Film review: T2 Trainspotting (3 out of 5)

It came with loud brash music, a gang of talented actors at the start of their careers and a director with bags of adventurous ideas, all focusing on a no-holds barred story about friendship and drugs.

And while T2 has plenty to commend it, the movie comes a long way short of the original.

At the end of that first film Renton (Ewan McGregor) walked off with a bag of money that should have been split with his former schoolmates.

Now, 20 years later, he returns to Edinburgh to try to make amends with one of them, ‘Sick Boy’, now just calling himself Simon (Jonny Lee Miller).

He also meets up with another old mate, Spud (Ewan Bremner).

However, the bad news is that the final member of the original quartet, the vicious Begbie (Robert Carlyle), is out to punish Renton for taking the cash.

There’s some great dark humorous moments in T2 and director Danny Boyle shows he hasn’t lost any of his skills.

But while the first movie was cutting edge, this one is a bit blunt.

Spud has more of a role and proves a really interesting character.

Begbie’s strength was that we only saw a psychotic bully and he came into the first film to literally shake things up.

However, he’s now given a back story that makes him less interesting.

And Renton and Simon also feel far less rounded characters this time.

Some of the cast from 1996 return in cameos, including the author of Trainspotting and Porn (on which the films are based), Irvine Welsh.

Overall this is entertaining enough, but sadly doesn’t hit the heights that the first movie reached.

But it still has some cracking music!

Film details: T2 Trainspotting (18) 117mins

Director: Danny Boyle

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle

Screening courtesy of Horsham Capitol