'Harrowing' film from 28 Years Later director now available on free streamer
Nearly 30 years after it first hit screens, the cult classic film Trainspotting is available to watch for free right now.
In 1996 Danny Boyle's black comedy drama was released.
It starred Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, and Kelly Macdonald, who was making her film debut.
Based on the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh, it followed the tumultuous lives of a group of heroin addicts living in a disadvantaged part of Edinburgh.
Although the film suffered an early blow when it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but deemed ineligible for any awards due to its content, it was considered the stand-out hit from that year's event.
When eventually hitting cinemas in February 1996 it grossed £532,950 in its opening weekend.
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Produced on a budget of £1.5million, it then made £48million globally. Trainspotting eventually became the highest-grossing British film of that year, and at the time it was the fourth highest grossing British film in history.
It was also nominated for two British Academy Film Awards at the 49th British Academy Film Awards in 1996.
This week the movie dropped on Channel 4's free streaming service, where fans can have a rewatch, while others can tune in if they haven't done so before.
Although it's been called 'brutal and terrifying', the film has no shortage of glowing reviews.
'Trainspotting is a singular sensation, a visionary knockout spiked with insight, wild invention and outrageous wit,' Rolling Stone wrote in a 2001 review.
'Exuberant and pitiless, profane yet eloquent, flush with the ability to create laughter out of unspeakable situations, Trainspotting is a drop-dead look at a dead-end lifestyle that has all the strength of its considerable contradictions,' The Los Angeles Times declared.
'It would be hard to imagine a movie about drugs, depravity, and all-around bad behaviour more electrifying than Trainspotting,' Entertainment Weekly added.
Meanwhile viewers labelled the movie 'an honest look at drug addiction', as well as an 'all-time classic'.
In 2017 Trainspotting's sequel, T2 Trainspotting, was released. Also receiving positive reviews and becoming a box office success, it saw the original cast return to their roles as well. More Trending
Decades after its release, the original is still considered a must-watch.
It has previously ranked tenth by the British Film Institute (BFI) in its list of Top 100 British films of the 20th century.
In 2004, the film was voted the best Scottish film of all time in a general public poll.
Trainspotting is streaming on Channel 4.
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