Trainspotting - Director's Cut (Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Trainspotting - Director's Cut (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Achhhhh.... I love it and the book but I have to compare?
Summary: 3 Stars
The screenwriter did a helluva job. A tough job. He managed to tackle a book that is a gem, but disjointed, disconnected, no real climax/anti-climax/without all the stuff you heard in English class. No saying what comes next, both in the movie and the book. That's what got the audiences' veins pumping.. no pun intended.
The "thing" about the movie is the liberty it takes, the quality of it, but the point it entirely misses. Admission. You cannot recreate this book. It is a series of stories and people just will not respond to the fact that yes the heroes or antiheroes of the movie are much more than flawed or unflawed. That would be too complicated because the plot is too complicated as is, and they have to strain to get the brogue. (I suggest keeping the book by the can-- a good primer).
But these characters are walking around in a daze. That's the book. They tell their stories, recount episodes, but in reality, hey, no one knows what to do next except hit the pub, the needle, or the first guy you see.
The movie makes Renton and heroin the focus while we get different perspectives--different heroes--in the book. But Trainspotting isn't about just heroin and Rents is a flawed character as are his mates. He is a guy who would really f you over and feel bad about it but still do it. That's reality. That's one of the major lessons that we already know from the book that are glossed over in the movie until the end. Too much Hollywood in the movie?
As I write this I think of how much I thought how cool and stylish the movie was-- and it really is-- and how well acted it was and is. And then how superior the book really is. But all in all, the book shows that addiction brings to the forefront a crisis of morality that is not addressed in the movie. It is simply not addressed, despite the fab ending, and this is a sin.
Addiction is all-encompassing. It becomes the focus of their lives but they have to build lives around it or die. The movie doesn't show it. It's glamor and horror but not the everyday.
All and all, it's a great movie, it's just not the book. I hate writing that but I'll write it again- it's a great movie, it's just not the book.
Movie Review: I <3 this film.
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this film last year and I have watched it so many times that I'm going to have to get a new copy. I loved everything about this film. The cast has this amazing chemistry and each actor really becomes their character. The story is so much more than hopeless drug addicts. It tells the stories of friends lost in time, so stuck in their comfort zone that venturing out of it causes complete chaos. This group is trying so desparately to hold on to what was, but eventually time has to catch up and force them to either change or die trying to resist. Everything in this movie stands out: the pain, the misery, the happiness, the comedy, the confusion, fear etc. The opening lines are classic: "I chose not to choose life...I chose something different." The other thing about this film is the use of music to shift time. There's none of those subtitles saying "three years later" or "1979". What the film uses instead is a brilliant soundtrack in which each track helps shift the movie to new year or a new decade. I have yet to read the book, but if books are better than films that I'm sure to be impressed. This film is not just a must see, its a must own and must see over and over again.Movie Review: No Glamor Just a Look at a Subculture
Summary: 5 Stars
The reason I originally wanted to see the film was when I was in London, there was a stage production of the book which got rave reviews. I did not get a chance to see it but there was a lot of press about Trainspotting mania in the UK. When the film came out I wanted to see it but found out it was about drugs and became leery of it. Since it got great reviews, I went and saw it and was surprised. It was my favorite film of the year!
The film deals with four friends that are caught up in the Scottish drug culture. The hero of the film is Renton (Ewan McGregor). His best friends are Sick boy, Begbie, Tommy and Spud. All but Tommy are heroine addicts. Renton decides to go cold turkey. But before cold turkey, one last hit. (This leads to one of the most disgusting yet intriguing fantasy sequences.) Renton finds it hard to stay clean and slips. He gets caught stealing and is forced to enter rehab. Afterwards, he gets a reality check from his underage girlfriend. He realizes that he cannot live this life forever.
Renton decides he needs to break away from his crew and moves to London for a fresh start. But Begbie shows up then Sick Boy. This is hampering his sobriety and kicks them out. But the boys have to return home for a mate's funeral and there luck into a big score. They return to London to sell their score.
I generally hate films that are narrated but it works here. Even more, I hate movies that in any way glamorize drugs but this really doesn't, even the fantasy sequences are not glamorous. This is just a great look at the subculture.
This is one of director's Danny Boyle's first films and he creates near perfection. The only actor with any true film background is Robert "The Full Monty" Carlisle but everyone is universally great. Ewan McGregor will not become a star until later but this shows his ability.
DVD EXTRAS: None
Movie Review: The best movie ever
Summary: 5 Stars
I could make this a long review but I wont. Theres nothing I can say that will explain the greatness of this film. It is pobably the film I reach for most often when I put a dvd in. If you like films that explore the seedy underbelly of society than you will love this. It is loaded with disturbing drugged out dispair. However it is also one of the funniest films I have ever seen. If you dont laugh at the scene where francis begby randomly lobbs that empty beer stein over his shoulder and it splits that ladys face wide open just so he could get into a fight, than you must not have a twisted bone in your body. This film also has a very serious nature to it as well. Rentons attempts to ween himself from smack will make anybody think twice about sliding that syringe int your veins.That being said this is not just your usual "drugs are evil" movie. Trainspotting also holds no bars about the reason people do drugs. "Take the best orgasm youve ever had and multiply it by a thousand and your still nowhere near it"-Renton. That pretty much explains it all. However in order to experiance the sheer brilliance you have to see this movie yourself.Movie Review: Excellent Cinematic Look at the Rough and Ragged Edges
Summary: 5 Stars
I had taken notice of "Trainspotting" in the "NY Times Best 1000 Movies". I got an idea that it was a bit rough from what I'd seen of reviews. I have a personal bias against movies that go out of their way to be graphic and/or obscene. Thus I was not sure how I would react to what I thought I would see. I will say that "Trainspotting" is not a movie for everyone, it should be respected for its' "R" rating, and it is one heck of a movie. "Trainspotting" will shock you with its' violence, its' view of a dead end society, the close-up examination of heroin addiction, and some of the grossest scenes I've ever seen in a movie of this quality. Nonetheless, the movie is not guilty of any excesses except in the subject matter itself.
Not long ago, I had the pleasure to watch "The Full Monty" which has a greater renown than "Trainspotting" and deals as well with the subject of the down and out in urban Great Britain. That movie let us have fun while coming to understand a stagnant society that offered little hope of change to its' citizens. I will admit that, although I rarely laugh out loud when I'm watching a movie by myself, there is one grossly hilarious scene in "Trainspotting" that had me laughing boisterously out loud. Other than that, humor is not a part of this film. It deals with an alternate solution to hopelessness; narcotic addiction. It portrays addiction in a very negative manner while dealing with its' victims in a very humanely manner. These people may scare us, repulse us and, possibly, disgust us but we generally are pulling for them to find a way out.
I caught myself, midway through the movie, thinking that "Trainspotting" should be required viewing for anyone contemplating using heroin or any addictive drugs. It paints a bleak picture and does so with the excesses that it takes. There is a brilliantly disgusting scene in the worst of all possible toilets in the back of some dive. It may turn your stomach but what you see happening there says so clearly the depravity an addict will sink to. There are scenes that give an excellent visual concept to the withdrawals that an addict must go through to get clean again. There are slaps of reality that let us know that there is never any complete escape from the real world. As I saw scene after scene that stung my senses and sensitivity, I could not help but marvel at the ability of the writer and director; Irving Welsh and Danny Boyle. Unlike "Naked Lunch", a movie that disgusted me for no apparent reason, "Trainspotting" tells a story that could only be understood this well by the approach that Welsh and Boyle took.
"Trainspotting" is not just a negative view of the underground world of the addict; it takes its' shots at polite society as well. The beginning and the end of the movie involve a diatribe about all that is irrelevant in our well-ordered lives. We are prepared to question our values in what we see yet, for me, the recap at the end made my life seem all the more relevant despite the film's apparent intent. This was definitely one alternative lifestyle that offered no appeal.