T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Fans of the 1996 movie will love, as we did, meeting the four principal players 20 years later back in Edinburgh at various stages in their recovery from heroin and violence. If that doesn't scare you, you'll laugh a lot, as we did. It's possible that this would stand alone, although there are occasional clips from the first one.

I remember being scared by Robert Carlyle's (many credits after T1, including The Full Monty (1997), Angela's Ashes (1999), 28 Weeks Later (2007), and I saw maybe three of his 133 episodes of Once Upon a Time--he's scary as Rumplestiltskin in the latter, too) Begbie the first time around and his character is still the loosest of cannons. As before, Ewan McGregor's (last blogged for American Pastoral) Mark Renton has the lead, followed by Jonny Lee Miller (profiled in Dark Shadows) as Simon "Sick Boy" and Ewen Bremner (most recently in Snowpiercer) as Spud, but all four are thoroughly fleshed out. Kelly Macdonald (after I mentioned her in Brave she was terrific in 56 episodes of Boardwalk Empire) and Shirley Henderson (last blogged for Meek's Cutoff) make cameos as their original characters Diane and Gail.

Director Danny Boyle (most recently helmed Steve Jobs) and writer John Hodge (last in these pages for Trance which was directed by Boyle and Hodge was Oscar-nominated for T1) reunite to further explore the material in Irvine Welsh's novels Trainspotting (1993), Porno (2002), and Skagboys (2012). My favorite line is Renton's,"You're an addict. So be addicted. Just be addicted to something else." which is in the trailer, but I also like the updated version of "Choose Life," from the first movie (here's the earlier version--spoiler alert and the current version--same warning). Anthony Dod Mantle (Snowden) returns to camera duty.

Just as in the 1996 version, there is no composer credited. The last soundtrack was remarkable (here's the list of 22) and so is this one (list of 34), including this outrageous tune Dad's Best Friend (Sick Boy is watching this exact video in one scene). You can listen to some of the 34 by clicking through on this page.

Audiences will self-select for this--anyone who is freaked out by violence should stay away. Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 77 and its audiences 85%.