Founded by Lydia Kay (@LydiaKayE15)
ActingHour™
  • Home
    • About
    • Who Are We?
  • News
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Podcast
    • Events >
      • Past Events
    • Join Our Mailing List
  • For You...
    • Workshops/Seminars
    • Special Offers >
      • Film Scores
      • Headshots
      • Success Toolkit for Actors Nicky Raby
      • Showreels
      • Personal Training
    • Promotion
    • Advertising
  • Stage
  • Screen
    • Trailers
    • Short Films
    • Web Series >
      • The A-Z of Clueless Experts
      • Ride Share
      • History
      • Brains
      • How Did We Get Here?
  • Competitions
    • Actor of the Week >
      • Previous #AHactor Winners
    • Filmmaker of the Fortnight
    • Chosen Champions
  • Links / Contact
    • Careers
    • Opportunities
    • Feedback

'Golden Years'

13/7/2021

0 Comments

 
In cinemas April 29th!
Part of a style of comedy essentially defined as “people doing things you wouldn’t really expect them to be doing”. Like children swearing or the entire premise of 'The Last of the Summer Wine', which is a little closer to this move. It’s a simple enough gag and the movie embraces it but I’m not sure it has much else to offer beyond an interesting premise.

Said premise revolves around Arthur (Bernard Hill), his wife Martha (Virginia McKenna) and their friends who are all retired seniors who spend their days in the local bowls club commiserating medical expenses and slowly learning that they’re all being screwed over by their various pension funds. Being pushed towards poverty by what he sees as the crooked banks Arthur hatches a half-baked plan to steal a lock box from an armoured car. When by sheer dumb luck the plan sort of works it sets off a chain of events that escalates into a growing crime spree of comedic proportions.
Unfortunately as I eluded to in my first paragraph the film doesn’t have a lot more going for it beyond the overarching joke of “old people take up bank robbing”. The complexities of the plot are undeveloped, largely explained away but the characters themselves not really understanding them, and the final caper doesn’t fully make sense when you stop to think about it.

We feel enough for the pensioners that we want them to succeed but a young flash detective, full of himself and obsessively spray tanned who is set about to pursue them never extends beyond his two dimensions and works largely as a plot device, which is a shame as the film lacks a proper villain beyond the banks, not that we don’t all hate the banks, so the tension is pretty low overall.

​The script lacks a comedic eye, the direction lack artistry and to be blunt it’s pretty boring to look at, but despite all this the film does manage to be entertaining through to the slightly anti-climactic finale that probably looked more exciting on paper than it does in camera, and whilst easily forgettable as a whole there’s a few good laughs and our heroes are sympathetic.
On the whole the film feels much too tame with no real standout moments and perhaps ironically a more mature approach might have been better. If you’re in the mood for a light British comedy you can do a lot worse but this is a little too tepid to be a classic of the genre.
Review by Kristian Mitchell-Dolby.
Tell us what you think!
Rate the film and why not write your own review in the comments?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Reviews

    Want us to review your work? Get in touch on the Contact page!

    Why not add your own review in the comments?
    #AHreviews

    Categories

    All
    1 Star
    2 Star
    3 Star
    4 Star
    5 Star
    Animations
    A - Z List
    Documentary
    Feature Films
    Film Festivals
    Independent Film / TV
    Musical
    Short Films
    Theatre
    Web Series
    West End

    Archives

    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    RSS Feed


    © ActingHour™ 2017.
    All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.