Golden Years

In a secret research center of the USA, the lunatic, but also genius, Dr. Richard X. Toddhunter (Bill Raymond) ignores the warning signal in the control panel and proceeds with his experiment with a particle accelerator. The laboratory blows-up and his assistant dies and the seventy-year-old janitor Harlan Williams (Keith Szarabajka) is exposed to a green radiation that rejuvenates. However the scientist omits the truth about the accident in the preliminary hearing.

The national security agent Terry Spann (Felicity Huffman) and her lover, General Louis Crewes (Ed Lauter), find the truth about what had happened in the laboratory and unsuccessfully try to shut down the experiment. But the CIA assassin Jude Andrews (R.D. Call) kills whoever tries to conduct a further investigation that may compromise the experiment. Now Terry and Louis decide to protect Harlan and his wife Gina (Frances Sternhagen) from Andrews that wants to bring the janitor to become the guinea pig of Dr. Toddhunter.

Yesterday I lost more than four hours of my life watching the dull "Golden Years" on a double DVD. The lame story is absurd and most of the characters are ridiculous or annoying. There are shootings and executions everywhere without press or politicians taking any action. The acting is below average and the story has no conclusion.

The gangster Jude Andrews kills whoever he wants without any consequence. General Louis Crewes and Terry Spann are military and agent from the security agency without any connection with any superior what seems to be impossible. Major Moreland is an unfunny clown while Dr. Richard X. Toddhunter is the stereotype of a mad scientist. Gina Williams is annoying and unfortunately does not die and stays until the very end. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Jovem Outra Vez" ("Young Again")

This dramatisation is on the whole a good one. Albeit with a weak ending. A reasonable cast help to flesh out this tale of an ordinary (well more or less) man trying to outrun the all powerful authorities. Personally, I sank into this dramatisation like an old pair of slippers. It felt comforting. I appreciate Stephen King for his sympathetic characters and plausible relationships. Once again Kingdeftly demonstrates his exceptional talent for characterisation and human interplay. It may now be a little dated but is still worth a look. Don't be put off by the last review. If you can see past King's title of "Horror" writer (he is worthy of much more) then you will appreciate this.

"Golden Years" is a 1991 series, based on Steven King's idea, for which most of the scenario he wrote personally. The first season consisted of 7 episodes in a total duration of about 6 hours and ended with cliffhanger. Unfortunately, from episode to episode series had weaker and weaker ratings, so it was canceled. For the purpose of DVD release it was turned into a film. It was shortened to 4 hours and an alternate ending was filmed, so it doesn't stay unfinished.

The idea is great, story and characters are developing well and it had the potential to be one of the better King's accomplishments. Unfortunately, it's not. The first hour is so slow and boring that I was on the verge of giving up. Later, the story becomes more and more exciting, and once you get yourself attached to the characters, 4 hours just fly by. Nevertheless, there is an omnipresent feeling that something is wrong. As much as they skillfully turned the six-hour season into a four-hour film, although I did not watch the original version, I always felt that something was missing. But all of this would not have a major impact on the overall impression if there wasn't for a catastrophically bad ending, which so obviously does not belong to this film-series that it's simply painful to see. The story develops for 4 hours in its slow but atmospheric natural pace, and then suddenly ends, as a knife cut, with the end that is forcefully sewn to where it doesn't fit.

However, I recommend King's fans to watch it anyway, as well as fans of the series "X-Files", because the film has an atmosphere very similar to this series, as well as a couple of joint actors that enhance this impression. All in all, I enjoyed it, but I would not watch it again.

6/10

DVD version: A SciFi movie with a truly original premise and glimpses of real people.

I've not really enjoyed a Stephen King horror movie since Firestarter. Just so you know my bias I like Stephen King horror books but not his horror movies. I do enjoy his non-horror films. Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, Apt Pupil, The Green Mile, and Dead Zone (both TV show and movie).

Golden Years is on the slow side, as is to some extent every movie I listed above. Golden Years succeeds like the above movies when it explorers characters in ways we are not used to exploring them.

Golden Years is about relationships, about the love and relationship of an elderly couple. Rarely in any movie or book do we see two characters this rich a history and depth of love. The action in Golden Years is not a lab experiment gone wrong, it is about the world of two people suddenly shaken to its foundation as they both come to realize that they have no control over their future. Golden Years is the story about the fear of leaving someone behind and the story of being afraid of being left behind.

The movie works well when the characters are connecting, unfortunatly not all the characters connect well. All in all there is much to be admired here. All in all this is simply a made for TV mini-series of the type often slapped together in the 80s-early 90s.

Both the TV version and Video version are greatly flawed due to rather odd editing choices. The ending of all three versions is still a bit weak, due I suspect to the last two episodes being written by Josef Anderson. The old age makeup for the lead character Harlen Williams leaves a lot to be desired and is often just plain distracting.

I am saddened that Stephen King feels he doesn't have anything to write about any more. Golden Years deserves to have many of its ideas fully realized in a novel.

Stephen King is no stranger to television, both with adaptations of his work (from "Tales From The Darkside"'s version of 'Word Processor of the Gods' to the miniseries "The Stand") and original scripts (witness "Storm of the Century" and that episode of "The X-Files"). "Golden Years" was his first venture into television originals, and it certainly avoids the depths of "The Shining" (the Kubrick version, not the one with Rebecca DeMornay), but neither is it as effective as "The Dead Zone."

An elderly janitor (Keith Szarabajka in old-age makeup) is caught in an explosion at the plant where he works; he survives, but he soon starts to grow younger, and with his wife (Frances Sternhagen) he goes on the run from the people behind the plant... this blend of "Cocoon" and "The Fugitive" worked for the most part, with Szarabajka's rejuvenation a slow process instead of an overnight thing (by the end of the series he was still pretty old), and his pursuers (Ed Lauter, Felicity Huffman) weren't out-and-out villains. But the series blew it in the final episode, never producing a real finale - it just seemed to stop, leaving a distinct "That was IT?" impression.

Proof that it's never a good idea to rest on your Laurels.