Golden Years

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.

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")

What was Stephen King thinking writing this dull, derivative yawnfest? A really un-interesting four hours was made out of the simple story of a man caught in an explosion at a factory who starts to get younger, and the various agents of the government who chase him wanting to know what happened. The whole thing could have fitted into an hour, but no , we have to witness every long winded chase and escape plan, plus endlessly tedious scenes of no relevance concerning a completely over the top mad doctor, and un-funny comedy relief provided by an irritating general dogsbody character. To top it all, the thing doesn't even end-just sort of peters out to nothing-no payoff-zilch. Derivative and not worthy of Stephen King's normal high quality-avoid this like the plague. You'll be bored senseless if you watch it, and at 4 hours it is a criminal waste of time.

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.

This was a good little movie, the version shown on tv was not quite the version you can rent at the video store. Overall, it's worth watching, as it has quite a few plot twists. The ending is a little weak, but still a good movie. If you didn't like "Insomnia" (book), you probably won't like Golden Years. Any true 'King fan will love this movie.