Few movies from the 90s possessed such kinetic, mad-as-hell cinematic energy as Danny Boyle's adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of Edinburgh's out-of-control misdirected "youth" (early twenties is still considered youth, is it not?). When Trainspotting was released back in the summer of 1996 (my senior year in high school), it was the ultimate movie about junkies spiraling out of control (until Requiem for a Dream's release four years later), and Boyle was able to capture the charm of Scotland's bottom feeders with the aid of an exciting soundtrack and some brilliant camera & editing techniques.
T2 Trainspotting, which takes place exactly 20 years after the original, finds our protagonists adjusting to life in Edinburgh as middle aged men whose time has long passed, even if their stupidity has not. Renton (Ewan McGregor) returns to his hometown after spending the last few decades in Amsterdam, and is shocked to find the newly escaped prison convict, Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle), still after him for the money he stole; Spud (Ewen Bremner) is a heroin addict, and with the help of Sick Boy's (Jonny Lee Miller) new girlfriend, Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova), he turns to writing, and becomes the eventual narrator (officially) to the entire story arc we've seen so far (perhaps playing Welsh himself?).
Not nearly as flashy or thrilling as its predecessor, T2 often times feels like an overgrown child who's a few decades late for the prom. Its characters, so fascinating to follow once-upon-a-time when the needles were sticking out of their arms, have by now become rather redundant in their old age. This isn't a movie for those who don't hold the '96 original close to their hearts; for everyone else, it's a trip down memory lane that manages to entertain and disappoint. Luckily, it pulls off the former more often than the latter.
B-
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