Goldene Zeiten (2006) User Reviews

Boring

[The_Good_Soldier · 5/10 · 14 January 2006]

I was at the premiere of "Goldene Zeiten" in Unna/Germany today. The director Peter Thorwarth has some kind of fan base in this city, because some movies (at least "Bang, Boom, Bang" and "Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht") of him play in Unna. "Goldene Zeiten" also plays in Unna.

Nevertheless the audience of this comedy was very quiet. There were only a few good laughs. A lot of scenes that were presumably meant to be funny didn't really work even for this propitious audience.

The characters of this movie were all pictured rather one-dimensional and I didn't really feel for any of them. With 130 minutes runtime this movie was at least 30 minutes too long and I was kind of bored at the end.

The two previous efforts of Peter Thorwarth ("Bang, Boom, Bang" and "Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht") were much more enjoyable for me. So I recommend to rather watch these and to skip "Goldene Zeiten".

Way below my expectations

[mweeger · 6/10 · 26 January 2006]

I really enjoyed watching "Bang Boom Bang" and "Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht". I watched those movies several times and never got bored. Unfortunately "Goldene Zeiten" is not that good. Maybe it is the lack of interesting characters or the fact that everything just centers around the Dirk Benedict plot which isn't funny enough to cover for two hours. To sum it up: Yes, it is kind of boring sometimes. The characters are very weak (which is totally different in Thorwarth's other movies) and the story has nothing to offer but a simple plot which suffers from the lack of good ideas hidden behind some violence. I think it would be a good TV movie but it's not enough for the big screen. For fans it is still enjoyable and I liked Ludger Pistor's acting/character so it gets 6 of 10 from me. Sad that this movie might not win a lot of new fans.

Nice little underrated movie

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 3 August 2013]

When it came out, it completely went by me and I just got a hold of it a couple of years later. Even after re-watching it recently, I felt it was a nice little movie. Wotan who's in the lead role (and he isn't often enough considering he's much better at it than some other A-Listers in Germany), has the charisma to lead the movie. Even Dirk Benedict who has a very extended cameo playing himself, but as someone else, is really funny.

Many say this isn't the funniest movie the director made and this may be true (there is a lot of dark moments in there too that might take away some of the fun for some people), but I like the way he mixed it up. You can never be too sure about the outcome, when there are variables that you can not connect. Some characters might act strange, but that always happens. One of the better comedies to come out of Germany in the last 10 years.

No structure

[GMTMaster · 2/10 · 1 February 2006]

Peter's script doesn't know what it wants the be: a comedy, a drama, a mix between. The central character is not very likable, we dot care for his problems. And then again, the whole "Charity Golf Turnament" set up is so weak. The entire story lacks structure. It doesn't sparkle any interest. Peter tried obviously hard, actors are as usual all great, so is the cinematography, but when hardly anyone laughs at the Berlin premiere, which I attended, then you have a major problem at hands. The audience doesn't care, nor did the original distributer "Senator Film" who also happens to be a co-producer of the film. They didn't believe in the film so they put it on the market and newcomer 3L picked the film up. Terribly first weeks numbers; only some 27.000 people went to see the film on the weekend. Next time more luck Peter.

Different than Peter Thorwarths first movies

[Cradle22 · 8/10 · 1 February 2006]

This movie is not as funny as Thorwarths first two movies, namely "Bang Boom Bang" and "Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht".

And that was not the intention at all. I cannot conclude with other comments describing the depicted characters as being one-dimensional. As usual, Ralf Richter kind of plays himself, and is good at impersonating the low life small criminal.

And Dirk Benedicts performance is absolutely believable. He plays an average guy who suddenly gets the chance to enter the stand in the spotlight of show-business, and who starts to really like it. His lines are funny ("I did not want to play John Stryker anymore, all those Bang Boom Bang, that shooting in afternoon series like 'A-Team', that really pi**ed me off"), and he really delivers the tragic aspects of his character.

Thorvarths movies are always over the top in regards of how the action and the stories culminate, but this kind of exaggeration is often funny in itself.

I like this kind of mixture between comic and tragedy, in that case I would compare it to "Boogie Nights", which tone reminds me of "Goldene Zeiten".

professional amateur movie

[ian-ternik · 2/10 · 5 August 2006]

Peter did with BANG BOOM BANG a very good and very funny movie - maybe the best German comedy in a new-style ever. But in his second movie you can see, that there is no substance in his art and talent. Maybe it is the same problem of Thomas Jahn, the director of Knocking On Heavens Door - no ideas and no talent for really good scripts. The look and the coolness of the business is more interesting then a good script and really good ideas.

And there is also for Peter as for Thomas nothing more as a filmmaker then their very funny first movies.

It is a typical situation for the German movies. One or two movies are really good, the rest is nothing but nonsenses and overacting as a movie-maker. Peter seems to be a wanna-be (and who watched his audio-commentary to Bang Boom Bang knows the he is a notorious wanna-be). The typical amateur-movie-setting (the all-time-local-hero feeling in his movies) makes him a good director for his town and friends. But for a good movie it needs more the then privacy of a local-hero.

So it is a professional amateur-movie.

very good German movie

[jankoe · 10/10 · 17 February 2006]

I had heard a lot of bad stuff about this movie in advance and so i was pretty excited about it. now, after seeing it i can't share this criticism. this movie is full of interesting characters with whom you can easily identify. of course it's impossible to work out the very last detail of each one if them within two hours, but this increases the tension and confronts you with a lot of different and fresh characters. the story has many plots and it's very interesting to see how they all fit together in the end. I can recommend this movie to everyone who likes the two other PT-movies. You'll find a lot of parallels to especially Bang Boom Bang. Goldene Zeiten even tops the other movies in my opinion and offers a lot of plots to be implemented in further movies. i'm looking forward to that. the actors are well chosen and you'll recognize a lot of well-known characters. great movie which improves the "german cinema" *g*.

The potential for a smart comedy is there, the execution is not

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 24 May 2017]

"Goldene Zeiten" or "Eingelocht" or "Strike!" or "Golden Times" is a German movie from 2006, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year. It is despite how old it is already one of the most recent works by German writer and director Peter Thorwarth and thanks to his previous successes he has a cast at his disposal that includes more than just a few names that German film buffs will immediately recognize. These would be for example Möhring², Roth, Pistor, Steeger, Kahrmann, Gregorowicz, Burkhard, Sasha, Cortez, Knüfken... even if several of these only play small parts here. The film runs for comfortably over 2 hours, which may also be his very biggest problem because the better moments are just good enough for 80-90 minutes and as a consequence I felt there was a great deal of filler material in here and as a consequence of that actually the movie dragged on many occasions. You could perhaps say that it started in a somewhat solid manner, but the longer it went the bigger a mess it became.

I would not necessarily say it has to do with the acting, even if there are some cast members in here that have more recognition value through charisma than through range. With this I am especially referring to Alex Neldel here who just isn't good enough in almost everything she is in sadly. Yes she may be easy on the eyes, but that just isn't enough anymore these days with all these actually talented beautiful actresses. One of them is also in here, namely Loretta Stern who has been in the entertainment industry for a really long time and I think she maybe gave the best performance here and I really hope she can find roles again as she seems to be struggling a bit as well these days. She is miles and miles better than Neldel and I also think the latter really did not do herself a favor with this unlikable character she is portraying in here.

Back to the movie in general and also the plot, there are some smart additions in here and I also enjoyed the part about the fake actor, but just like almost everything else in here this segment dragged on for way too long that the solution at the very end almost did nothing anymore for me. The consequence is also that several of the characters come off as a bit on the gimmicky side and not authentic. Besides that the film really cannot be taken seriously as anything other than comedy. Not as drama. Not as romance. Not as a crime movie. And if we ignore these failed attempts at making an impact in other genres, then the comedy really must have been at an amazing level to get a thumbs-up from me here. It is not. There are occasionally mildly funny moments, but even these get repeated way too often (like the farting reference smh). I give this one a thumbs-down. In terms of quality, these 130 minutes are everything, but certainly not golden.