Goldene Zeiten (2006)

Jürgen Matthies, president of a golf club in Unna, organizes a charity event that is officially supposed to raise money to build an orphanage in Romania. The aging star of the 1980s action series John Striker, Douglas Burnett, is hired as a popular yet affordable headliner for the event. When Matthies and his somewhat naive treasurer, Kettwig, go to the airport to pick up the former Hollywood star, they fail to realize that the man standing in front of them is his double, Horst Müller. Ingo Schmitz, an employee of party king Charly Neubauer who is responsible for booking Burnett, has passed Müller off as the star, intending to split the agreed fee with him. But Matthies is also playing a double game: he has not paid the lease on the golf club grounds to the furious farmer Buschschulte, and suspicious items appear in the golf club’s accounts, giving the early impression that Matthies is motivated not by charity but by personal profit. At the same time, he is having an affair with the young Jasmin, prompting his wife to set two Uzbek killers on her. Burnett/Müller, German actor Mischa Hahn, and Matthies later have a wild party at the hotel, with cocaine and prostitutes supplied by pimp Harry Grabowski, himself a huge John Striker fan. One of the Uzbek killers, who have meanwhile also been hired as Burnett’s bodyguards, then kills one of the prostitutes, believing her to be Matthies’ lover. Meanwhile, Ingo wants to spend the night with Melanie, a former singer, but the plan falls through. After that, events come thick and fast. Fearing he will be linked to the murder, Matthies disposes of the prostitute’s body, leaving a trail of bodies himself—Buschschulte and Kettwig. The Uzbeks discover the scam involving Horst Müller when Müller, overwhelmed by the role of Douglas Burnett, tries to quit, but Ingo pays the killers hush money. Furious over the loss of one of his employees, Grabowski demands Ingo’s car—which actually belongs to his boss, Charly—and a seat at Douglas Burnett’s table at the closing gala. At the gala, Grabowski discovers that Douglas Burnett is an impostor. Enraged, he has Ingo’s arm broken. Earlier, Ingo had split up with his girlfriend Bianca, and Horst Müller, alias Burnett, had sex with Matthies’ wife in the restroom. At the end of the gala, Horst Müller, alias Douglas Burnett, reveals his true identity. Enraged and desperate, Matthies beats him to death onstage with a golf club. Matthies is arrested, while Ingo, the mastermind behind the deception, gets off scot-free because nothing can be proved against him after Müller’s death. In the final scene, Ingo gets into his parents’ car to visit Melanie, who has apparently forgiven him.