T2 Trainspotting
Director: Danny Boyle
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 1.5
Twenty years after Mark "Rent Boy" Renton (Ewan McGregor) ran out on his fellow junkies Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle), he returns to Edinburgh ... and isn't met with enthusiasm (Begbie and Sick Boy want revenge). If the first Trainspotting was a skillful mixture of enthusiasm and deep pessimism fueled by a legendary soundtrack - the highs and lows balanced themselves out - this is the equivalent of one morbid walk through a cemetery: no one dies (spoiler!) but there's a lack of stylistic inventiveness (considering the director and cinematographer). The "1690" sequence is a standout moment - which doesn't end the way one might predict - but overall it leans too heavily on its predecessor for resonance (the Young Fathers song "Only God Knows" is the new "Born Slippy"). Renton should have just stayed in Amsterdam ... I recommend the pastries.
