Trainspotting

5 guys, 4 criminals, 3 drug addicts, 2 girls, 1 violent prick. Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie. All up, over half a dozen individual characters with their own unique and comical personalities.

This is one cracker of a movie. It's a black comedy with some of the most disgusting scenes I've come across of late. This is a very in your face and confronting movie that will leave a lasting effect on you in time to come.

It's a story about the lives of a group of scottish guys, some addicted to heroin and others trying to overcome their addiction. The story is seen through the eyes of Renton (Ewan McGregor) the lone member of this group who gets the opportunity to escape this affliction and make something of his life.

Throughout the movie we see the disintegration of their individual lives and the simple events that cause the down hill slide.

Trainspottings main attraction is the script and the dialogue. This produces some of the funniest scenes for such a depressing movie.

A great transfer indeed. The original film has a certain yellowy/sepia tinge to it. It gives the movie that gloomy environment.

Blacks could be blacker in some scenes and the mid-tones aren't as accurate as other transfers in the PAL format. There are some scenes depicting high saturations of color and they look fine on dvd.

On this disc you'll find the widescreen 16x9 enhanced version on one side and the pan&scan version on the other. Something the region 1 Buena Vista version doesn't.

This is not an aural experience. There's probably on one scene that you will really notice the directionality and that's the simulation of the rushing heroin from the inside of a needle.

There is music throughout the movie which makes more use of the surround than any other effects.

Dialogue is always clear. One scene that was a little un-intelligible was in the nightclub scene at the beginning. What was interesting was that the subtitles came on to help you understand the scene and this was the case with the original cinema release.

Other languages you'll find are French and Spanish.

Nothing on this disc to consider extras. The menu system is very simple and there are animated thumbnails in the scene selections.

The first time I saw this movie in the cinema I really didn't pick up most of it. It just didn't sink in. Seeing it on dvd now for about the 5th time I just keep enjoying it more and more.

This is a weird movie, a dark movie at times and a immensly comic movie at others. You really feel for Renton and the life he and his friends live. And the positive transformation we see in Renton in comparison to the negative transformation of some of his friends really emphasises the importance of taking responsibility and making the right choice. Does Renton choose life? In his own way he does.