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")

When this series aired I watched most of it. I think it was supposed to be a long running series in the vein of "The Fugitive" and "The Incredible Hulk" where the protagonist is being chased around the country looking for a solution to his problems. In this case the hero's problem is his progressive aging in reverse. I liked what I saw of these shows. The acting was good especially the sorrowful relationship between the lead character and his wife. Problem is: They cancelled it before it had a chance to end. (either that or I missed the last episodes).

They never got a chance to wrap up the story either, knowing it had been cancelled. Poof it was just gone. However, like I said before I might have missed the last episodes. But my proof to the contrary is this: I rented the tape. Where I left off in the series. The lead character's wife dies in a fire started by a chase involving King's famous organization the Shop. While getting away hero is kidnapped. It ends with his friends realizing they have to go save him from the Shop. The end. Last episode. On the video: His wife does not die but escapes the fire with him. Right when he should get nabbed by the Shop, he and his wife share a weird moment then phase out of existence. Abrupt, silly and cheap to the extreme. They just wanted to put this video out and decided to tag on an ending not caring how bad it was. They might as well of just shown some stock footage of the first atomic bomb detonations. Almost Pythonesque.

The show did have a cool opening title sequence set to the David Bowie song of the same name

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.

As "Fredichi29" has said in his review, the ending is hilariously bad, but almost so bad that it's good, like in an Ed Wood way. Huffman is cool in the second half, but in the first half she seems to be playing an entirely different gal. Weird. Also, they try to sex her up, but it's mostly awkward. Near the end, though, she gets kinda hot, not gonna lie lol.

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.