Trainspotting 2 * * * * 1/2

Danny Boyle is an amazing director.  He throws so much at you, but nothing seems inappropriate. By the end of this I felt absolutely lambasted with imagery, cut-aways, stylisations, insertions, overlays, vignettes,references and yet everything worked.  I don’t think there are many directors who understand the language of Cinema better than Boyle.

It’s mainly the brilliance of his directing that helps keep T2 afloat.

Sequels are always risky business.  Especially if the prior film has gained legendary status over the past 20 years, but he’s pulled this off nicely.  

I would not want to spoil it for you by telling you too much about the plot, but I’m afraid the four reprobate lads haven’t got much better  They haven’t grown up much, they haven’t learnt to take responsibility and they still haven't got much of a future.  Hopeless bunch.  But they are so amusing!  And in their own nihilistic way they have actually got something quite profound to say about life.

After his dastardly deed in the end of Trainspotting 1,  Renton comes back to Edinburgh, at about the same time that Begbie springs himself from jail, Sick Boy is trying to make a living as a blackmailer and Spud, well God bless his losing heart, is still Spud.

Renton had looked after Spud in the final scenes of Trainspotting 1, but Sick Boy and Begbie have some reckoning to do . The trouble is Renton is about as broke as ever; so whatever they extract from him it isn’t going to be money.

Like Trainspotting 1, Trainspotting 2 is fast, angry, self destructive and very funny.  It’s a worthy successor to one of the most amoral nihilistic “F***k you!” films ever made.