"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.
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.