Customer Reviews

Trainspotting (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(144)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

When I put this DVD into my player it did not work or register at all. A message saying "no disc" appeared unlike all of my other videos. I don't know whether to try and return it to you for a refund or not. I would appreciate a reply. Thank you.

David Saltsman

For some reason, the 2-disc set released in the states on June 1 features the same artwork as the previous US release - yet all the animated menus still read "Definitive Edition" as in the U.K. release. Oh well... For those of us who've been waiting since 1997 for a comprehensive, worthy DVD of Trainspotting will finally get what they've been waiting for. All nine deleted scenes, commentary, a "making-of" dohicky, and interviews with the cast (as well as Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn) are included. Trainspotting fans rejoice at last! One of the best movies of the 90's is finally brought to home video justice.

"Trainspotting"(1996) is directed by Danny Boyle (Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire). The film follows the lives of various friends who are all trapped in the world of drugs abuse. The film is hilariously conceived with the friends showing the degrees to which they are willing to go in order to support their addictions. Hallucinations abound with Mark (Ewan McGregor) diving into toilets for his stash, or seeing babies crawling on ceilings. Even though the film is generally very upbeat, and frenetic, there is always lurking around the corner the dark side of these individuals' lives.

This particular blu-ray is a bit disappointing, if only because it is barebones. There are zero special features, and the film has not been remastered. Even though the blu-ray image quality is sharper than the DVD there really isn't a big improvement over the DVD version in this case.

Just read around 5 or 6 of the reviews below, as somebody else noted: this film IS SET IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND! Not Ireland and most definatley not England. Somebody else had written "...in its homeland of England....". This would completeley misrepresent the film. Also, Trainspotting does not mean Heroin, Trainspotting is the title as it represents the pointlessness of taking heroin just as writing down a load of train numbers.

Rant over. Quality film, buy it or rent it!

i wasn't old enough to know this existed when it came out, but after hearing some good things about it i gave it a shot, and it was a pretty good film. i can see how it could have a cultish affect on people, it's one of those films.

it's about this guy who's a heroine addict and how he struggles with his addiction, but it isn't a depressing movie. it can be kind of funny, a sick kind of funny. it isn't a movie about how drugs are bad and how they can destroy your family and mess up your life, just about how they can mess up your life. and this is passed off as both something to pity and something to laugh at... but it is also not a light hearted movie fluffing off the issue. it is a raw look at the life of a guy who goes in and out of heroine addictions.. but doesn't really care. in his eyes it's just another aspect of his life at the moment. worth the watch.

no special features? there isn't even a MENU!
this is the worst dvd i've ever bought, let alone blu ray. the transfer is so bad, it looks like they've brightened the footage and jacked up the contrast. there's speckling all over the screen. it feels like they transfered this from a pal video cassette. absoutely awful.
and seriously, what kind of dvd doesn't have a menu? i'm glad it was ten dollars, although if i paid any more for it, i might have decided to get a refund.
definitely not worth it!

"Trainspotting", a classic movie that spawned a classic soundtrack, hit the big screen in 1996 and is based on Irvine Welsh's debut novel. Starring, among others, a pre-Jedi Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle, the film is mostly set in Edinburgh and London. The film is narrated by Mark Renton - known to some as Rent Boy and played by McGregor. It tells the story of our 'hero' and his friends : a group of junkies and / or criminals.

As the film opens, Renton is already a heroin addict - though, as it progresses, he tries several times to get off the drug. Most of his friends are also addicts - the most notable exception is Begbie, played by Carlyle. Franco (as he is occasionally known) is an ignorant, obnoxious, violent, hard-drinking bully, who likes nothing better than being at the center of a brawl. Sick Boy - played by Miller - is as much a rival to Renton as a friend. He is also something of an expert on Sean Connery, particularly in his 007 days. (Miller's grandfather, funnily enough, played "M" in the Bond movies until 1979). For some reason, I found Spud (played by Ewen Bremmer) to be the most likeable character - or, at least, the one I had the most sympathy for...I'm not entirely sure why, when it was Tommy who had the worst luck of all. (Bremmer was also in the running for the part of Renton - he'd played that part on stage in Edinburgh and London). The gang's dealer is known as Mother Superior - it's not that he's particularly religious, it's more to do with the length of his habit.

The soundtrack is superb - New Order feature, while Primal Scream begged to be allowed to write a song after seeing a rough cut of the movie. I now find it hard not to think of the film's opening scene when I hear Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life", while Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" inclusion is not entirely unexpected, but thoroughly welcome.

Anyone who tells you that "Trainspotting" glamorises drug-taking in general, and heroin use in particular, simply can't have watched it. While there is a great deal of humor, many of the scenes and situations do not present addiction as an appealing option. Renton and his friends see a great deal of action : constipation when hooked, impressive bouts of diarrhoea when coming off the drug, the risk of catching HIV / AIDS, the sickness brought on by going cold turkey and the potentially fatal effects of too big a hit. As a result, it's not for the easily offended or the squeamish - while it's one of my favorite movies, I wouldn't recommend watching it with your grandparents !

Being too young to have seen this when it first came out, I was able to watch it on a cable channel that did not feel the need to edit anything.

Let me say this: Trainspotting is most definitely not for everyone. It's entertaining on a sick level, and, of course, Ewan McGreggor fans might be somewhat surprised at what the cheeky-grinned Scot is up to, but for those who can take it, Trainspotting is very, very good.

The thick Scottish accents, and the British slang may have been thick to cut through a decade ago, but in our world of Harry Potter, Bridget Jones and Austin Powers, if you don't know what "football" "Jumper" and "wanker" mean, you've been hiding under a rock.

The movie at its base is not about the herion addiction around which the story takes place, but about friendship, and more often than not, the lack thereof.

I love this. At first it's shocking, and yes a little difficult to understand but concentrate for a little while and you'll pick it up, it is in English afterall. I've also read the book (absolutely amazing) and I have to say that I think the adaptation was done really well considering the length and depth of the story line and all the characters.

Now just a correction... this film is set in SCOTLAND not Ireland... as it states that Renton goes into "the worst bathroom in SCOTLAND" not to mention the references to Scottish cities and of course Renton's tirade about how horrible it is to be Scottish.... but i suppose if some people weren't so busy reading the subtitles they might have actually gotten the chance to watch the film....

But seriously it is definitely worth seeing, it's dark, funny, raw and very NOT hollywood infested.. :o)

This is a well-executed film with lots of great images, especially using the dead baby. But it's pretty flashy in a TV commercial or music video way & after a while I found the gimmicks wearing thin. I've read a lot of excellent junky lit over the years - one in particular that stands out is Trocchi's brilliant Cain's Book from the 1960s (another Scots junkie, yet). Trainspotting isn't bad, but like My Private Idaho & the film version of Fight Club, it's a pretty superficial demographic concession to the suburban live-life-as-proxy mentality that has become the prime target of mainstream films the last few years.