Review of T2 Trainspotting (2017) by Brendan J — 13 Jul 2017

This is a perfect example of a movie that didn't need to be made. Save yourself some time and frustration, and go watch the original Trainspotting. What made the original movie great, is that it was a peek into the lives of a bunch of arseholes, who were only friends because of going to school together, and a shared love of drugs.

This movie was a great opportunity to look at what happens to this group 20 years later - How they deal with addiction, how friendships that were created by default can become weird and strained later in life, and how the characters have evolved.

Instead we get a shitty rehash of the first movie. The humour is gone, and replaced with plenty of 'hey, remember this from the first movie? Wasn't that a great scene!'. The characters have become exaggerated, 2-dimensional versions of themselves, and show no growth in the 20 years since the first movie, or within this movie itself.

One scene in particular - Where Renton and Sick boy take Heroin (supposedly for the first time in 20 years) just happens... and then they are back to normal. No talk about their relapse, just a few flashbacks to the old movie, then on with the shitty plot.

New characters are not developed in any way, old characters have cameos with no explanation, and there are plenty of shots either copied, or literally ripped, from the first movie. If you really need more Sick Boy, Renton, Begbie and Spud in your life, then throw this on in the background, before watching the first one again.