Golden Years

Originally a seven-week miniseries, Golden Years, a Stephen King techno-thriller, has been trimmed to a taut four hours. In the process, it has sacrificed some plot and character development but gained something the miniseries never had: an ending.

What you didn't see on television was the final fate of Harlan Williams (Keith Szarabajka), an aging janitor who gets caught in a top secret laboratory explosion, finds himself growing younger by the day, and is forced to flee cross-country, pursued by cold-blooded feds. On TV, the chase never really concluded; the producers were angling to launch a Fugitive-style weekly series. But on video, they haven't just added a finale — they've also reworked the buildup for a happier ending. So fans who have long awaited a resolution may be faintly disappointed. Everyone else will belatedly discover an above-average TV movie that would have made a better series. B+