour and a half, dashing at full pelt from scene to scene. Part of this is because they were creating a plot from a novel which didn’t really a consistent story or narrator, but part is just to create a headlong rush of a film. When Tommy takes his pals to the country it isn’t discussed beforehand, they just arrive there. When Renton is required to turn up at Mother Superior’s he leaps from a wall and lands on the carpet at his dealer’s; a neat cut which moves the story along with no dallying.
Even though the soundtrack was as iconic as the film or poster it’s noticeable how much of it was old, or new recordings of old tunes, at the time – Lust for Life, Atomic, Perfect Day …
The knowing nods to Pulp Fiction in dialogue and the shooting up scene, which I’m sure I recognised in 96 but was probably too close to both films to fully acknowledge.
Kelly MacDonald makes me ache in a way which was probably inappropriate for a man the age I was then, let alone now.
retropath2 says
Just back from Star City and I cannot agree less: Trainspotting (1) is one of my favourite ever films, but feel that T2 shows it to have been the youthful masterpiece it was, whereas this is a mature and much deeper film than the original. A tad overlong, this plunges the watcher through a maelstrom of reactions, laughter, pity, fear and distress, the exemplary returning cast swelling out their characters. Renton, as the slimmest characterisation remains just Ewan MacGregor, but Ewen Bremner takes Spud into superhero mode and Robert Carlisle takes Begbie, the most overtly older semblance, into even more terrifying desperation. Cameos by James Cosmo, as Rentons dad had me weeping, and Kelly McDonald in a brief wistful scene of what could have (never) been. Boyle runs with a plot spun from a glimpse of Porno, the book, but running riot with the outcomes rather than the story. I loved it..
Paul Wad says
Me and the missus watched it this morning and were really disappointed. In fact, I thought it was a bit rubbish. I don’t think even Airplane 2 had that many references and copied scenes from the first film. What is even more worrying was the Blade Runner 2 trailer that preceded it. Hopefully that isn’t as bad, cos Blade Runner is one of my favourite films. Why did they have to do a sequel and potentially spoil it?
Spoiler below, so stop reading now if you don’t want a scene in the film ruined…
***spoiler – don’t read if you don’t want a scene ruined***
But one other thing really rankled with me. We saw Renton running up Arthur’s Seat earlier in the film and got that he was now into his fitness, yet he couldn’t outrun an older, fatter bloke who has recently been pierced, seemingly all the way through judging by a blood mark on the back of his shirt later on, by something resembling a knitting needle?
retropath2 says
46, he is supposed to be. And with a fitness “excuse” also spelt out to . And the older fatter bloke is, well, you know who he is. Normal rules don’t thus apply.
It is also only a fillum. Entertainment. With knobs on.
And much as, yes, flashbacks are usually a sign of trying to make you think a sequel is as good as the film it is an inferior 2nd to, this is the exception, in that most do show the contrasts with now they are supposed to, and are often shown in backdrop, in the main frame, rather than cut and paste inserts to the flow. Please don’t avoid this on the basis of the 2 opinions proffered agin it.
DogFacedBoy says
I wouldn’t want anyone to not see it on my sayso. I’m just a man with a man’s idiocy.
You could put Renton’s slight unfitness to the fact he is back on the skag for a bit but as you say, it’s a filum
Gatz says
We were at a loose end this afternoon and brought our viewing forward a day. Put us firmly in the ‘loved it!’ colum.
A joyful rush of a film which mangaged to be inventive while paying homage to its twenty year old progenitor, and still putting a grin on our faces all the way through (humour is relative though; the first big laugh comes when a character who is trying to kill himself vomits into the see through bag pulled over his head, which might not be your idea of a chuckle. I was also mildly alarmed when the large, slightly smelly man next to me started singing along with the 1690 song).
There are niggles, sometimes related to shoe horning in references to the old film, and sometimes to geography (how does Renton run down Cockburn Street and find himself at the west end of Princes Street when he gets to the bottom?) But I’m happy to forgive those for a film that’s so entertaining throughout.
Arthur Cowslip says
Do you mean when he was getting chased? I thought he went back up one of the alleyways beside Cockburn Street then up the Royal Mile and down what’s it called, Royal Terrace, Princes Terrace? , to the car park at the bottom. Could be wrong…
Gatz says
Quite possibly. Strict believability would be a dodgy thread to start pulling with this film anyway, from Begbie going through that window despite his injuries to Renton and Sick Boy getting away with the wallet scam to Spud and Begbie’s redemption through art. Best just to enjoy the ride and not ask too many questions.
Arthur Cowslip says
True, ha ha. But I did feel the urban geography of Edinburgh was one of the film’s strong points. I’m not a native, but I lived there a couple of years and visit from time to time. It felt very much like the city I love.
However, I do wonder if the parochialism will work overseas. The first Trainspotting film felt like an idealized Edinburgh through the filter of a London fashion designer. This smelled real.
Arthur Cowslip says
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like it, DogFace. I’m happy to say I had the opposite experience.
The original WAS a time bubble, but I think part of the whole point of this sequel was the bitter taste of nostalgia. I really thought it was thrilling and expertly handled. Even the music, mainly remixes of the old tunes, ambient style with drums removed, was a savvy choice.
Plus the first film felt more like Glasgow than Edinburgh (or a mash of generic Scottish cities): This used Edinburgh as a set far better, teetering on the edge of being postcard-y, with just enough of an edge (dull car parks, tacky nightlife, the ugly tram cutting through the city) to make feel very real.
I also loved Spud’s reincarnation as the nascent writer of the book, and the belated explanation of the title. Made it feel like a circle being completed.
Some of the humour didn’t hit home, but hey ho. Overall, I was hugely and surprisingly impressed.
Jackthebiscuit says
I saw T2 yesterday & thoroughly enjoyed it. Several LOL moments including the singing of the anti catholic song & associated cash point scene. I also thought that Begbies closing scene was also very funny (OOAA).
For me, it acknowledges the original, referring back to it occasionally, as the story needs it, but IMHO is not just a typical sequel (ie a rehash of the original).
Good film, strongly recommended.
Arthur Cowslip says
You’re right, definitely not a typical sequel. You don’t often get sequels twenty years after the event that do something vibrant and new, while still acknowledging the long shadow of their predecessor.
moseleymoles says
Got back from seeing it last night, and am with the OP. There are boring films, there are films that are entertaining and then the second they finish you go ‘you know that wasn’t that good’. This was both of these – simultaneously entertaining while everything inside is also saying ‘what a load of tosh’. The entertainment comes from Danny Boyle’s hyperactive directing, the excellent soundtrack and everything being taken at a fast lick. But really – the second you think – often within a scene – about what’s going on it all falls apart. There is no story, other than getting all the characters to a showdown. It lives in a hermetically sealed world which often plagues sequels: introducing new characters is so difficult that virtually every scene is just different combinations of Sickboy/spud/begbie/mark shuffled around. The only major new character, a tart with a heart from Bulgaria, is hardly going to shake everyone out of their comfort zone. Secondly, Ewan McGregor really cannot act. His attempts at emotional depth are buttock-clenchingly awful. He has a lovely smile, and can run around. But really that’s about it. Robert Carlyle, Ewan Bremner and Johnny Lee Miller offer carbon copies, slightly greying round the edges, of their T1 roles. The sound of ticked boxes is deafening – having not seen T1 for a decade the train to the countryside scene for a Big Mourn was utterly baffling. Chase on foot scene, icky toilet, Spud and the benefits system- moment by moment we recycle through the highlights. A complete exception is the Orange order pub scene – brilliantly done and with a great punchline: taking the story somewhere a bit new. But it’s slim pickings – the cynicism of everyone involved being summed up by the oft-repeated tag line ‘First there’s an opportunity, then a betrayal’ – getting their reviews in first then.
garyjohn says
I thought it was brilliant – nothing like the original, basically a caper movie and nothing wrong with that. Film of the year. (Okay it’s February).
aging hippy says
I loved it too. I’ve become so used to Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes that it was really weird seeing him do something else. I’ve only seen T1 once when it first came out. Loved that too. Just haven’t crossed paths with it since.
seekenee says
thumbs up from me too, thoroughly enjoyed it.