Trainspotting Reviews and Ratings


  • spartacus007
    March 21, 2010
    spartacus007
    Wish I had seen it back in the '90s
  • AlexLugonja
    March 14, 2010
    AlexLugonja
    I love this film. Itīs a classic.
  • NuditysShiver
    March 11, 2010
    NuditysShiver
    Trainspotting centers around the addiction of heroin and how the users see the world while under the influence of this certain type of drug. It follows a group of young British men, and their exploits around their town, trying to survive and support their habit; and even c...( read more)ome to cope with themselves. The pessimistic nature of Trainspotting adds to the backdrop of the storyline, giving off some rather realistic tones to a morbid tale. Contradiction sets in, bleeding out on all corners while revealing the dark recesses of the city of Edinburgh for the central characters. Even though, Trainspotting hits some serious corners in the society of the drug world, the film comes off as a tasteful look into the lives of the users involved. For a film to be this intense is superb and intriguing all at the same time. I was impressed on how Danny Boyle presented this film and the choosing of the actors displayed. Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle give some powerful performances which showcase their true acting ability; a diamond element in their roster of films. My loquacious persona can span on for decades on this film, but I'd rather cut it short and sweet; I'm still waiting for a baby to crawl on my cieling and wake me up out of my depersonalization trip.
  • timeladyinred
    March 10, 2010
    timeladyinred
    Very interesting. Some werid and upsetting scenes to see, but worth watchng for the insight into te world of illegal drug taking.
  • dempsC88
    March 6, 2010
    dempsC88
    Romantisizing the use of heroin in an absolutely grotesque and intertaining way. Ewan McGregor plays the intelligent protagonist struggling with addiction and seems incapable of escaping his crazed friends deamed enablers in circa 1990's adolecent culture in scotland..
  • JigsawsCute
    February 27, 2010
    JigsawsCute
    Never a frown with golden brown...
  • Liesebieke
    February 24, 2010
    Liesebieke
    I saw this movie today on the big screen while I have owned the DVD for at least two years and never had the time to watch it.
    This is a cult movie and I understand why. The soundtrack is fabulous, the story is tragic and contains a lot of humour as well. And it all seems quite ...( read more)real to me. Thumbs up for this one!
  • kristieee
    February 22, 2010
    kristieee
    REALLY want to see this film!
  • alexdermer1
    February 22, 2010
    alexdermer1
    This film is like a mix between Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and Requiem For A Dream, at times its dark and disturbing and others its quirky and laugh out loud hilarious, all of which is deeply intruiging to watch as Begbie, Diane, Sick Boy, Spud and Renton make there way throu...( read more)gh life. This film is a must see classic espically for those who are fans of Ewan McGreggor.
  • ohrita
    February 11, 2010
    ohrita
    There is no words that can describe the greatness of this wonderfull movie! This is one of my favourite movies of all times!!! Love it! The story of Mark Renton is a story everyone should have seen bofere they die! And they said that this movie was some kinda commercial for drugs...( read more)? I see it the opposite way- I dont feel like taking drugs when I watch this movie, just think about the baby...
    Some scenes are quite discusting...dont ya think??
    For me this is a heartbreaking and touching story that I want everyone to see before they die!
    Choose your future, choose life!
  • flopaaw
    February 7, 2010
    flopaaw
    Much better than the book.
  • zuckermanz
    January 25, 2010
    zuckermanz
    choose life... choose... excelent
  • stephanlottering
    January 25, 2010
    stephanlottering
    HAHAHAHAHAHA.....if you've ever wondered about the effects that drug-abuse may have on you, watch this show....exceptionally entertaining
  • mcmullers
    January 22, 2010
    mcmullers
    british, irvine welsh, drugs
  • mfou88
    January 22, 2010
    mfou88
    Great movie, I didn't know it's Danny Boyle movie till i rated it. It's amazing, simple, without big words, just entertaining.
  • stevep70
    January 19, 2010
    stevep70
    Who ever thinks this movie glamorizes drug use should revisit their definition of glamour.
  • xPadacklesx
    January 17, 2010
    xPadacklesx
    I thought this was proper good to be honest! Quite shocking but good!
  • AC1991
    January 16, 2010
    AC1991
    "Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"

    Robert Carlyle gives a disturbingly brilliant performance along with many others...( read more), although his stands out the most due to the outrageousness of his character. Ewan McGregor also gives a very believable performance as Renton.
  • satelliteblu
    January 8, 2010
    satelliteblu
    It's ok to cook-up and let this one surge your veins more than once. It's very addicitng much like it's soundtrack. A colorful, witty, and poignant ride of your life. McGregor rocks this one.
  • feivel312
    January 7, 2010
    feivel312
    it was hard to understand their scottish english.
    (sick boy's hot*)
  • coljadu
    January 5, 2010
    coljadu
    it was one of the worst movie i ever see, i was excited about it caz of its high rating and the fact that its from danny boyle but its was nothing but a 1 hour 34 min of headache. there was nothing in the movie, no story, movie going no where just few stupid drug addicts going...( read more) high, doing sex, talking trash thats it. in the last 15 min they try to start a story but its end as its start. so all in all if u r happy or in a very good mood and u want to ruin that u have to watch this movie.
  • alejandroequis
    December 31, 2009
    alejandroequis
    Entretenida en muchos niveles
  • themoreuseethewiseruget
    December 29, 2009
    themoreuseethewiseruget
    Along with the great soundtrack we can hear the requiem of the almost dying generation X.Danny Boyle directed a movie overflowing with adrenaline(legal stuff)!!!!
  • AgentLexi2132
    December 28, 2009
    AgentLexi2132
    ''Take the best orgasm you've ever had... multiply it by a thousand, and you're still nowhere near it.''

    Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

    Ewan McGregor: R...( read more)enton

    Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is a film in which it all clicks and comes together in a dizzying array of drugs and characters. The film starts off startlingly realistically with Renton chastising that he wouldn't do drugs if he didn't enjoy it. With this, we learn in a headlong rush that the world of drug abuse that we've been taught about and steered away from is like any other addiction and that to an extent, we the audience, are no better than the people on screen.


    Very light-hearted and fantasy is the first quarter of the film, common sense seems to evapourate and it's not made entirely open why drugs are considered bad in society. But the enjoyable scenario that you settle comfortably into doesn't last for long and soon it's apparent that director Danny Boyle is showing the good and the bad, the two extremes, the black and white. Whilst viewing Trainspotting you're in junkie paradoxical limbo.

    Not many movies are lucky enough to be made at the right time and place then continue to steal the world by storm as Trainspotting did, but the ultimate proof of this film's mastery is that if you watched it alone or in a mass, in the far future or back in 1996, it still has the same effect of absolute hold over you in it's depiction of what it is to be a drug addict. Trainspotting is nothing short of being among the most effective, the most perfectly executed artistic works ever committed to film.

    I mean Renton going fully into a toilet and swimming around before re-emerging is a perfect example of how warped and deliciously disgusting to watch this film is. Or his fantastical visions of a baby on a ceiling with Dale Winton on TV really is bizaare as if you are experiencing the drugged up state that hes in alongside him.
    Ewan McGregor does a fantastic job in the role of Renton and quite easily makes us believe he is quite simply, a druggie.
    The appearance of a young Kelly Macdonald as Diane was fun. So was the fact in finding out Diane is still at school, which had my mouth ajar, and the fact that Renton finds this out after. Highly amusing.
    Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy shows us another Brit film part he pulls of nicely.
    But Robert Carlyle as the maddened Begbie with his terrible temper was a compelling character to see with an uncontrollable rage. He really made the part his own and gave a performance that remains for me memorable.

    The soundtrack is a perfect blend with some catchy and songs everyone with a bit of British origin knows. Accompanied with the narration by Ewan and it becomes hypnotic.
    From a technical standpoint, the camera-work and cinematography are fluid, inventive and original.
    The story itself is nothing new but is written and executed in such a wild energized fashion that everything seems to have a fresh feel.

    For a film ironically called Trainspotting Danny Boyle gives us something that shows what a talent he truly is. He shows us a serious yet comical drug movie which doesn't glamorize the use of drugs nor does it dismiss or damn them.

    Trainspotting is a film for anyone who wants to take a trip to the dark world of Heroin but also see the spark and rush that keeps people there.
    For anyone who's not scared to cross the border on morals and what's right.
    Trainspotting is for anyone who chooses life, and unlike Requiem for a Dream it gives us an ending of positiveness, and of hope.
  • naivejack
    December 28, 2009
    naivejack
    Made me tidy my room...
  • battleaxeofdoom
    December 25, 2009
    battleaxeofdoom
    took a while to get used to all of the scotts, but it was a pretty rad movie
  • RadarHead
    December 23, 2009
    RadarHead
    A cleverly assembled story. A fun piece of "dopefiend tourism". Very little of it however, struck me as piercing below the surface.
  • StewartMc
    December 23, 2009
    StewartMc
    Scotland's finest movie!
  • sherischumacher
    December 22, 2009
    sherischumacher
    LOVE this movie...saw it in treatment!
  • Eryri
    December 20, 2009
    Eryri
    One of the best British films ever.
  • adfill7
    December 19, 2009
    adfill7
    Danny Boyle's unique visual style and a great soundtrack make this a wonderful movie. I really liked it.
  • gultenreiz
    December 19, 2009
    gultenreiz
    The movie that launched Mcgregor and Boyle's careers, made in a diary like style, irreverently funny, extremely sad, artistic, stylish and surreal, and beeing brutally honest about the drug using world.
    The main character is Renton (Mcgregor) that struggles with his addiction, a...( read more)nd life in general.
    I had reserves about this, mainly because I think drugs are no joking matter, but the movie is made in such a way that a lot can be forgiven.
    Great acting from Mcgregor, Bremner and Carlyle, not Miller though, becasue he sucks as an actor and he didn't came close to the rest of the cast.
    Not Mcgregor's best, not Boyle's best ,either.
  • viniciusbracin
    December 18, 2009
    viniciusbracin
    quais sao as razoes?
  • stevie486
    December 16, 2009
    stevie486
    Good stuff, mad, but enjoyed this film
  • DoctorXQuinzel
    December 14, 2009
    DoctorXQuinzel
    It was okay. I felt disconnected from everything that was happening on screen.
  • skinnyfists
    December 13, 2009
    skinnyfists
    Full of memorable scenes, achieve a good balance of tragedy and comedy, a good cast (esp. McGregor and Carlyle) and strong direction from Danny Boyle. I don't think I've seen many films about Scotland in general, Andrea Arnold's Red Road springs to mind but that's about it. It'...( read more)s a shame this will probably now and forever be overshadowed by Slumdog 'Millonaire'.
  • beccimoo
    December 9, 2009
    beccimoo
    Yeww, toilet scene!!
  • rayld02
    December 5, 2009
    rayld02
    It's not all just about drugs; the addiction and the addicts. It is a story of struggle to survive when you have gone into that point of no return; when the only chance to survive is to go back, even if it painstakingly kills the hell out of yourself.

    It is hard to go beyond bas...( read more)ic life survival. You go and eat at least three times a day; you breathe fresh air; you learn basic things; you drink and party. But what if the only things you live for are drugs and sex? How would you get out of your usual ways of living? When drugs have become your life, how would you terminate living and start anew?

    Trainspotting, a 1996 British film directed by Danny Boyle, is about a drug addict who tries hard to bring to a halt his continuing addiction to drugs. It is based on a novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton. There was his gang of co-addicts namely, Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), and Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle). It has become their business to sell drugs and use them casually everywhere and anytime. As a result, they got in a series of invasive appeal to survive their chosen lives.

    The movie starts with a voiceover by Ewan McGregor talking about choosing your life to live. He is chased by policemen because of the act of stealing stuff from a convenience store. He tells that there is pleasure when you take drugs.

    "Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and it's still no way nearer."

    The film has formidable theme that gives meaning to living. Suppose, we do not understand clearly why people keep on using drugs; but it?s pretty shown in this film the lives of those people, with the drama and comedy that we don't want to end up with. I know that several films are made with these kinds of explicit topics, there were "GoodFellas", "Scarface", "Pulp Fiction", "City of God", etc. In those films, we follow the lives of Ray Liotta, Al Pacino, John Travolta, and the kids of Cidade de Deus' characters respectively. We all learned their lives, as they snort drugs, do crime, and defend themselves from others' judgmental perceptions. It has been a struggle. There were always dramas, action, comedy, etc.

    In this film, the drama is not that heavy. The drama is implied in scenes where the narrator (McGregor) tells how he praises drugs treating them as his superior beings. But how he hated his life that way and he wants to change for good. In the final scene, we see Renton running away from the gang he has got involved with; meaning, running away from all the harms of addiction.

    Technical-wise, Danny Boyle has an eye eye for good shots. In this film, we see everything red. Camera angles and camera works are superbly natural. Low camera angles are used to create the illusion of space and vast horizon. Some shots are done like that of Martin Scorsese's. The rotating camera moving to all subjects then zooming out then going to the next cut. There were my favorite camera shots. In movies, my favorite shots are the dining room shots, where the camera iris slowly focuses on the middle subject; it's like the frame is eating the whole scene, which is natural, since scenes are shot in a dining room; makes more sense, doesn't it? You commonly see those in Stanley Kubrick's and Martin Scorsese's films, two of my favorites so far.

    Scoring-wise, I think this film has overdone the music; This film is a basketful of several pop and rock songs. We hear Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Sleepers singing Blondie, New Order, and Blur. We hear music all throughout the film which I think is not advisable but worked good in this film.

    The theme of drugs in this movie does not give us anything to think about at all. It was just a story, and characters with so much energy and sense of mental-illness, you could not even consider them heroes whatsoever. Just another not so good film by Danny Boyle.
  • Arlecchino
    December 5, 2009
    Arlecchino
    Renton and his friends are all junkies trying to survive their own lifestyle. However, with that comes trouble in all shapes and sizes, especially when you want to get out of it all.
    Ewan McGregor is absolutely excellent. But then so is Robert Carlyle, Johnny Lee Miller and Pete...( read more)r Mullan.
    And my favourite quote as the gang are walking on the Scottish country-side:
    Tommy: "Doesn't it make you proud to be Scottish?"
    Renton: "It's SHITE being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some people hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are COLONIZED by wankers. Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized BY. We're ruled by effete assholes. It's a SHITE state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and ALL the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!"
  • navinpai
    December 2, 2009
    navinpai
    I'd heard a lot about this movie, and simply wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

    The movie is pretty ok-ok....no really great scenes, though the acting is really great

    Highly overrated movie IMHO, but watch it just to convince yourself!! :P :P
  • lucita42
    November 30, 2009
    lucita42
    esta pelicula es considerada la NARANJA MECANICA de los 90īs; es cruda, retadora, real y tiene un grandioso soundtrack; ademas de ke su protagonista EWAN MACGREGOR es un gran actor. Su director, DANNY BOYLE tiene una particular y muy atinada manera de ponerle musica a sus pelicul...( read more)as, para muestra esta la escena en ke se llevan a RENTON al hospital por una sobredosis de heroina y empieza a sonar PERFECT DAY de LOU REED, simplemente genial!!!
  • nishantphilip
    November 29, 2009
    nishantphilip
    A brilliant film that I never want to see again...
  • sgreen57
    November 27, 2009
    sgreen57
    i loved transpotting
  • FilmAddykt
    November 22, 2009
    FilmAddykt
    Great great entertaining, funny and kinda disturbing movie. It's very hard to find a movie about heroine that doesn't aim to scare you. For example, when I first watched "Requiem for a Dream" I was so scared that I never tried to watch it again for many years. But in "Trainspotti...( read more)ng" this doesn't happen. Well. it still is a shocking movie when drug use and the effects of drug are depicted. The focus of the movie though is placed on Renton and the characters surrounding him. And what an amazing collection of characters that is! The straightedge guy, the bully, the cunt who'll screw you, the guy who always gets in trouble, their parents, their girlfriends and mother superior. To be exact it is an amazing buddy movie! Also, the way that reality is depicted through surealism by Boyle is fantastic and creates some great memorable moments. All in all it's a complete blast of a movie about how the world evolves around a dysfunctional group of people and how they fit in this world. Another movie you must not miss.
  • julietast11
    November 20, 2009
    julietast11
    oh.... this is a good one ....
  • Lemure
    November 13, 2009
    Lemure
    In the hands of someone like Shane Meadows this film would be so depressing it would make Eraserhead look like a Disney movie. In Boyle's hands it's injected with something that's probably illegal, and turns what could easily be a miserably bleak film into something witty, smart ...( read more)and in love with life - while still showing a darker side. Easily one of the best British films ever made.

Summary

Trainspotting Summary