THE END OF OAK STREET : Tuesday 18th August 2026.

I saw the M Rated 'THE END OF OAK STREET' earlier this week, and this American Sci-Fi survival film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by David Robert Mitchell who made his feature film Directing debut with 'The Myth of the American Sleepover' in 2010 and has since had only two other features, 'It Follows' in 2014 and 'Under the Silver Lake' in 2018. This film was released last week too in the US, cost in the region US$85M to produce and has so far grossed US$64M having garnered generally positive critical reviews along the way. 

The film opens on a scene of a street party on Oak Street in the town of Flowervale, Michigan, on what appears to be a beautiful sun drenched summers day. We are quickly introduced to Denise Platt (Anne Hathaway) and her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor) and their mid-teenage daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella), their younger son Brian (Christian Convery) and their dog Starbuck. The couple's marriage is somewhat strained, and Denise privately contemplates divorce, while Greg, having lost his regular job within the last few weeks secretly works as a local pizza delivery driver just to earn a few bucks until he can get back on his feet. 

Sometime later, Denise who is an aspiring novelist takes a draft of her first novel to local neighbour Mrs. Huddleston (Anne Gee Byrd) for a proof read, and who thinks her novel has merit and should continue writing. Before Denise leaves, Mrs.Huddleston invites her into her backyard to observe a peculiar looking plant that has suddenly sprouted up in the last three days and stands about six feet tall. Denise takes a photograph and at the library, the librarian, Mrs. Valcourt (Emily Kuroda), identifies the plant as a species that went extinct two hundred million years ago. The next morning, a big pile of animal dung subsequently appears in neighbour Mel Jacobs (P.J. Byrne) yard, and he fumes at Denise and Greg saying that it is their kids doing. Greg defuses the matter by offering to help Mel clean up the mess. Radio broadcasts report increased solar-flare activity. During a storm later that night, Greg returns home from a pizza delivery, when a huge white light suddenly engulfs Oak Street, joined by a change in atmospheric pressure, and a power and water outage. The next day still none the wiser as to what, how or why last nights incident occurred, Denise, Greg and their two kids leave their house to search for Starbuck, who has gone missing from his outdoor kennel. 

They soon discover that Oak Street is seemingly surrounded by a prehistoric landscape from which dinosaurs emerge, and kill people throughout the neighbourhood. The family proceeds to board up their windows and Audrey theorises that the flashes of light were wormholes that transported the entire neighbourhood millions of years into the past. 

Holed up in their home, the family gather to discuss their situation. Denise seems to accept their fate that they could potentially be stuck there for the rest of their lives, while Greg believes in the power of divine intervention and that God will help them find a way back to their normal lives. 

That night, Greg reveals he knows Denise is considering divorce, and confronts her about her draft manuscript which he says he has read and is about their life and struggles together, while also coming clean about losing his job. Meanwhile, Brian sees Starbuck outside his bedroom window and ventures outside to get him, with Audrey following. They witness Mel being killed by pterosaurs on the roof of his house. They encounter Jeannette Christiansen (Jordan Alexa Davis), Brian's neighbourhood crush, who joins them after revealing her parents have been killed. Elsewhere, Denise and Greg, while trying to find the children, see a flash of light and follow it to a house containing a wormhole. They refuse to leave without their children, and the wormhole disappears. A herd of dinosaurs pursue them, but they take shelter in a car, reconcile, reunite with the children, and offer to look after Jeannette.

The following morning, an Allosaurus attacks the group homing in on Denise. Greg comes to her rescue but is subsequently killed protecting the others, who are able to flee, obviously distraught and heartbroken over the sudden death of their husband and father. They observe the wormhole again in the distance above Mrs. Valcourt's house and make their way onto the roof. They observe that the wormhole appears and disappears at regular intervals. Jeannette jumps in and disappears, but when Brian attempts to follow, he misses the opening and falls to the ground injuring his leg in the process. A Tropeognathus grabs at his leg, but Starbuck appears and attacks the creature. The group attempt to take shelter inside Mrs. Valcourt's house, but it is infested with erythrosuchids, one of which Mrs. Valcourt manages to shoot dead with a shotgun before being overwhelmed and killed by the others. Escaping back to the roof, the group then to jump into the wormhole together.

Jumping through the wormhole together, the three come crashing down into a swimming pool in the pouring rain. The irate owner comes out screaming for the three to get the hell outta there, while Denise shouts 'what year is it?' 'What sort of a question is that? the home owner yells back, 'it's 1982!' Having returned about twenty minutes before Oak Street is transported mysteriously away, Denise calls from a local phone box, a handful of Oak Street residents to leave the neighbourhood prior to the white light appearing, while Jeannette runs to warn her parents. Denise also contacts Greg to make his next pizza delivery to a distant bus stop, where they will be waiting. When Greg arrives, he is embraced by Denise and his kids. The white light appears again, engulfing the suburb as Oak Street disappears and is replaced by the prehistoric landscape. Two years later, the military and authorities have contained the area while scientists study both the prehistoric environment and its wildlife in attempts to determine how and why the wormholes appeared. Denise has become a hero for warning residents and has published a book titled 'The End of Oak Street', based on her experiences, which has made the family moderately well off financially. The film ends with the Platts and the Christiansens enjoying a barbecue together, with a pair of matching Jeannettes.

'The End of Oak Street' as a creature feature harkens back to the halcyon days of Spielberg's 'Jurassic' offerings, in as much as the marauding dino effects are well realised, the action sequences will maintain your interest, and the Platt's family dynamics are relatable. That said, I felt that the background CGI was questionable, some of the dialogue clunky, and the behaviour of the characters is at times ambiguous. For a throwback film of the ilk that trademarked the 1980's and early '90's, this disposable popcorn movie is sure to please despite the plot holes, and at a brisk running time of 99 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome. 

'The End of Oak Street' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) : Tuesday 11th February 2020.

'BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)' is an MA15+ Rated American all female superhero film based on the DC Comics team 'Birds of Prey' that has appeared in comic books form, miniseries and special editions since 1996. Directed by Chinese American film maker, Producer and Screenwriter Cathy Yan in only her second Directorial outing following her 2018 Shanghai based 'Dead Pigs', this film is intended to be the eighth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and a follow-up spin-off to the 2016 David Ayer Directed film 'Suicide Squad'. Despite that films Box Office haul of US$747M from a production budget of US$175M and it winning seventeen awards and another 39 nominations, it garnered mostly negative press from Critics. 'The Suicide Squad' (aka 'Suicide Squad 2') also starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in what will be her third outing as the character, is currently in post-production and is Directed by James Gunn, sees the cast from the previous film return except for Will Smith as Deadshot and Jared Leto as The Joker, and is set for a 6th August 2021 release date. This film was released in the USA on 7th February following its Mexico City World Premier on 25th January, cost in the region of $85M to produce and has so far performed below Box Office expectations with a worldwide haul of US$87M and has generated mixed or average Reviews with Critics praising Robbie's and McGregor's performances, Cathy Yan's Direction and its visual aesthetic, but less positive for the Screenplay.

Following on from the events of 'Suicide Squad', Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) in the opening sequence narrates an animated update from the point of her conception to her childhood years, her time as a former qualified psychiatrist working in Arkham Asylum to the time very recently that she broke up with The Joker (played by Jared Leto in that film) and he cast her out on the streets of Gotham. She is promptly taken in by the well meaning and warm hearted Doc (Dana Lee), the elderly owner of a Chinese restaurant, as the only person to ever show her any kindness. Slowly getting over her abusive relationship, Harley cuts her hair, adopts a spotted hyena (whom she names after Bruce Wayne), takes up roller derby, and hijacks a fuel tanker truck and drives it headlong into the Ace Chemicals plant where she pledged herself originally to the clown prince of crime, and blows the place to kingdom come.

At a nightclub owned by gangster Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), Harley drowns her sorrows by drinking heavily and popping pills, cripples Roman's driver and meets burlesque singer Dinah Lance (aka 'Black Canary' - Jurnee Smollett-Bell). Dinah later rescues an intoxicated Harley from an attempted abduction. Looking on Roman is so impressed by Dinah's fighting skills that he appoints her as his new driver. Meanwhile, Gotham City Police Department Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) investigates a series of mob killings carried out by the so called 'Crossbow Killer' vigilante. Finding Harley's 'J' necklace at the scene of the Ace Chemicals explosion, Montoya notes that Harley must now be in danger from numerous quarters without the security of The Joker to protect her.

Sionis sends Dinah and his sadistic right-hand-man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) to retrieve a diamond encrypted with the account numbers to the multi-billion dollar fortune of the Bertinelli crime family, who were all massacred fifteen years previously. Young teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) steals the diamond from the pocket of an unsuspecting Zsasz, but is arrested and promptly swallows the valuable rock while en route to the Police Station. 

Harley, involved in a cross city foot chase trying to evade Montoya and several other low life crims she has wronged, is captured by Sionis's men. Zsasz informs Sionis that Cassandra has the diamond, and Dinah calls Montoya alerting her about Cass. As Sionis prepares to have Harley killed by the hand of Zsasz who is rather adept with a sharp instrument in peeling off the faces of his victims, she hurriedly offers to recover the diamond for him. Roman agrees putting a midnight tonight time line on her attempt, and also for added security puts out notification of a US$500K bounty on Cass. 

Having tracked down Cass to the GCPD, she storms her way in and using  a colourful array of non-lethal grenade launcher rounds, she is able to free the young pick-pocket and the pair escape to the evidence warehouse. Upon an ambush by goons seeking Cass' bounty, Harley seeks cover behind a pallet load of impounded cocaine which is promptly shot up sending plumes of the white powder into the air all around her. She unintentionally inhales so heightening her reflexes and fighting abilities and dispenses with them all. She and Cassandra then steal a shopping trolley loaded up with groceries from a local supermarket and bond over a bowl of cereal and cartoons on the TV while hiding out at Harley's apartment.

Soon afterwards Doc is approached in his restaurant for information by the 'Crossbow Killer', who is revealed to be Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Having survived her family's massacre fifteen years prior, as a young child she vowed revenge on the death of her entire family and so trained as an assassin. When the time was right (and that time is now) Helena has been targeting each of the gangsters responsible for the murders of her family, and has successful taken out many of them one by one using her crossbow skills. Harley's apartment is bombed by criminals looking for Cass, after Doc betrayed Harley and sold them out, stating in the aftermath, that 'it's just business' and how now he can relocate and open a real Chinese restaurant!

Harley has a moment of clarity following Doc's 'business' revelation and calls Sionis and offers to turn Cassandra over in exchange for his future protection, agreeing to meet at an abandoned amusement park. Dinah notifies Montoya of the rendezvous, while Zsasz notices Dinah's treacherous text message en route to the park, orders Dinah to pull over and contacts Sionis with this latest update. Devastated by Dinah's betrayal, Roman puts on his face mask from which he gets his villainous pseudonym 'Black Mask' and makes for the amusement park. At the park, Harley has Cass taped to the toilet having plied her with laxative so that she can shit out the diamond. Montoya confronts Harley but is knocked out of a window. Zsasz arrives and tranquilizes Harley before holding Dinah at gunpoint and ordering that she slice open Cass' stomach with a knife to retrieve the diamond. He is promptly killed by an arrow to the neck delivered by Helena, who reveals that Zsasz was the last on the hit list of her family's killers. Montoya climbs back through the window just as the effects of Harley's tranquilizer is wearing off. 

A stand-off ensues with Cass now holding the women at gunpoint out of anger and frustration more than anything, saying that Dinah was about to slice her open, and Harley was about to trade her in to the evil Sionis. The women then observe that Sionis has arrived with a small army of face mask wearing goons all out to claim the bounty on Cass' head. Using Harley's old gear conveniently found in a trunk in the room where they are all standing, the makeshift team of women successfully withstand and fend off their attackers, while safeguarding Cass, in an area of the amusement park that is suddenly illuminated and looks brand new like it was last used yesterday and a far cry from being abandoned and disused.

During the battle, Cass is captured by Sionis, while Montoya is shot, but survives due to her wearing Harley's bulletproof bustier. Dinah reveals her metahuman capability of hypersonic-level screaming, so instantly wiping out the additional goons sided with Sionis. Harley chases after Sionis' car on roller skates, and with assistance from Helena riding a motorcycle, the pair pursue him and Cass. At a nearby pier also fallen into disrepair, the final showdown takes place. Shooting at a shadowy figure masked by the nighttime mist, whom she believes to be Sionis, Harley uses her last bullet as Sionis appears from behind a statue, having missed. Sionis holds Cassandra hostage and is poised to kill her. However, Cassandra pulls the ring from a grenade she had taken from Harley’s weapons trunk earlier, slipping the grenade into Sionis' jacket. Harley drop kicks Sionis backwards sending him toppling into the harbour just before the grenade detonates and blows him into tiny pieces with body parts flying in all directions.

In the aftermath with Sionis criminal regime now destroyed, Montoya quits the GCPD. With the money from the accounts encrypted inside the diamond, she joins forces with Dinah and Helena in setting up a team of vigilantes, who call themselves the 'Birds of Prey'. Harley and Cassandra sell the diamond to a pawnshop, start up their own business, and are seen driving off in a convertible with a recovered Bruce the hyena in the back, and the pair biting into Harley's favoured fried egg and cheese sandwiches.

'Harley Quinn : Birds of Prey' as it has been renamed for the American audience it would seem is not a bad film, but its also not that good either. In the grand pantheon of comic book big screen Superhero movies, of which there have been many, I would rate this somewhere in the bottom half. What is it with the DCEU that they just can't emulate what the MCU have done numerous times over already with their finely crafted storytelling, intricate world building, deep rooted characters with empathy and a meaningful back story that we can relate to, and action set pieces delivered with aplomb. Here Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn steals the show with her unhinged and unpredictable emotions, her acts of extreme violence, moments of pathos and her live for the moment attitude. And Ewan McGregor as villain Roman Sionis seems to be relishing in his role as the dastardly underworld kingpin. As for the Birds of Prey as they come to be known, they are relegated to the final fifteen  minutes of the film and Harley ultimately isn't even one of them! This is certainly a colourful film with a thumping soundtrack and some moments of originality for sure, but the action sequences are frenetic, delivered all too often seemingly to grab the attention and maintain interest but look as though they have been lifted straight out of the Looney Tunes Cartoon playbook. How we are supposed to suspend all belief in seeing Harley and her three other female pals thwart a small army of crims of all shapes and sizes hellbent on a big bounty payday and armed with all manner of hardware really is beyond all comprehension. I guess 'stupid is as stupid does' as someone once said! And in between all the cartoonish action, in the brief moments of relative calm the script is left wanting punctuated with effing and blinding aplenty and what amounts to a fairly shallow storyline.

'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)'  merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DOCTOR SLEEP : Tuesday 12th November 2019.

'DOCTOR SLEEP' which I saw earlier this week at my local multiplex is an MA15+ Rated American horror film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Stephen King, which is a sequel to King's 1977 novel 'The Shining'. The film, set several decades after the events of 'The Shining', combines elements of the 1977 novel and its 1980 film adaptation of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick. 'Doctor Sleep' is Written, Directed, and Edited by Mike Flanagan whose previous credits take in such horror offerings as 2011's 'Absentia', 2013's 'Oculus', 2016's 'Hush', 'Before I Wake' and 'Ouija: Origin of Evil' and 2017's 'Gerald’s Game' again based on a Stephen King novel. Flanagan also created, Directed, Produced, Wrote, and Edited the Netflix supernatural horror series 'The Haunting of Hill House' in 2018, and he is currently developing a stand-alone second season, titled 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'. The film was released last week too in the US and Canada, cost about US$50M to make, has so far bought in US$37M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews with Critics praising the performances and the eerie atmospherics especially.

In 1980, a short time after the events unfolded horrifically at The Overlook Hotel in the remote Colorado Rockies young Danny Torrance (Roger Dale Floyd) and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) have relocated to sunny Florida, with the desire to never see snow again! Still reeling from those recent events, Danny continues to be haunted by the ghost of the rotting woman from Room 237 who now manifests herself in his new home bathroom. The ghost of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) who was the Head Chef at The Overlook Hotel and who also possessed the 'Shine' now mentors Danny and one day teaches the young lad to securely lock away such ghosts in imaginary boxes inside his mind. In the meantime, a small yet powerful group of un-dead semi-immortals known as 'The True Knot' led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) feed off the 'steam' expelled in the dying moments of those with the Shine, in order to prolong their lives by slowing down their ageing process.

We then fast forward to 2011, and Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has climbed inside a bottle and become a down and out alcoholic in an attempt to subdue his memories from his traumatic childhood and his time at the Overlook Hotel. He moves to a small town and forms a strong bond with Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), who gets him a job and becomes his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. The AA group that Dan joins is headed up by Dr. John Dalton (Bruce Greenwood) who also gets Dan a job as an orderly working three nights a week at the local Hospice. Dan remains committed to his AA group and begins to rehabilitate. One night while on duty at the Hospice, Dan sees a white cat who goes to a patient who is near death - a sure sign that the end is nigh remarks the aged and frail patient. Dan uses his Shine abilities to comfort a number of dying patients over the years, who give him the nickname 'Doctor Sleep'.

At about the same time Dan begins receiving telepathic communications from a young girl named Abra Stone (Dakota Hickman), whose Shining capabilities are even more powerful than his own. Meanwhile, Rose recruits a fifteen year old teenager named 'Snakebite Andi' (Emily Alyn Lind) into her cult after observing her ability to telepathically control people, and on the pretext of immortal life.

We now fast forward to the present day and Dan has been 'dry' for eight years now. The True Knot clan are in starvation mode, and running short on the necessary steam to sustain themselves. Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon) who is Rose's lover, right hand man, and long term member of the group, is homing in on a young ten year old baseball protege who also possesses the Shine, Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay). The group abduct Bradley and torture him so as to extract as much steam from him as they can, and then bury his corpse in a shallow grave in the grounds of a disused power plant. A now teenage Abra (Kyliegh Curran) senses Bradley's torture and death, and her distress alerts both Dan and Rose from afar.

Rose, having now sensed the extent of Abra's Shine, sets her sights on Abra, planning to extract her all powerful steam to sustain the cult. Realising that Rose is after her, Abra visits Dan, who insists that she stay away for her own safety sake, and avoid drawing attention to herself. Dan turns his back on Abra and feeling dejected she returns home after bunking off school for the day.

Later that night, Rose astral-projects into Abra's mind, but is out witted when the teenager manages to trap her and enter Rose's mind albeit briefly. With a severely wounded hand, badly shaken and emotionally stirred, Rose returns to her body and sends The True Knot to capture Abra, while Crow Daddy persuades Rose to hang back and recuperate, and gather back her strength. 

One night while on duty at the Hospice, the white cat leads Dan to an empty room where he has another visit from Hallorann, who instructs him to protect Abra. Abra tells Dan what happened with Rose and says she can track the cult if she can touch Bradley's baseball glove, knowing that one of The True Knot handled it. Dan confides to Billy about the Shining and asks him to suspend all disbelief and to have faith in what he is telling his friend as the truth. Billy agrees and they travel to the murder scene and exhume Bradley's body to retrieve his glove. They then go to Abra's house, where they recruit her initially disbelieving father Dave (Zackary Momoh) and devise a plan. Using an astral projection of Abra as bait, Dan and Billy lure the cult members out into a remote forest clearing and shoot most of them dead, although Snakebite Andi telepathically manipulates Billy into killing himself before she dies.

Rose has been able to sense the death of her fellow cult members and becomes increasingly distraught as one by one they are all popped off. In the meantime Crow Daddy who was not at the forest clearing shoot out, has abducted Abra, sedated her to render her Shine dormant, and killed her father Dave. Dan communicates with the drugged Abra, whose sedation is now wearing off, and allows him to possess her temporarily and force Crow Daddy to crash the van that they are travelling in into a tree at high speed. Not wearing a seat belt Crow Daddy is sent hurtling through the windscreen and lands in a heap in the headlights ten meters in front of the crash scene. He dies from his wounds, as Abra looks on, free once more. Dan and Abra reunite, while Rose consumes the cult's remaining stockpile of steam, so instantly giving her renewed strength, healing her wounds and vowing revenge for the deaths of her True Knot friends. 

Dan makes the decision to return to the abandoned Overlook Hotel, believing it will be as dangerous for Rose as it will be for him and Abra. Upon arrival late into the evening on the snow covered mountain, he breaks into the long time abandoned hotel and starts up the hotel's boiler and generators and promptly sets about exploring the building once again, 'awakening' it in the process.

Dan revisits the rooms where his father Jack, influenced by the ghostly and evil apparitions of the Overlook Hotel, attempted to murder him and Wendy all those years ago. At the bar in the hotels grand ballroom, Dan is offered a shot of Jack Daniels by 'Lloyd', a bartending ghost who looks a lot like his father. Dan refuses much to Lloyd's disgust. Just then Abra who has been sat in the car diligently waiting for signs of Rose's imminent arrival calls out to Dan that her cars headlights have been spotted on the approach to the hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Dan and Abra confront Rose, by pulling her into an astral plane, in the shape of the Overlook's vast snow covered hedge maze. Dan attempts to trap her in one of the boxes inside his mind, but fails so releasing Rose from the astral plane. Dan instructs Abra to run before being overpowered by Rose, and incurring a severe axe wound to his femoral artery in his leg. As she drains his steam by applying pressure to his open wound, Dan releases the Overlook's ghosts from the boxes in his mind, who overcome and kill Rose.

However, when done, the ghosts turn on and possess Dan, who begins to hunt for Abra who seeks refuge in Room 237. Dan, wielding the fireman's axe, catches up with Abra who is able to momentarily free him. He tells her to flee the hotel. Struggling with possession, Dan returns to the boiler room which is now working to maximum capacity and becoming overloaded. It quickly becomes engulfed in flames as hot boiler oil spills all over the floor, and as Abra watches helplessly from outside as the hotel burns down, with Dan still inside. The blue and red lights of the fire trucks driving up the mountain side signify that help is at hand and that Abra will be rescued.

Allegedly Stephen King was none too impressed with Stanley Kubrick's 1980 big screen adaptation of 'The Shining' and by the changes he had made to the storyline. So much so that in 1997 Stephen King wrote a new Screenplay which was turned into a three part television mini-series which ended up picking up thirteen award wins and ten further nominations. Fast track to 2013 and King wrote the 'Doctor Sleep' novel and it was left to Writer and Director and long time horror film geek Mike Flanagan to combine the two novels and Kubrick's movie together in this 'Doctor Sleep' film. And I would have to say that I think that Mike Flanagan has by and large succeeded on that front by remaining faithful to that landmark 1977 novel and Kubrick's cult 1980 film. This films works as a stand alone movie where you can easily enough pick up the pieces from its predecessor while also serving as a strong companion piece that complements what went before, without seeming like a Hollywood cash grab for the sake of a late sequel. With strong performances from McGregor, Ferguson and Curran especially, an extended running time that does not linger, and enough emotion, suspense and scares to maintain the interest and please fans of Kubrick's 'The Shining' and King's source novels, this film is well worth the price of your cinema ticket. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

'Doctor Sleep' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

T2 : TRAINSPOTTING : Tuesday 28th February 2017.

'T2 : TRAINSPOTTING' which I saw last week has been in gestation for eight years now. In early 2009 Danny Boyle made it known that he wanted to film a follow up to his 1996 cult classic 'Trainspotting', based on the Irvine Welsh follow up novel 'Porno' and set nine years after that original film. At that time Ewan McGregor was already keen. In the ensuing years Boyle always kept his follow up film on the back burner as other projects took hold, but in 2014 it was confirmed that Welsh and Boyle had spent a week together discussing script options that would do justice to the 1996 film, and the following year it was reported that 'Trainspotting 2' would be released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of that first film in 2016. Released in the UK in late January 2017, Directed and Co-Produced by Danny Boyle, reuniting the original cast of Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald and costing US$18M the film has so far made US$26M, and has received generally positive Reviews. By comparison, the highly acclaimed 'Trainspotting' back in 1996 cost US$2.25M to make and it grossed at the Box Office US$72M.

The film opens up with Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) pounding a treadmill at his local gym, in a world of his own, running at a pace to stand still, when suddenly the treadmill runs away from him flinging him backwards into a wall behind. He lies their motionless, while other gym junkies come to his aid. We then fast forward a few months and we see Mark arriving back home in Edinburgh from Amsterdam - the place he has called home for the past twenty years. His first stop off is to say hello to his Dad (James Cosmo) now living alone since his wife and Mark's mother died, in the same house where Mark grew up. He goes up to his bedroom which has remained unchanged since he left - complete with train locomotive wallpaper.

After this, Mark looks up Daniel 'Spud' Murphy (Ewen Bremner) who is estranged from his wife Gail and nine year old son Fergus, and living in a beat up tower block, with no job and begging on the street for loose change. He is still a heroin addict and living with the legacy of a lifelong habit, and is suicidal. He pens a note to Gail and Fergus bidding them farewell. He envisions himself falling off the tower block roof where he lives, but instead attempts self-asphyxiation by taping a plastic bag around his head. He is rescued just in the nick of time by Mark who tracks down Spud and busts the door down to pull the bag from his face. At first Spud is angry at Mark for foiling his suicide attempt, but then Mark explains that he wants to help Spud kick his habit, clean up his thinking, and help him reconcile with Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson (Jonny Lee Miller).

Simon is the owner of The Port Sunshine Pub left to him by his now deceased Aunty. It's a dive of a pub, with next to no customers in the very run down arse end of the city. When he's not pulling a few pints for the few regular customers he does have, he's snorting cocaine and blackmailing well to do types by filming them secretly while engaged in all manner of sexual acts with his girlfriend Veronika Kovach (Anjela Nedyalkova). When Mark walks into the Pub he is greeted by Simon who asks nonchalantly 'so what have you been unto for twenty years?' They exchange social niceties but there is tension between them - Simon still having not forgiven Mark for betraying him out of £4,000 all those years ago. Simon's anger quickly erupts resulting in a full on brawl inside the pub with the fighting duo using snooker cues, beer bottles, chairs and other sundry items to beat each other senseless. When Mark comes round have been knocked out by Simon, he hands Simon a package containing £4,000 in cash - the proceeds of the drug deal that Mark stole way back when. We later see Simon discussing with Veronika how he intends to inflict emotional and physical pain on Mark for betraying him two decades earlier and how he has never forgiven him despite the four grand in his hand right now.

Meanwhile Francis 'Franco' Begbie (Robert Carlyle) is serving 25 years jail time and has just had his parole appeal declined for another five years. He hatches a plan to escape from jail by having a fellow inmate stab him below the ribs with a large knitting needle, in order that he can be hospitalised. The stabbing does not go according to plan resulting in a punctured lung, not life threatening, but enough to have Begbie carted off to hospital, from where he successfully does escape. Begbie visits Simon at Port Sunshine, and Begbie is still also bitter about being double crossed by Mark earlier and is out for revenge. Simon pretends to collaborate with Begbie saying that he knows of Mark's whereabouts in Amsterdam, not letting him know that he is in fact in Edinburgh, and saying that Begbie should in fact lie low for a while pending further intelligence from Simon's source in Amsterdam. Meanwhile Begbie begins burgling houses to raise some cash, coercing his son Frank Jnr. to accompany him as a 'chip off the old block' despite Frank Jnr. having enrolled at Hotel Management College. While selling off the proceeds of his house burgling activities to a known 'businessman' Begbie stumbles across fridges wrapped up in cling film on several pallets. He breaks inside one such fridge to reveal  bags containing thousands of Viagra tablets and more boxes of the same. He takes a box for his own personal use, because he has been experiencing some difficulties in that department since reuniting with his wife.

In the meantime, Mark takes Spud for a run up to Arthur's Seat overlooking Edinburgh telling him that he should simply swap his drug addiction for another addiction, such as exercise, or boxing, or whatever else he is good at, or interested in. Spud takes this on board and starts writing his memoirs of the exploits of the of four them twenty years ago. Later Mark, Simon and Veronika visit Glasgow with the purposes of stealing the bank cards of the gathered patrons at the Orange Lodge and do so big time while the gathered crowd are pre-occupied with live entertainment and their backs are turned on the cloakroom . . . and their wallets.

Simon and Mark also hatch a plan to gain government funding for start up businesses in distressed areas. They make a formal presentation to several gathered officials at the Scottish Parliament Building on the pretext that The Port Sunshine Pub is to be made in to a boutique hostel by restoring it to its famous landmark and destination heritage, rather than the run down dive bar that it is today. Rather they want to turn it into a Veronika's 'leisure club' featuring sauna's and happy endings. When the funding of £100,000 is duly granted they begin work on the upstairs conversion, with Spud spearheading the demolition and building works using various dodgy contractors that he is able to mobilise.

Going out to celebrate their good fortune Mark and Simon go to a nightclub. Unknown to them, and armed with his box of Viagra tablets, so does Begbie. Mark excuses himself to take a leak, and meanwhile Begbie thinks he has scored and excuses himself too to visit the toilet to down another Viagra tablet. The two end up in cubicles next to each other, but don't know it. Begbie fumbles with a packet and drops it. As it rolls under the cubicle Mark picks it up and the two have an exchange of words. At first they don't recognise each others voices, but then it dawns on them simultaneously. What ensues is a foot chase out of the club, through the back streets and alleyways of Edinburgh and into a multi-storey car park, with Mark making a close call getaway on the top of a 4WD.

Begbie then visits Spud to ascertain where Mark is hiding. Begbie comes across Spuds writings about their history together. Coincidentally, Veronika visits Spud at the same time, and Begbie puts two and two together and adds the girl to the jigsaw puzzle. Using Veronika's mobile phone he texts Mark and sets up a time to meet, at midnight, at The Port Sunshine. Veronika and Spud manage to elude Begbie giving Spud just enough time to forewarn Mark and Simon at the Pub of Begbie's intentions. Begbie arrives and is greeted by Mark, Simon and Spud. A fight breaks out, Simon is knocked out and Mark is chased upstairs to the partially refurbished 'leisure club'. Mark hides in one of the unfinished saunas but is overcome by Begbie, eventually falling through a roof space and left dangling by his neck entwined in exposed wires and slowing choking to death. As Begbie watches on with a smile on his face, he is knocked unconscious from behind by Spud using a toilet bowl.

Simon, Mark and Spud load the unconscious Begbie into the boot of Simon's car and drive him back to the prison from whence he escaped, leaving him there to be discovered by Prison Guards. Veronika has made off back to her home in Bulgaria with the £100,000 grant by using Spuds forgery skills that he learned whilst in prison to forge the bank transfer papers assigning these monies from Simon's account to her own. Simon has reconciled his differences with Mark, Spud gets serious about Writing and his musings form the basis of a book, and Mark moves back into the home of his upbringing with his Dad following the collapse of his marriage back in Amsterdam.

It's good to see Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie and Spud back on the big screen, reunited and doing what they do best after twenty years. Danny Boyle has crafted a solid film that pays homage to the first instalment through similar themes and flashbacks to those earlier heady days, and beyond, to the boys individual childhoods and what made them. The film is creative in its plot lines, it is well played out by the principle characters although Begbie's role is the strongest as the hard nosed unpredictable opinionated tough guy who drops the 'C' word at every opportunity, and Spud's the least formed as the would-be storyteller. In the middle are Mark and Simon - long term best friends divided by an act of betrayal who come good in the end but not before treading some shifting sands beneath their feet. There is a thumping soundtrack featuring classic '80's and '90's tunes mixed in with more recent rhythms, but is all this enough to put this follow up on a par with the original. For me, not, but it is certainly worth the price of your ticket. Maybe age, the passing of time and the different era has wearied them just a little too much to make the post-Thatcher years and the '90's cultural explosion that trademarked the first film seem like a distant, if glorious, memory.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-