Movies-TV

One of my all-time faves

I first viewed Trainspotting in 1997 when it was released on video in America. I was stunned by the graphic use of heroin, the superb acting, and the horrible conditions in which the addicts lived. Throughout all the death, horrid conditions, and drama, the movie's main point appears; Choose Life. Our anti-hero, Renton (played by McGregor in his best performance), goes through the life-changing experience of becoming just like his parents. In which lies the satire of the film, the escapists look for a way out, but end up working 9 to 5, choosing life, and wanting a big, bleeping television.

Awesome!!

HAS GOT TO BE ONE MOVIE THAT GETS IT'S MESSAGE ACROSS IN A VERY REALISTIC AND DEADLY WAY!! Phew..!! Now down to the film which stars Ewan McGregor in one of his early movies, giving his character an interesting take on drugs in Scotland.If you can't understand the Scottish accent please try to LEARN it as you would have missed an excellent movie that makes you think about drugs in VERY different light!! Especially when Rent boy falls into a hole in the floor!!!!Spud has a hilarious encounter with drugs and alcohol after a wild night out that ends up excrement on the walls!!!!!!!!10/10

Should have been a contender!

It's a shame the US press blasted this movie as "glorifying" heroin use. Absolutely not true! This film shows friends some addicts others with different problems all together go through a few journeys.Ewen MacGreggor (spelling?) is great. His withdrawal attempts are both funny, and dramatic. This movie is not a comedy, however does have a few well timed creative humor moments. This is another flick not meant for the faint at heart. There is a death due to feline fecal poisoning, and a baby death due to severe neglect.Robert Caryle also does a great job portraying a non heroin addicted madman.

Read the book

The movies ok...but read the book, or even better, go live in Scotland and get a herroin adiction.

Want a good Danny Boyle movie? Try "Shallow Grave"

Can you spot the train?

This was the first British film that I've seen, and it remains the best one I've seen so far. It features great acting, superb background visuals, and some of the most bizarre & disturbing moments ever shown on a movie screen.The story focuses on the many drug-filled misadventures of Renton(played by Ewan McGregor) as he tries to figure out if he wants to really "choose life". He also faces a challenge in which he has to decide on his friendship with his bungling buddies: The braindead Spud, the suave Sick Boy, the psychotic Begbie, the truthful Tommy, and his under-aged girlfriend Diane (played by the adorable Kelly Macdonald). All along the way, heroine and music are saturated in the story.The characters stick to their characterizations so well that it actually works. Renton is very honest about himself, but also dishonest in some situations. The character of Spud is a doped-out as he can get. Sick Boy is a sociopathic James Bond copy. Begbie is crazy and villainous. And Diane acts very mature for her age (which is just like most teenage girls nowadays). Tommy is a little too regular for his own good, especially since he is living among his deranged and unusual friends.There are some scenes that are very bizarre, disgusting, and disturbing. These scenes include Renton swimming in a toilet, Renton having sex with the much-younger Diane, and Renton's deadly "withdrawal from drugs" scene. These scenes may be disturbing & gross for many people, but it shows how unusual life can really get (I must point out that all these scenes feature Renton as the main character. This is a great thing, since it keeps the viewer's attention fixed to Renton when needed).The music featured in the movie is pretty good. You will hear some groovy tunes from Iggy Pop, as well as some nice dance tunes from Underworld and other gods of dance & techno music.Overall, the movie was excellent and sticks to its story very firmly. It's also based on a book that I haven't read yet. Upon watching this movie, I have an urge to read the book that inspired this movie. Once I find the book, I'll read it.I give this movie a 10/10.

Effectively Bizarre

I am glad that I finally broke down and viewed Trainspotting. Since its release in 1996, the only comments I have heard about it include terms like "weird", "bizarre", "out-there", and "demented". Nobody really advocated it one way or the other. I thought that it might be on par with cult "classics" like Liquid Sky, which is easily on my 10-worst list. I will admit that many sequences in Trainspotting appear whimsically unusual, but nothing ever deviates from the film's strong, central thrust. Both the glamour and gore of heroin addiction are born out and inflated in such ways that the viewer can truly appreciate the characters' desperate plights--I will never forget Ewan McGregor's "skin diving" experience nor his withdrawal episode involving a deceased toddler. Director Danny Boyle can be commended for his poignant use of hyperbole and caricature to drive home the extremes being experienced by this group of people and the fact that there is a glimmer of hope for them ("choose life...").

Yay for Scots, even drug addled ones

I love this movie, have for awhile. Even if you hate it, it's one of those things you should at least see because it's often referenced. Of course, you shouldn't buy it if you hate it, or if you can't see any good in heroin addicts, but heroin addicts with Scottish accents are just easier to like, I guess. For fans of the film, this is a RIDICULOUSLY cheap price for not only the director's cut, but a special bonus disc teaming with features as well. I feel good about my purchase, shouldn't you?

One fantastic movie

I saw this movie last year as a friend had it on DVD from the UK and, being a Ewan McGregor fan, I thought I'd give it a shot even though it's considered an 'artsy' film. I was so shocked! It is a fantastic movie. I watched it over & over until she made me give it back. The young Ewan gives an Oscar-worthy (why he wasn't nominated is beyond me) turn as the heroin addict trying to pull himself out and away from his addict buddies. He narrates the whole film with that rich Scot accent of his (reminds me of my Scottish grandparents) which gives even more depth to the characters and situations. The descent into the hell of addiction to the death of an innocent baby (very realistic) in their 'home', Ewan swimming through a vast sea of crap (yes, THAT kind) in a toilet, on through the entire film showing his constant struggle within himself amidst his friends to stay clean & sober is amazing. I could go on and on. It brings a memory of another film I saw years ago with a young Leo DiCaprio & David Thewlis in a little-seen movie called "Total Eclipse" and which is also considered an "art" film and really quite good. If you get a chance to see this, please do. You will not be sorry. If you happen to find it on DVD, BUY IT.

The worst and most disgusting and disturging movie I've seen

Disgusting, repulsive, and absolutely disturbing stuff in this movie. Feces, heroine, dead babys with twisted heads, swimming in sewers, what more needs to be said. Warped and twisted and absolutely aweful!

Excellent!

I love this movie very much. I saw it for the first time in 1996, in Dublin. The film was just released in Britain and in Ireland -where I was living. I remember a huge crowd for buying tickets and a packed cinema! At that time nobody thought "Trainspotting" would have become a cult movie. And nobody thought that all the people involved in the film would begin an extraordinary career -for them "Trainspotting" was the starting point, actually. See what Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewan Bremner and the others have done so far... !Apart from that, this is an excellent sarcastic description of junkie life. Without falling in flashiness -very typical in Quentin Tarantino's movies- "Trainspotting" has no mercy in showing squalor in life and in human relationships. We can laugh a lot for many situations, but we also think a lot (for example during the overdose scene, where nobody takes care of you even you are risking to die; we have another emblematic sequence when Ewan McGregor goes away with all the drug money and chooses to begin a new life with it).The film is also very imaginative from a visual aspect -sequences are caricatural and symbolic, they translate the thoughts of the main charachter. The soundtrack is also fantastic.

A bit juvenille at times, but otherwise a very good film

Trainspotting was one I avoided in the theaters, and waited for the DVD, for whatever reason. I appreciated the fact that it painted a realistic picture of heroin addicts and their recoveries and relapses, European club life, and intertwined Aids, hanging around the wrong people but still calling them friends, and showing some light at the end of the tunnel without being cheesey or cliche.

McGregor was great as the lead character and the troubles his close circles of friends have was very a-typical of a serious drug addict. The way they took advantage of him and displayed such bad taste and dishonesty, and their sleazy lifestyles is something any drug addict experiences most assuredly to some degree. A normally good person with caring parents finds himself hanging out with losers and creeps and continually justifies his reason for putting up with them, and has to, because of his or her drug habit.

The scenes dealing with fecal matter were unnessecary I thought, a bit over the top and not very funny, just a bit too juvenille and shock-oriented, but regardless they were brief and the symbolism of him diving head first into a toilet was actually very good....that addicts will sink to almost any level to feed their habits, and do things they normally would never even think of sober.

This film really wasn't a black comedy to me, as many made it out to be, it was humorous at times, but also very serious and disturbing more often than not, without being depressing and unwatchable, such as "Requiem For A Dream" was in my opinion.

Trainspotting is simply a very good film and one of my modern favorites.

Trainspotting

If you are one of those people that likes movies about a cute guy falls in love with a cute girl, or bunch of grown up actors playing roles of high school kids with 5th grade jokes...this is not a movie for you. However, if you are looking for a movie that's not out there to please the popular audience but to show a vison in an artistic way that is not polluted by the influence of Hollywood.....go with Trainspotting

Choose life or choose heroin?

1996's "Trainspotting," an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's cult novel about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a deliriously funny and imaginative ride through the pitfalls of addiction. However, the movie never glorifies addiction; if it did, we wouldn't see the grim aftermath of so many instances that are otherwise avoidable if its characters chose to remain sober.The film wastes no time in establishing that the main characters are addicts, each of them shooting up in a rundown apartment. They are a loose group of fellows, with Renton (Ewan McGregor), violent drunk Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Sean Connery-enthusiast Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), the nerd-like Spud (Ewen Bremner), and life-chooser Tommy (Kevin McKidd).What we get for 90 minutes is unrepentant drug use from the leads and the resulting depravity. We watch the funny/grim aftermath of wild sex romps for each of the main characters while some time down the road, we're treated to visions of dead babies and the inevitable overdose or death.But despite all these grim underpinnings, there is a faint glimmer of hope, and that hope rests within our emotional connection to Renton, who knows he has a problem and tries to correct it, despite the influence of his friends.We watch as Renton painfully goes through withdrawal, the horror that he witnesses, and the aforementioned dead baby crawling on the ceiling."Trainspotting" is an intricate and funny masterpiece of what it's like to be an addict and on the loose. It's no wonder this movie was such a hit here in the United States.10/10

One of the most original movies ever

By far, the best movie I've seen in 1997 (a year later than its release). Very original, thought provoking, disturbing, and strangely enough: a lot of fun. Nobody dares to go this far these days, and when they do, they don't make it as good. When I compile my best of the 90's list, this one is definitely going to be high on it.

Amazing

Ewan MacGregor and the rest of this cast truley make this potential serious suject matter a delight to watch. The script is great and its just such a great movie.

In My All-Time Top 10 List

Trainspotting grabs you by the proverbials from the first scene and doesn't let go. An astounding portrait of friendship, addiction, sexuality, young adulthood, poverty, Scotland, misery, perseverance, loyalty and redemption. It skewers mainstream values while showing that the rejection of these values in favor of a junkie's lifestyle is ultimately a dead end, and just as vapid as mainstream life can be. The film develops it's characters extremely fast and with precision. We are drawn to them and feel an affinity with them for a variety of reasons, even though they are all in one way or another, degenerates. But we pull for them to beat their habits, to get out of their miserable conditions. But we never pity them, because despite their predicament, they manage to live it up and live life, and feel emotion and express their desires. There is also plenty of humor to go around, much of it dark. The editing, soundtrack, acting and story suck you in to an "experience". The film has heart and soul and set a new standard in it's way. It is such an original work of art, with many memorable scenes. The mark of a brilliant film is when you become overwhelmed with sentimentality when the credits roll. Such was the case with the great "Trainspotting".

A Lurid Reality Pumped Through Fantasy. Few Films Can Manage To Be Bleak, Miserable, Tragic and Therefore Depressing While Still Remaining Amusing

In Britain, during the 90s clubbing was at a high, literally and drug abuse was a regular problem concerning the government. Pop culture was pushing the limits and changing the way many people on the drug scene were used too. The problems were being told through the news, the radio and the newspapers frequently. Then in 1996 an independent British film hit cinema, causing uproar, controversy, worldwide success, critical acclaim and even government mention, this film was called Trainspotting.Trainspotting is based on a novel by Irvine Welsh which charts the life of a bunch of non-existent losers who're living their lives to their "supposed" full on the Edinburgh drug scene. The film charts the issues of poverty, crime and anti-social behaviour that are still alive in Britain today and shows the horrifying problems of drug abuse that the public-eye attempts to be unaware of. The film exposes the bunch of nasty, yet somewhat hilarious group of stoner's lives and how Renton (Ewan McGregor) attempts to find a true meaning to his chaotic and miserable life.Trainspotting is not a film that will appeal to everyone; it's graphic, nasty and harrowing. Yet, it retains from wanting the viewer to stop watching and manages to hold you throughout the entire running time. A film's content can, in some cases occupy the film's story and make you lose any pity, affection or remorse for the characters. Trainspotting manages to disgust, while still informing the viewers of the problems from drugs.For a film that is so startlingly daring and distressing at times you'd be surprised that it manages to make its point so clear and authoritative. A factor that caused controversy on release was that the film is not afraid to say "drugs are good at first", but then the film goes on to saying "but it's not worth it because the side effects will screw you up forever". It's an excellent message and one that alerts any viewer not to ever go near drugs, yet people have ignored the true meaning of the film which is held within some of the horrific imagery and experiences. If there is one that film that will make you never want to take drugs its Trainspotting. It really will make you think twice and also help you understand why people do such repulsive and then why drug abuse is wrong. Trainspotting is not a film that is preachy, it says you have one life which you should use with care and how you should realise the consequences of your actions. So at heart Trainspotting is an unforgettable and mesmerising study of wasted life. It succeeds in making its viewers come out learning and understanding one of the world's many unpleasant problems.If you didn't see these characters going through such disturbing events the film would not have such a poignant message and one that shows so many devastating outcomes of the drug abuse. Trainspotting has many iconic and memorable characters that're acted out with the utmost sincerity, yet some remain oddly charming. The characters are hysterical at times and for a film full such shameful people you still manage to hold pity for their decaying lives as they spiral into a living hell. The characters are very complex, though at first they seem simple and you gain an indisputable understanding of every character for a film that only lasts 90 minutes. Trainspotting is a film that has been highly influential to cinema as a whole, sparking off many films to come out of the genre and some films even using the same visual delights. For example in Guy Richie's magnificent Snatch, the characters are introduced in a similar way to Trainspotting and this is just to name one of many influences. Danny Boyle is an imaginative director with a brilliant trademark style to accompany his films.A film like Trainspotting is extremely exhausting because of its disturbing and what could have been an unbearable explicit nature. Because the film is at times highly amusing and visually glorious with its matchless ambiguity you'll not want to turn it off, even in the most disgusting moments. Though the film is at times flawed in the plot structure and has a few plot holes, the cinematography washes over the viewer with a somewhat mind-numbing quality. The dialogue is brilliantly paced and laced with pop culture references, studies of British social class and haunting narrative from the almighty, career-launching performance by Ewan McGregor. Trainspotting's soundtrack is another high-point and remains entertaining, quirky and also flawlessly fitting to the scenes it accompanies.It's a film that truly lays bare the problems of youth and drugs, showing the genuine effects with the needed explicitly and yet remaining solid entertainment from the comedy factor. A true gem of British, 90s cinema which unflinchingly depicts the lives of the no-lives in their cruel and deceitful worlds they've climbed into. Trainspotting has heart and works as an educational roller-coaster of pure realism that still shocks and teaches viewers the horrific affects of drug abuse. Trainspotting is a film that will never leave you which is ironic considering it's about addiction and affliction. Trainspotting is a film that terrifies me and should succeed in making anyone want to keep clean. We all know drug abuse is awful, but Trainspotting succeeds in showing its viewers why.

the best film about heroin ever

This is a film that did so many things. First of all, it actually told the truth about heroin. Its emphasis on the highs and especially the lows of the drug is excellent. Some of the scenes, such as the baby crawling across the ceiling, are amazing. Trainspotting also managed to launch quite a few careers. Would Ewan Mcgregor be starring alongside one of the biggest actresses in the world in Moulin Rougee without Trainspotting? I think not. What about Robert Carlyle and Johnny Lee Miller? How many of us had heard of them before Trainspotting? The film itself is about a young Scottish heroin addict, who hangs around with a group of fellow addicts. As the film progresses, Renton (Ewan Mcregor) becomes more and more dependent on the drug. After a bad experience of cold turkey, he moves down to London. Unfortunaetly he cant escape his past, and in particular one character Begby, who is, in my view, the scariest person in cinema history.

An Experience....plain and simple.

In a word....awesome. Had to watch it twice for the experience. The cinematography, acting and of course the writing make it one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. The director was able to pull me into the world of a heroin addict's lifestyle and make me happy I was only there for two hours.

Time to see this film again

I recently watched this film for the umpteenth time. I'd seen it too many times in the late nineties and sadly it had become stale with over familiarity. When it first came out this film blew me away. It is innovative, the acting is superb, the soundtrack brilliant and you don't know which way the plot is going to turn. A few viewings on and you *do* know which way the plot is going to turn. Sadly, end of the experience. Well now for the good news. If you haven't seen this film for a while now is the time to revisit it. If you have seen it recently rest content that you can go back in the future. For those that have never seen the film I can only envy you.