You don't have to be gloating over a wasted generation to embrace T2 Trainspotting, a confident, quirky comedy-drama that skillfully alternates bangs and whimpers.

| Mar 8, 2018

The first Trainspotting was about heroin. The second is about another dangerously addictive drug: Nostalgia.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 2, 2017

A film nowhere near as revelatory as the original, but in some ways more satisfying, the proper closing of a tale that had been left open-ended.

| Mar 27, 2017

Improbably, the film vaults over most pitfalls of long-threatened sequels while evolving the delicately crafted world in the original. It's a more sober, mature film, but no less entertaining or provocative.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2017

T2 Trainspotting is a fine reunion, and while the punk portion might not be as raucous as it once was, that doesn't mean these four men have forgotten how to rock one tiny little bit.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2017

With a pulsing soundtrack and an ending scene that cleverly ties the whole thing back to the first picture, T2 is a sequel that is at least the equal of the revered original.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2017

T2 Trainspotting has one foot firmly planted in nostalgia and the other rooted in the present, and thanks in great part to Boyle's unique, world-class talent, everything old feels new again.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2017

Bad sequels try to re-create the original movie; good ones explore its narrative consequences. That's certainly the case with T2.

| Mar 23, 2017

If there's going to be a Trainspotting sequel, T2 Trainspotting is the best case scenario. It rewards a cult-like obsession with the first film, incorporating copious visual callbacks to Trainspotting and nuggets of the original's soundtrack into its DNA.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 23, 2017

"T2" is not a great film, but its pleasures are great - and so rare and accomplished that it raises "T2" to a level approximating greatness.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2017

A follow-up that captures the brio and brotherly angst and affection of its predecessor, if not its clarion sense of urgency.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2017

This may be the most beautifully shot downer of the year, so woeful is its tone. That said, it's also a pulse-quickening thrill to see these wretched once-upon-a-time rebels going mad for the racket once again.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2017

It's easy to knock "T2," especially if you're a die-hard fan of the original...Still, "T2" - with its brash sense of brotherly bonhomie that hasn't mellowed with age - is a lot of dark fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 23, 2017

"T2 Trainspotting" wears out its welcome slowly, like a group of old men running out of stories to tell in an afternoon pub.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 23, 2017

The follow-up is as wistful as the first film was wild, which is another way of saying "T2" feels like a ghost of its former self.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2017

The movie becomes - unexpectedly, and unhappily for those looking for another generational anthem - a rueful song about failure.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 22, 2017

Plotting isn't really what 'T2' is about, and they know it; it's about coming to terms with one's past, and how it informs what you've become.

| Mar 21, 2017

The referential treatment is wise - it's truly the only way a sequel like this could get away with existing.... That interrogation becomes a quicksand in which the film is repeatedly and unfortunately bogged down.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 17, 2017

Although T2 Trainspotting has a melancholy streak, a nostalgia for a time of crazy energy and resiliency, Boyle seems desperate to prove he has lost none of his youthful giddiness and that he can go home again.

| Mar 17, 2017

"T2" questions its own existence, proving just satisfying enough by being as unromantic as its predecessor. The first "Trainspotting" was about the horror of heroin, while "T2" argues that nostalgia is just as addictive a proposition -- and just as toxic.

| Mar 17, 2017