YNMS: T2 Trainspotting

 by Murtada

Where were you in 1996 when the first Trainspotting was released? Your answer to that question might determine how excited you are for the sequel, T2 Trainspotting. It was an exciting shot in the arm for 90s cinema three whole years before the banner year of 1999. It also soldified the careers of Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor. They allegedly had a tiff, over The Beach (2000). A movie few remember fondly if at all. Glad they patched things up. So let's dive into the trailer with our patented Yes No Maybe So. 

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Women's Pictures - Antonia Bird's Ravenous

What is the difference between a hero and a coward? Where is the moral line between surviving hunger and gratifying gluttony? What was the true nature of manifest destiny? When you think "cannibalism horror flick," you probably don't expect questions like these, but Antonia Bird's 1999 genre-bending Ravenous surprisingly pauses to ask these questions before launching into some spectacularly self-indulgent gore. The result is a veritable smorgasbord of horror tropes and outlandish ideas that make up an unusual horror movie which might not be to everyone's taste.

Guy Pierce, hot off L.A. Confidential, plays John Boyd, a cowardly captain in the American army during the Mexican-American War. He has been decorated for capturing an enemy command after hiding under a pile of dead bodies, though he did so out of fear, not heroism. His superiors send him to a remote outpost in the Sierra Nevadas, Ft. Spencer, which is run by a Colonel (Jeffrey Jones), a drunk (Stephen Spinella), an idiot (David Arquette), a religious nut (Jeremy Davies), a soldier (Neal McDonough), and the two genre-required Native Americans (Sheila Tousey and Joseph Runningfox). When a half-mad priest (Robert Carlyle) appears in the night, telling stories of snowbound starvation and cannibalism, the ragtag group sets out to investigate. What they find is a bloody disaster.

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"Are you a Catholic?" (Actually No, But I *Get* It)

For The Lusty Month of May, we're looking at a few sex scenes. Here's Nathaniel...

They like to say that people come into your lives for a reason. Also true of movies. When I saw Priest (1994) in its American release in 1995, I was just out of the closet but still very much struggling with having been a strict Mormon for then roughly 100% of my life. The movie is about a gay Priest (Linus Roache) who struggles with his vows .... and not just the sexual ones. It hit me in a seismic way. This had never happened to me before or since but I started crying at the end and actually couldn't stop until after the credits had ended. 

Where you are in life can dictate a lot about how you receive a movie. But this series is about sex scenes so let's narrow our focus. Today Priest's sex scene, which I had liked (okay, obsessed over - shut up) back then plays super tame. Why did it shock me then? I have the answer in 2015 watching it again...

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Beauty Vs Beast - Choose Life Choices

JA from MNPP here with a new round of "Beauty Vs. Beast" for us to play... this week's inspiration? It's the 54th birthday of one of my favorite actors, Scotsman slash raving lunatic Robert Carlyle. Alright yes he's (probably) just acting the "raving lunatic" part... over and over again... so well... by all accounts he's a very nice gentleman. Think how sweet he seemed romancing Linus Roache in Priest! That was the first place I ever saw him - it was two years later where he'd cement the scary status he'd carry on to roles in Ravenous and 28 Weeks Later (which I actually prefer to the original) with the one and only terror that was Begbie in Danny Boyle's 1996 phenom Trainspotting.

Did I say "one and only"? Make that twice and doubly - now that Ewan and Danny have finally made up following DiCaprio-Gate (Boyle cast Leo over Ewan in The Beach, which Ewan did not take well at the time) they seem to be very serious about making Porno, the Trainspotting sequel, their next project. I haven't read Welsh's book so I don't know where the movie will find Renton and Begbie and all the boys twenty years later (yes the 20 year anniversary is coming up in 2016) but til then, we can at least pick our sides!

poll by twiigs.com

You have one week to shake off the drug haze and pick your poison - and make sure to give yourself over to pro and con proclamations of varying lucidity in the comments.

PREVIOUSLY ON Last week we celebrated Francis Ford Coopola's 75th birthday with a face-off between the two devil courtesans in his 1992 version of Dracula... Winona Ryder's initially demure Mina versus Sadie Frost's wanton wedding belle... sure enough it was flame-haired Lucy we, like the Count, couldn't keep out shadowy fingertips off of. In the comments John T made a solid point (and connects us back to the previous week's contest winner)...

"Sadie got distracted by Jude Law in the 90's-who can blame her for not pursuing career over that?"