Trainspotting
Go on Renton my son..Interesting fact..while Trainspotting was set in Edinburgh, it was actually, for the most part , shot in Glasgow.. Edinburgh just wasn't a big enough of a shit hole..lovely city..So this is the final scene of Trainspotting.. Renton wants to be just like us, well not you, but everyone else..obviously.
The Plot:
Set in Edinburgh, the film begins with a narration from Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) while he and his friend Spud (Ewen Bremner) run down a street after shoplifting to raise cash, with security guards in pursuit. Renton states that unlike people who "choose life" (a traditional family lifestyle with children and material possessions), he and his friends have opted out of ambitious pursuits, preferring to live in a blissful, meaningless heroin-induced stupor. We are introduced to his friends: smooth player Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), awkward hanger-on Spud, clean-cut footballer Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and unpredictable psychopath Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle). Sick Boy, obsessed with Sean Connery films, is also a heroin addict, as is Spud. In contrast, Tommy and Begbie openly criticise heroin use. Tommy lives an athletic, drug-free lifestyle. Begbie does not believe in drugs but he is ironically a vicious drunk who receives pleasure from physical violence. In the second scene, Renton decides to quit heroin. He buys rectal suppositories that he has to retrieve from a filthy toilet, before locking himself into a room to undergo withdrawal.
Renton is still struggling with temptation as he stays off heroin. Their "friendship" with Begbie is illustrated when Begbie casually throws his pint glass off a bar balcony, injuring a woman and causing a violent brawl. Renton later joins his friends and goes to a dance club where all five are in pursuit of sex. After complaining about his relationship problems with Lizzy to his friends, Tommy takes Lizzy home for sex while watching a porno video of themselves, until they discover that the tape is missing and instead a football tape goes on. Renton had previously stolen their personal sex film while claiming to borrow the football video. Tommy believes he returned it to the video rental store accidentally - a point of contention with Lizzy that leads to the end of their relationship. Spud drinks too much alcohol, as he is in a temporary abstinent relationship with his girlfriend Gail. That night, when Gail tries to have sex, Spud passes out and defecates all over her bed. Renton flirts with a bold young girl named Dianne (Kelly Macdonald), who quickly dissects his bad chat-up lines, but takes him home anyway. After the two have sex, Renton is forced to sleep on a couch outside her bedroom and discovers the next morning that he is actually at her parents' house and that she is a schoolgirl under the age of sexual consent. He tries to end this relationship, but she blackmails him into staying in contact lest she call the police and inform them of their one-night stand.
With their quest to be sober not as thrilling as hoped, Sick Boy, Spud and Renton decide to get back on heroin. The film shows a montage of thefts, dealings, and drug taking while Renton narrates that he and his mates tried all chemicals available in the streets - they would've injected Vitamin C if it was illegal. Tommy is dumped by Lizzy and takes solace in heroin, having been told it's "the ultimate hit... better than sex." Renton reluctantly gives his friend the drug. The heroin-induced stupor continues for weeks, but is violently interrupted - beginning with the screaming of Allison in their flat. The group discovers Allison's baby daughter, Dawn, has died. The cause of death was neglect while they were all present: an infant's distorted wails play over the preceding drug montage. All are shocked and feel terrible - most of all Sick Boy, who was, as is revealed, the father. However, they continue taking heroin. Renton and Spud are later caught stealing from a shop as the run down a street, as was seen in opening scene of the film. Spud is sentenced to prison but Renton avoids punishment by enlisting in a Drug Interventions Programme where he is put through a gradual rehabilitation and supplied with the heroin substitute methadone.
Even though his second journey to sobriety begins with much love from his parents and friends, Renton is back at the flat of his dealer Swanney (Peter Mullan) within a few days. He orders a lot of heroin and overdoses. Swanney and a taxi driver drag the lifeless Renton to the hospital, where his life is saved. Seeing no other option, Renton's parents take him home and lock him in his own bedroom to beat the addiction cold turkey. While sweating it out of his system, he has several hallucinations, including Begbie threatening to "kick it out", Spud in chains, a drug addicted and diseased Tommy. Finally he sees Dawn, Allison's dead baby, crawling toward him on the ceiling while he screams and cries for his mother. This is intercut with a bizarre imagined TV gameshow in which the host (Dale Winton) asks Renton's mother and father" "Is he guilty... or not guilty?" The dream show hints that Renton is free of AIDS, but his friend Tommy is not.
Clean of heroin, Renton feels no purpose in life. He visits Tommy, who is dying of AIDS in his dark and filthy apartment. His girlfriend Dianne visits him and advises him to move. Renton moves to London and start a job as a property letting agent. He continues his sobriety while enjoying the vibrancy of London and saving up money on the side, while corresponding with Diane. His happiness is again short-lived - Begbie arrives at his London flat seeking a hiding place from the police for armed robbery. Sick Boy also shows up and Renton feels increasingly frustrated that he cannot turn his "mates" away. As things are boiling over in the small space, the three are told of Tommy's death back in Scotland. They return home and meet Spud, who is now out of prison.
Following Tommy's funeral, Sick Boy suggests a large and dangerous opportunity for them; the chance to buy two kilos of heroin for £4000 and sell it for up to £20,000. Begbie demands that Renton put up much of the money, having seen Renton's bank statements. Though he is wary about the deal, Renton agrees. The four meet a professional heroin dealer and sell him the heroin for £16,000, leading to a happy afternoon celebration between in a downtown pub. They have a good time in the pub until Begbie, in a fit of misguided anger, attacks a customer and glasses him before kicking his skull in. As his friends try to stop this, Begbie accidentally slices Spud's hand open with a knife. Renton has already been thinking about stealing all the money for himself. As Begbie stands over his mangled, bloodied victim and demands a cigarette to come down from his "high", Renton resolves that he will steal the money from his mates, who, he has come to understand, are not his mates at all.
Early the next morning, Renton pulls the bag of money away from a sleeping Begbie. Renton looks at Spud, who is awake and has seen everything but does not wake the others. Renton leaves and vows to live the stable, traditional life he described at the beginning of the film as he walks through London in the sunrise. When Begbie awakes he begins to smash apart the room in rage - the last time Begbie is seen, he is preparing his knives as the police bang on the door. In the final scene, Spud later finds £2000 left for him by Renton in a locker.
Link to Movie Reviews:
Rotten Tomatoes: Read More...
Rolling Stone: Read More...
Empire Mag: Read more...
Posted by Geraco C 3:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Trainspotting
Scarface
SAY 'ELLO TO MY LITTLE CLIP.. you see what I did there..ok the final scene of Scarface..man he must have been soooofucken high..Drugs are bad kids.. they make you kill and wear shirts with huge lapels
The Plot:
The film begins with a description of how, in 1980, Cuban President Fidel Castro let the gates open on Mariel Harbor in Cuba allowing thousands of Cubans to immigrate to Florida on boatlifts. However, some of these immigrants were criminals or ex-convicts. The opening credits show authentic video news footage during the Mariel Boatlift and of the Cuban immigrants arriving in the United States.
The opening scenes shows one of these Cubans, Tony Montana (Al Pacino), one of the 125,000 Cubans that immigrated to Miami, Florida, and one of at least 25,000 who has a criminal record. He is being interrogated by three tough-talking immigration officers about his life in Cuba, and of his arrival in America. He and his best friend and former Cuban Army buddy Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) are met with resistance, particularly because of their criminal records, and are placed in limbo (so to speak) in Freedomtown, a place where Cuban refugees without green cards are kept. A few months later, Manny makes Tony aware of a deal, where a wealthy man, Frank Lopez, can give them access to Green Cards and be able to leave Freedomtown. But they have to kill a former Cuban security agent named Emilio Rebenga, who tortured Frank's brother to death in Cuba, in order to obtain it. Tony does this without much thought, stabbing Rebenga during a riot, and they receive their residency.
Over the next few weeks, Tony and Manny begin working in a small Cuban food stand to make money, but Tony soon grows restless. He wishes to leave behind his working lifestyle and have all the money he can possibly have. One evening they both meet with drug dealer Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) (the same man who made the "Rebenga deal") for another job. Omar wants to unload a boat from Mexico containing 500 kilograms of marijuana and offers to pay them $500 each. Tony balks and demands at least $1,000. So, Omar offers them $5,000 each for buying two kilograms of cocaine worth $25,000 a piece from Colombian dealer "Hector the Toad" who will be arriving in Miami in a few days. Tony and Omar dislike each other from the start, and Omar even attempted to pull out a gun due to the argument over the marijuana offer, but Omar's driver Waldo calmed them down by the "colombian deal" suggestion. Omar will also give Tony the money as well as weapons for the deal just in case anything goes wrong.
A few days later, Tony and Manny, as well as two other associates from Cuba who spent time in Freedomtown, Angel (Pepe Serna) and Chi Chi (Angel Salazar), travel to a small hotel in Miami Beach to meet with Hector for the drug deal. But the transaction soon turns bad when it's apparent that Hector never intends to sell the cocaine he has, and only wants to steal the money that Tony has, going as far at torturing Angel to death with a chainsaw. But Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape alive and with the cocaine, killing Hector and his associates in the escape. Instead of allowing Omar to take the cocaine to his boss Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), Tony takes it to Frank personally, already distrusting of Omar (it is never revealed if Omar was in league with Hector to kill Tony, or if it was just a coincidence that Omar set the drug deal up unaware that Hector planned to kill his buyers). Tony manages to win Frank over with his sense of humor and bold attitude, and he ends up getting a job under Frank in his drug dealing business (along with Manny). Meanwhile, Tony takes an interest in Frank's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer). Frank takes Tony, Manny and his associates out to the Babylon Nightclub where Frank frequently attends. While Tony flirts with Elvira, she doesn't show any interest in him (or anyone else for that matter).
A few months later, Tony pays a visit to his estranged family's home. It is implied that Tony's father, a U.S. Navy sailor, walked out on the family years ago, but his mother (Miriam Colon) and his younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) are home. Gina is excited to see Tony (who hasn't seen the family in five years), while his mother isn't too thrilled, aware of his criminal history. When he offers his mother $1,000 (claiming he's "made it"), his mother angrily rejects the gift. She believes he's still up to no good, and wants him to leave because she doesn't want him rubbing off on Gina. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him. He slips her the $1,000 secretly, and tells her to spend it on whatever she wants and to give his mother a little from time to time. It is clear he cares for his sister greatly, but later on in the film gives proof that he is very overprotective of her, bordering on an obsession.
Some time later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar begin discussing business plans with plantation owner and drug kingpin Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar) on the behalf of Frank who couldn't make it down. Tony begins making major decisions about distribution of the drugs (decisions that Omar believes Frank should be approving). Omar and Tony begin arguing over the matter, while Alejandro offers Omar a quick helicopter ride back home. However, Alejandro makes one of his henchmen hang and kill Omar, who was allegedly an informant for the police some years back. However, Alejandro believes that Tony is trustworthy and makes him one of his business partners. After returning to Florida, Tony comes under heat by Frank, who is angry at what had occurred in South America and about his new business arrangement with Alejandro. Tony and Frank end their business relationship, while Tony begins making bolder passes at Elvira, one of them right in front of Frank.
One night at a nightclub, Tony is nearly shot and killed by two hitmen, later suggested to be the Diaz Brothers, two drug kingpins in charge of cocaine distribution in Miami. Tony shoots back at them, escaping in the process. Tony is convinced Frank is responsible for the hit, and he, Manny, Chi Chi, and a few others track Frank down to his car dealership place and kill him once he admits to it.
Afterwards, all seems to be going well for Tony. He marries Elvira, takes over Frank's empire and becomes very wealthy. He purchases a huge mansion, complete with countless luxury items, as well as many surveillance camera monitors. However, cracks in Tony's "perfect life" begin to form. Both he and Elvira become addicted to cocaine. He becomes more paranoid and distrusting of those around him, and she becomes more bored and distant. Tony becomes more greedy and stingy with his wealth, while the bank that he launders his illegally gotten cash wants increasingly large amounts of bribes to launder his money. Manny and Gina begin dating behind Tony's back, afraid of what his reaction would be if he found out.
One evening, Tony is arrested for money laundering and tax evasion by Mel Seidenbaum, a local money launder who turns out to be an undercover cop. Tony's lawyer tells him that he faces up to three years in prison alone for the income tax evasion charge. Soon, Elvira becomes tired of the lifestyle, and leaves Tony after a fight at a restaurant.
Alejandro, not wanting to lose his major distributor, calls Tony down to Bolivia and asks him for help to put a hit out on an anti-Bolivian Government activist (who went on a television talk show and mentioned Alejandro, his henchmen, and their drug dealing). In exchange, Alejandro will make Tony's imprisonment impossible with his White House contacts. Tony and Alberto, Alejandro's best henchman, travel to New York looking for the activist. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist's car, planning to detonate it before he drives to the United Nations building to give a speech about his activist work. On the day the assassination is to take place, Tony orders Alberto not to set off the bomb underneath the activist's car once he finds out his wife and children are in the car as well. When Alberto doesn't listen, Tony grows angry and shoots him in the head.
Tony returns to Florida to find his mother upset over Gina's new attitude (whom she believes Tony corrupted) and Alejandro also phones Tony, threatening to kill him for not going through with the plan. Tony goes to find Gina at an unknown mansion, and sees her and Manny together in night robes. Realizing Manny has slept with his sister, he shoots and kills Manny in a cocaine-fueled rage (which he later regrets), and highly upsets Gina (who reveals they just married and were going to surprise Tony). Tony and his underlings take Gina back to his mansion. Meanwhile, Alejandro Sosa's numerous henchmen are surrounding his mansion. Gina meanwhile enters Tony's office and begins shooting at him with a pistol to kill him. Then, Alejandro Sosa's army of assassins attack Tony's mansion, killing everyone there one by one, including Gina, until Tony is left to fight them off. While sitting on his office floor, sobbing over Gina's dead body, Chi Chi tries to get in to Tony's office. Tony is oblivious to this and sees Chi Chi get shot dead from behind, on his surveillance monitor. He emerges from his office with an M16 assault rifle and grenade launcher, and begins shooting wildly at the attacking henchmen, killing dozens of them. Still under a cocaine-fueled rage, Tony believes he is victorious (as he is taking bullet after bullet from Sosa's men, yelling at them that he can take their bullets), until Sosa's lead assassin (the same assassin who killed Omar) slowly walks up behind Tony and shoots him in the back with a shotgun. Tony plunges off the second floor, over the balcony, and into the small pool in his living room. Tony Montana lies dead, floating face-down in the water as a statue ironically stands above him reading "The World Is Yours".
Link to Movie Reviews:
Rotten Tomatoes: Read More...
Rolling Stone: Read More...
Empire Mag: Read more...
Posted by Geraco C 2:57 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Scarface
