Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly MacDonald

Director: Danny Boyle

Summary: The adaptation of the novel by Irvine Welsh, this is the alternately amusing and disturbing story of a heroin addict from Edinburgh called Renton. He is desperate to kick the habit and finally manages to get clean by moving away to London. However Renton's friends Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie turn up on his doorstep and try to drag him back to a life of drugs and crime. Will he choose life or self-destruction?...

A kinetic, intimate look inside the subculture of heroin abuse, this acclaimed adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel follows the misadventures of Renton (Ewan McGregor), a brash twenty-something Edinburgh junkie, and his nihilistic chums Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). Alternately comical and dark, the film ultimately comes down to Renton's choice between self-destruction or life. The stellar soundtrack should not be missed.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller, Trainspottingis a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed with abandon by Danny Boyle, it conspires to be at once a hip youth flick and a grim cautionary fable.

McGregor, Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner play a slouching trio of Scottish junkies, Carlyle their narcotic-eschewing but hard-drinking and generally psychotic mate Begbie. In Boyle's hands, their lives unfold in a rush of euphoric highs, blow-out overdoses and agonising withdrawals (all cued to a vogueish pop soundtrack). Throughout it all, John Hodge's screenplay strikes a delicate balance between acknowledging the inherent pleasures of drug use and spotlighting its eventual consequences. In Trainspotting's world view, it all comes down to a choice between the dangerous Day-Glo highs of the addict and the grey, grinding consumerism of the everyday Joe. "Choose life", quips the film's narrator (McGregor) in a monologue that was to become a mantra. "Choose a job, choose a starter home... But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?"

Ultimately, Trainspotting's wised-up, dead-beat inhabitants reject mainstream society in favour of a headlong rush to destruction. It makes for an exhilarating, energised and frequently terrifying trip that blazes with more energy and passion than a thousand more ostensibly life-embracing movies. --Xan Brooks

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Scene Access, Interactive Menus, Nine Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Danny Boyle, Audio Commentary, Featurette - 1. THE MAKING OF TRAINSPOTTING, Production Interviews - 1. Danny Boyle - Director, 2. Andrew MacDonald - Producer, 3. John Hodge - Screenwriter, 4.
Year:	1995
Release Date:	June 16, 2003
Runtime:	110 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	902 712 1
Keywords:	Special, Two, General, Edition, Drama, Definitive, Discs, Trainspotting
Genre:	Drama