“So…what have you been up to…for 20 years?”

These are the first few words that Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) says to Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) after two decades of life spent apart and we just can’t wait to find out what happened to the disbanded gang in all these years.

The cult 1996 film showed the Generation X youth who didn’t want to follow the rules and do what the society expected from them, but ended with the choice of the protagonist Mark of giving up his old life of drug addiction and indifference and build up a new one but only after the robbery of his own friends.

But how have Spud, Sick Boy and Mark lived their life? And what about the drunken, violent psychopath Begbie who is not in jail anymore and is looking for revenge?

Some fans might say that the film is only an echo of the previous one, nevertheless T2 evokes its prequel being capable of showing the issues of living in the age of high-tech, social media, competition and temporary contracts, in a society that reveals its rotten face once again.

Scary, funny and desperately pessimistic, Trainspotting 2 shows the middle-aged male disappointment and fear of death: it’s only when the characters see each other’s faces that they realise how old they have got.

The only aspect that can be criticised might be the favouritism of director Danny Boyle towards a more mainstream production instead of a more continental touch in terms of both style and subject matter. Nevertheless, the political side of Scottish nationalism is still up, together with its astonishing landscapes, and perhaps being Scottish is not “sh*te” anymore.

Last but not least, the soundtrack manages to catch the public from the very first scene, feeling a sense of energy and nostalgia shared  with Mark himself when he turned the music on “Born Slippy – Underworld” that he used to listen to during his boyhood.