T2 Trainspotting - anyone going to see it?

[...]

Godfather 2 aside, not normally a great fan of sequels, but given how splendid the original was and the lengthy gap since, this has always sounded quite promising.

It's also getting some pretty good reviews (Guardian, Uncut) so I think I might make a rare trip to the flicks and see it while in Galway for James McMurtry's show on Friday night.

Anyone other yays (or nays)?

[driftin]

Yay from me. Love the original, like the cast and crew, definitely watching it this weekend.

[Geezee]

Has come totally out of left-field for me - when I first saw the the trailer I thought it was a very clever/ironic advert for something - couldn't quite believe it was an actual movie...the original is not the kind of movie that naturally lends itself to a sequel. but yes, of course I'll watch it, in the same way that I would watch a Reservoir Dogs II if one was ever made.

[northernsky]

the original is not the kind of movie that naturally lends itself to a sequel.

Irvine Welsh wrote a sequel, although apparently the new film is only loosely based on it.
I haven't read Porno but I will certainly go see the film. In fact I can't wait, yet it seems I must - doesn't open here until late February.

[Goat Boy]

I'm off to see it Sunday.

Some of the reviews have been mixed but it's not like that would put me off

[...]

I'm off to see it Sunday.

Some of the reviews have been mixed but it's not like that would put me off

You should really change your name to Sick Boy in honour of the sequel's coming out...

[Goat Boy]

I'll be visiting a shooting gallery and taking some strawberry milk into the cinema for extra smacked out verisimilitude

[Darkness_Fish]

I won't see it, till it's out on telly, probably, but I'd be surprised if it really comes that close to Porno the book, it doesn't lend itself to mainstream cinema that well. Unlike the original heroin-injecting larks n' bantz. I don't actually think the book was that great, to be honest, the confrontation the book is constantly signposting as being a brilliant climax just didn't seem that big a deal to me, it lacked a sense of purpose.

Did anyone see Filth, by the way? Even though that book is pretty much unfilmable, I think that's probably as close to the spirit of an Irvine Welsh book as a film will ever get.

[Goat Boy]

I won't see it, till it's out on telly, probably, but I'd be surprised if it really comes that close to Porno the book, it doesn't lend itself to mainstream cinema that well. Unlike the original heroin-injecting larks n' bantz. I don't actually think the book was that great, to be honest, the confrontation the book is constantly signposting as being a brilliant climax just didn't seem that big a deal to me, it lacked a sense of purpose.

Did anyone see Filth, by the way? Even though that book is pretty much unfilmable, I think that's probably as close to the spirit of an Irvine Welsh book as a film will ever get.

I think it's loosely based on Porno.

I really want to see Filth. It looks up my street

[Belle Lettre]

Oh God it took it out of me (har) just reading the book

[northernsky]

I can't wait, yet it seems I must - doesn't open here until late February.

On second thoughts I think I need the time to prepare for a Proustian experience. The new one addresses twenty years worth of watching life's opportunities gradually constrict around you. The ties that bind and the ones that broke.

I saw the first one just before I left home, just before I went to Edinburgh as an ERASMUS student and just before my first serious relationship. It's gonna be, um, metastential.

[Goat Boy]

Spoilers ahead


I can’t remember the last time I saw a sequel which was so utterly dependent on the first film. It’s unusual not just because the film is solely made for people who have seen the first film but it feels like it was made for people who saw the film when it actually came out, which considering that the movie is essentially about ageing, mortality and memory is entirely appropriate. As someone who loved the first film and who is now approaching his 40s it gave the movie a resonance and melancholy I wasn’t quite expecting. For that alone I applaud Danny Boyle.

I’ve seen some reviewers criticising the self-reverential nature of the film and it is loaded with references to the first one, some very subtle, some not so but I thought it was entirely suitable given the fact that the characters are of course trapped by their own past. In one scene Spud actually emerges on Calton road and he literally sees his younger self and Renton running down the street again, like ghosts of the past come back to haunt him. There are also super 8 style flashback footage where we see them playing football in the school playground, various shots of fading polaroid pictures of their younger selves taken round the time of the first film as well as actual scenes from Trainspotting. In one scene poor Spud empties a box of memories given to him by his ex partner and stares longingly at photos of the past.

Like the first one there isn’t much of a plot but it’s not really an issue. The pleasure is in the characters and the script. Like any good sequel it expands on the original and deepens the characters: Renton still has some of his youthful swagger but he’s world weary and lost, Sick Boy and Begbie are still pathologically bitter and bent on revenge and Spud – who has physically aged the most out of all of them – is back on heroin and suicidal. There is a shift in focus too towards Spud, always the most innocent member of the group who gradually and movingly finds his voice. They even manage to humanise Begbie.

On the downside the new music doesn’t all work. In fact it sounds a bit incongruous at the beginning, in particular, when you’re watching a bunch of 40 something men. At least in the original you could imagine somebody Rentons age being aware of Born Slippy as well as Iggy Pop but there is no way in hell is a 40 something Renton listening to Young Fathers. There’s nothing here as perfect as the combination of Perfect Day and Renton overdosing or Lust For Life as Spud and Renton run down Princes Street. The tone is different too, more comedic, quite broad at times. The female characters are underwritten too. These are flaws but not critical ones.

It’s not as great as the debut and it can’t capture the lightning in a bottle quality the first one had – how could it? - but it still has a bracing, freewheeling, kinetic quality, a visual flair and it stakes its own ground. It’s a movie about 4 middle aged men wondering where the fuck the time has gone (in the context of the movie Begbie the psychopath is almost symbolic of Death). Speaking as somebody who is increasingly aware that time is slipping away its this aspect that gives the film lingering power. Renton chose Life but what happens when Life still isn't enough?

[Spec]

Spoilers ahead


I can’t remember the last time I saw a sequel which was so utterly dependent on the first film.

That's useful to hear. I've never seen the first one (well, I've seen the start but never made it to the end) but was thinking of seeing the sequel. Will give it a miss.

[The Prof]

Nice review Goatboy. I saw it on Sunday and part of the reason for seeing it was to check and make sure it wasn't shit. I think they passed that test.
There were some nice touches. The 1690 PIN number for one.
Now that I know it's loosely based on the novel porno, is the gangster character that drives them out to supposedly dig their own grave in that book? That whole scene just seemed there for comedy value.

[Goat Boy]

Nice review Goatboy. I saw it on Sunday and part of the reason for seeing it was to check and make sure it wasn't shit. I think they passed that test.
There were some nice touches. The 1690 PIN number for one.
Now that I know it's loosely based on the novel porno, is the gangster character that drives them out to supposedly dig their own grave in that book? That whole scene just seemed there for comedy value.

It's a little bit too comedic in places. The whole orange order pub scene was great

[Belle Lettre]

It really was. A nod to the Blues Brothers.

One of my favourite scenes was in the bogs at the club when Renton and Begbie simultaneously realise to whom they are speaking.

[The Prof]

That was a great scene. You could almost hear everyone in the cinema smile with delight as it dawns on them.

[Goat Boy]

Does Begbie not shout, "Cuuuuunt!"?

[Belle Lettre]

I'll have to go again to check!

[Goat Boy]

I'm off again on Saturday. We're having a double bill so we're watching the first one before we head out