Ecstasy

This movie falls so far from it's intended objectives that I almost wonder if it isn't some sort of multi-layered social joke that the director is playing on his audience. The entire film from start to finish feels as if a naive & innocent thirteen year old boy wrote and directed this embarrassing excuse for a motion picture film to impress his older brother who does drugs. Other than the stylishly ripped-off poster design, there is... LITERALLY.... nothing about this film that doesn't make you constantly cringe out of embarrassment for all involved.

The first batch of reviews that give this movie a 10/10 MUST BE FAKE. There is no way that a person coherent enough to read and write English could possibly view this film as a "Must see film," or "Great Cast, Great Story," or my personal favorite: "The Definitive Film about Ecstasy and Clubbing Culture."

Netflix now has this film, and, just like everyone else, was drawn to it out of love for Trainspotting. After quickly looking up the IMDb/Rotten Tomatoes ratings for the film (IMDB=4.7/10, and Rotten Tomatoes has it hovering around a 14%/100) I knew I probably wouldn't get my mind blown, but I wasn't expecting a film this truly awful.

From the first scene which desperately tries to capitalize on the visual aesthetic of Trainspotting, the entire movie becomes an inconsistent mess of AWFUL acting, childish dialogue, flat and borderline nonexistent narrative, and of course there's the music. This film, adapted from one of the best counter-culture authors of the 20th century, had ALL THE WORK DONE FOR IT. All they had to do was properly rip off Danny Boyle's Trainspotting, apply it to this novel, and they would have at least an AVERAGE film. The entire premise revolves around emotionally exposing the 90's underground rave/club culture, and the entire soundtrack consists of, from what I can tell, the same four bars of the most generic "club beat" I've ever heard, and it only plays in the background of these small scale pathetic "rave" sequences where it becomes obvious that the scene consists of less than 20 extras generically moving in a basement while some cheap strobe lights try to mask the films budget and attempt to make it look like a pulsing, sweating, out-of- mind ecstasy club.

So my advice to you is, watch it, but only if you have a morbid curiosity to see in real-time what it feels like to watch the careers of probably everyone involved get quickly erased out of history. I can't imagine trusting director, cinematographer (if you can call him that), or ANY of the actors or writers to coherently create a low-expectation soap opera episode, much less another film. I suppose I'm glad that it was made, so people know for certain how terrible all parties involved are at their respective craft.

Embarrassing. I just spent ten minutes writing this to save you the pain of this film destroying what little expectations you might have from it.

When Ecstacy was made, the best known film based on Welsh's work that had came out was Trainspotting. Of course there were other projects, but those aren't that well known to us. Maybe people have heard of Acid House, but movies like Dockers? Has anyone heard of those, apart from the people who made them? Trainspotting's touch is so clear on Ecstasy. The very beginning has the same feeling to it. The main character Lloyd is talking about ecstasy in a narrating, monologue way. When certain important characters appear, their names are shown to us, just like in the beginning of Trainspotting. While I like Trainspotting, I'd rather not be watching a movie where the director thinks he's doing Trainspotting when he's not.

But luckily that's the beginning. Apart from drugs, Scotland and Welsh's charming text (and his face, briefly), there's nothing too similar in these stories.

The love story was somehow new to me. I have read only few novels by Welsh, but love and romance have never played such a major part in them. Welsh seems to be great at love stories too, which is something I couldn't have anticipated. But in the story two imperfect characters fall in love, and Lloyd's imperfection, addiction, creates a whole lot of trouble, but eventually it's clear they are going to be a great couple.

Have Welsh's characters ever been easily likable? I don't think so. It's hard to like Lloyd when he's in debt and he knows he should get the money at a certain time, because the guy told him so, yet there he is, partying with his girlfriend. Get a grip! Also it's really frustrating in a good way (because you know you'r at least somewhat invested in the story) to watch this, because you start thinking if only. If only Lloyd had done this, if only Lloyd hadn't done that...

As always, I like how we get to learn about characters naturally, slowly, instead of getting a massive dump of info on us.

I liked this movie visually very much. It was very colourful, mostly because of the clubs, but on the other hand there was a lo of earthly colours, because it takes place in Edinburgh. It creates such a nice contrast.

I can't say Ecstasy was anything I expected, because I wasn't really expecting anything. It isn't on the same level with Trainspotting, but how could it be, when the only similarity is Scotland, drugs and Irvine Welsh. Partly it's hard to watch, because it's a bit slow and doesn't seem to go anywhere, but at the end it's a great story, worth reading, watching.

I saw this in Toronto at the North by Northeast (NXNE) festival. It took me back to my university days in England when I attended a few all night raves and witnessed some of the prevalent drug culture that surrounds such events. The cinematography and music was just right and made you feel that you were inside the dance clubs experiencing the atmosphere and excitement. I enjoyed the performances of Adam Sinclair, Carlo Rota and Billy Boyd who all played opposing neurotic characters. The movie highlighted the temporary perceived highs of ecstasy while showing how the reality of life can be a real downer. After watching the movie it made me appreciate all the work that was undertaken behind the scenes to get the funding and cast together which took over a decade!

I wasn't sure if I would like the movie as I was a huge fan of Trainspotting and also Welsh's work but it totally blew me away. Hayden's direction manages to convey a real sense of the brutal underworld involved in the drug culture while unfolding the rather unconventional love story at the same time. Great performances from Sinclair and Kreuk but Billy Boyd simply stole the show for me (think Spud from Trainspotting meets Donkey from Shrek).Having read the book I think that Hayden and McCafferty eloquently captured the essence of the book and incorporated some really touching emotional scenes with Lloyd and his dying father, adding a slightly softer side to the movie. I'll be going to see this again and again and predict that it becomes as big a success as Trainspotting.

Worst film of its genre I have seen and there are some real stinkers. Really didn't get it, at all. I have read all Irvine Welsh books, including his early works and am truly speechless. Was really looking forward to seeing it. Sacrilege! Started off o.k, then lost its way and turned into a disgracefully cheesy, poorly scripted, love story. Male character massages female character 'youve had your heart broken, I can feel it in your back' cue dance music. 'its the small things that matter, you don't talk about them'....'the small things are the big things'. WHAT! Actors with really poor dutch, Scandinavian and even Scottish accents, can do better myself! Basically just dance music punctuated by terrible 'love' dialogue and speed-ed up camera work. Genuinely had to turn it off as the dialogue was that embarrassing it make me queasy. Its the anti train-spotting and in no way resembles Irvine Welshs work. If you are expecting a Danny Boyle type or Irvine Welsh based movie you will be sorely disappointed. It contains drugs , yes, and its based in Scotland. Thats it.