Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Not Hollywood
Review: After the success of Shallow Grave, the triumvirate of director Boyle, producer Andrew MacDonald and writer John Hodge didn't sell out to Hollywood and grab the barrel loads of cash on offer. Instead they decided to take on the difficult project of filming the unfilmable, namely Irving Welsh's extreme, druggy vision, Trainspotting. The Edinburgh writer's cult novel is a shocking, sickening, but also blackly hilarious voyage into his city's dark nether regions, an dso is this film. The movie follows the fortunes of likable, suede-head junkie Mark Renton (McGregor), and his dodgy gang of sidekicks: girl magnet Sick Boy, nerd Spud, and psycho Begsbie (Robert Carlyle). Exploring the oblivion and depredation of drugs, the film treats us to delights of acute diarrhea, 'toilet diving' in the filthiest toilet in Scotland, crime, unemployment, AIDS, copious vomiting, as well as some football. One of the more direct statements made in the movie is that being Scottish sucks. What is more apparent, however, is that being a f**ked up junkie sucks. The fact that such unpromising material makes for compelling viewing is due to the sheer talent at work in the film. The center of the movie is Renton's cynical, world-weary view: "One day their won't be men or women, just wankers". The soundtrack, mixing the cool of Lou Reed with techno and Britpop, is not a grubby attempt to cash in, but helps the atmosphere and the pacing of the movie. McGregor's acting is assured. His sullen, hypnotic presence is the film's heart, but he is ably assisted by the other actors, particularly Robert Carlyle's Begsbie. Irving Welsh also makes an appearance as local dealer Mother Superior so called because of the length of his habit! Certainly this is a dark and dirty, violent and sordid movie, but it is also strangely uplifting with a hint of optimism at the end. Hamstrung by its need to constantly make deals and cover all the bases, this is the kind of movie, Hollywood is no longer able to make.
Rating:
Summary: A film that cannot and should not be ignored
Review: Health classes would do better to show this film instead of give lectures. 'Trainspotting' puts the viewer right inside the minds and lives of heroin addicted people, and it's not pretty. When we first meet our main character and narrator Renton (played with sheer brilliance by Ewan McGregor), he gets hit by a car, gets up, and laughs. Next thing we know, he's passed out on the ground in a hellhole known as Mother Superior's, a needle sticking in his arm. He introduces his other friends - most of them also drug users. There's Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), obsessed with James Bond, Spud (Ewen Bremmer), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and the violently tempered Begbie (manically portrayed by Robert Carlyle). All of them have their obsessions and for Renton it's heroin. For me, this film has two parts. The first one is darkly funny (this part includes the infamous 'worst toliet in Scotland' scene, viewers with weak stomachs beware). The second (which begins around the time the baby dies) is intense, especially the detox scene. The film never flinches away from showing the viewer what these peoples lives are like. The apartments are rotting away, the people have no jobs, all they have is heroin and each other. There is nonstop language, stong sexual content including nudity, not to mention graphic herion use. The film is not for everyone, in fact I've found it's for very little. I happen to find every manic, funny, intense moment of this film entertaining. Others have found it depressing, weird, or just plain sick. So tread carefully. However, it's an important film and one that deserves to be seen. The performances are fantastic, the music great, and the direction innovative. That's what I have to say about it. Choose life.
Rating:
Summary: Wow...fantastic
Review: One of the best movies i have ever seen. It is so beautiful, and funny and odd, and sad at some parts. The movie deserves all the amazing reviews that it has gotten. Please, get this DVD!
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece
Review: Easily one of the best films of the 1990s, "Trainspotting" centers around a group of youngsters who are controlled by their addiction to heroin. Set in Scotland, where the youth in question live on welfare money to support their habits, the main character Renton (played brilliantly by Ewen McGregor) decides to give kicking the habit another shot, and in the process of trying to sober himself he watches his life, and the lives of his friends, fall apart all around him. There is an inescapable feeling of a loss of hope that emenates from just about every character in the movie. Such external factors as economy, lack of direction, lack of self-control, and fear of almost all things, including cheating thir bodies' craving and having to go through withdrawal, are all telling factors in how they each respond to the different obstacles they face throughout the movie. The movie is definitely not without its funny points, and the dry humor that is seemingly rapid-fired by the characters as they engage in their normal activities of mischief hold substantially more comic value than is seen in most comedies these days. The feeling of closure in the movie is very ambiguous for me. On one hand, you can definitely see a chapter of someone's life come to an end in a disheartening but nonetheless necessary fashion. On the other, the path ahead for the individual has a very "Lady or the Tiger" feel to it, although I'm sure the writers would have us believe that things end in a very good way. After watching the movie, it's not a hard thing to credit.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant: Dismal yet funny
Review: "I chose not to choose life; I chose something else" proclaims Mark Renton, one of the main characters of Trainspotting in the beginning. The film goes on to prove his point, showing Renton's dreary life with friends, living in a flat more resembling a dingy squat, shooting heroin, going day to day wondering where the next high will come from. Renton, acted outstandinly by Ewan McGregor, decides to kick his junk habit with marginal success, as he is surrounded by addicted friends and endless boredom and limitations.
Trainspotting offers a funny and candid look at heroin addiction without the usual glamorization; there are many gritty and disturbing scenes, such as the dead baby hallucinations when Renton is enduring withdrawal, a scene acted with sublime talent, as well as the hilarious opium suppository one.
This isn't a movie for the faint of heart of stomach and it may take a few viewings to understand their accents, but is a very entertaining and well acted and directed achievment and one of my favourite videos.
Rating:
Summary: Best Film to Date
Review: This film has got to be the greatest film I have ever seen. The book was fascinating and the film does a terrific job in portraying the true lives of close friends that are heroin addicts. EWAN McGREGOR plays the quirky Mark Renton and fabulously shows the struggles of his character's life from addicted to heroin through the trials of life and into his fight to get clean. This is the greatest film to date, though a little different from most, it's truth and style will stick in the mind of those who view this true masterpiece by the unique director DANNY BOYLE.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant: Dismal yet funny
Review: "I chose not to choose life; I chose something else" proclaims Mark Renton, one of the main characters of Trainspotting in the beginning. The film goes on to prove his point, showing Renton's dreary life with friends, living in a flat more resembling a dingy squat, shooting heroin, going day to day wondering where the next high will come from. Renton, acted outstandinly by Ewan McGregor, decides to kick his junk habit with marginal success, as he is surrounded by addicted friends and endless boredom and limitations.
Trainspotting offers a funny and candid look at heroin addiction without the usual glamorization; there are many gritty and disturbing scenes, such as the dead baby hallucinations when Renton is enduring withdrawal, a scene acted with sublime talent, as well as the hilarious opium suppository one.
This isn't a movie for the faint of heart of stomach and it may take a few viewings to understand their accents, but is a very entertaining and well acted and directed achievment and one of my favourite videos.
Rating: 
Summary: Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll in Scotland
Review: Trainspotting was the best film of 1996 in Great Britain and it continues to generate emotional polar opposite reactions today. The film neither glorifies drugs nor drug addicts but does illustrate in a graphic manner the allure of drugs in today's society. Four working class guys with average educations, middle class backgrounds, and futures that don't seem to hold much promise are drawn to the heroin-chic society of 80s Scotland. The four, Renton, Sickboy, Spud, and Tommy become victims as the failure of parents, social service agencies, the medical profession, and law enforcement to intervene has little effect and success. That the story is set in Great Britain is irrelevant because the story is an American one as well, and the problem defies national boundaries. What is unique is the humor and irrevent cheek of the four boys whose lives descend rapidly while their habits become deadly. Some video versions of the film have minor variations but predominantly differ in the scenes of sex between Renton and Diane with fleeting glimpses of ecstacy rather than full frontal nudity cut from the American theatrical release. In addition, the dubbing of Ewan McGregor's opening monologue tones down his thick brogue for sensitive American ears that fail to understand the Queen's English. VCR or DVD editions also feature interviews with the team of Boyle and MacDonald and scenes deleted from the final cut, but whichever edition you have, its the same story with only miniscule changes. The soundtrack is a marvelous compilation of music to shoot up by various artists and now is heard on main stream television spots for automobiles in the US. Brilliant character acting by Robert Carlyle as Begbie and McGregor as Renton introduced them to mainstream American audiences. The film is rated R however no one dies from guns or violence inflicted by others. The clinical scenes of addicts shooting junk into their veins disgust and disturb for good reason. It should.
Rating:
Summary: At long last, the Director's Cut comes to the US
Review: For some reason, the 2-disc set released in the states on June 1 features the same artwork as the previous US release - yet all the animated menus still read "Definitive Edition" as in the U.K. release. Oh well... For those of us who've been waiting since 1997 for a comprehensive, worthy DVD of Trainspotting will finally get what they've been waiting for. All nine deleted scenes, commentary, a "making-of" dohicky, and interviews with the cast (as well as Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn) are included. Trainspotting fans rejoice at last! One of the best movies of the 90's is finally brought to home video justice.
Rating: 
Summary: why wait so long?
Review: The laserdisc version of this film with all of these bonus features was released before DVD became a format. Why did they wait so long for this? I wound up ordering a Canadian version of the movie to get the deleted scenes, and now suddenly they release all of the same stuff that should have been on the original release? Is there a good reason why the studios release junk versions of a film, and then five years later release a special edition?
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