A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Scott Barnes (Travolta) is a Miami-area social worker whose problem is he cares too much. He left his former life of working in advertising and being an alcoholic behind so he could try to make a difference to the downtrodden. He becomes personally involved in the life of 13-year-old Tommy (Lawrence), becoming almost a father figure to him. When Tommy is kidnapped by a local supergang, cleverly called the "Youth Incentive Program" - because it doesn't sound like a gang name - and they force Tommy to work around the clock packaging crack into vials, Scott Barnes gets mad. After, of course, trying to get help from the local authorities - Sgt. Falco (Casey) and Lt. Ortega (Elizondo) - and failing, Scott Barnes does what only Scott Barnes can do - he summons all the awesome power of social work and goes on a rogue, one-man mission to free Tommy from his CHAINS OF GOLD! Of course, there's also a love interest (Henner), and the final confrontation with arch-baddie Carlos (Bratt). Will Scott Barnes be the new action hero for the 90's? Find out today...Because it stars Joey Lawrence and John Travolta, it's "Whoa!" vs. "Aw Geez!" in the cinematic team-up you always wished would happen, and actually did. Sure, this was made in the "dark period" immediately preceding Pulp Fiction (1994) for Travolta - but he seems to be giving his all, and you really care about the plight of Scott Barnes. He's the social worker we all wish we had. Naturally, during the course of his social work, he gets into car chases, foot chases, shootouts, punch-ups, gets tortured, and gets thrown into a pit of alligators. Like any good drama about the hard life of a social worker, there is a pit of alligators.Though this reference may only make sense to die-hard fans of our site, Chains of Gold is a bit like a cross between Liberty and Bash (1989) and Short Fuse (1986) - with the only difference being that this time around, when Travolta sees a local Hispanic hoodlum steal a briefcase from a pedestrian, he slickly tries to blend in with the streets and says "hey, ese, give me the case!" You see, Barnes is an X-treme social worker who smokes cigarettes, puts his life on the line for his clients, and, to prove he's a good influence on Tommy, he spends time with him breaking windows with rocks at a building in the area.Bernie Casey is also here as a cop who is close to retirement - no surprises there - but instead of the classic scene where the Chief tells a rogue cop to turn in his badge and gun, there is a similar scene where Barnes's boss dismisses him, but because he doesn't have a badge or gun, he just leaves. He spends his time undercover with the YIP gang, the members of which think it's such a badass name, they get YIP tattoos to prove their loyalty. This might be the first recorded instance of not a COTE (Cop On The Edge), but a SWOTE (Social Worker On The Edge).It's great to see Terl himself get in on the action - Travolta even gets a co-writing credit on the film (presumably he pressured the other writers for more chances to say "aw geez!"). In most of the movies on this site, there is usually an explanation for why the hero has such advanced fighting skills - he's a former cop, ex-military, previously a bounty hunter, U.S. Marshal, black belt in several different forms of Martial Arts, or left the Navy SEALS because it wasn't challenging enough. Something like that. Not so here, which is what's so funny about Chains Of Gold - no explanation is ever given for why Scott Barnes thinks he can take down a thousands-strong street gang and enter into gunplay and hand-to-hand combat with hardened criminals. I guess it's all part of the "sparkle" of Chains of Gold.So for a serious drama about social work, look elsewhere...wait, no. Look HERE. Thanks to the magic of the direct-to-cable, R-rated John Travolta action drama, we think we found DCF's next recruiting video.

I'm assuming that John Travolta decided to take things in his own hands at the time of making this movie, seeing that his career was in a slump at the time. I assume that because Travolta is credited as being one of the four screenwriters of this movie. It must have hurt when the finished product was shelved for some time before being dumped directly to cable TV, though I'm pretty confident that the movie wouldn't have done well if it had been released to theaters. It's pretty apparent this was a low budget movie, with such attributes as poor photography and dimly lit sequences. In fact, despite all the swearing, violence, and drug scenes, the movie feels like it was made for TV. The screenplay contains some howlers like interracial gangs, but it's a mostly dull and slow-moving affair. Bernie Casey and Hector Elizondo are good, but there's only so much they can do in their limited roles. As for Travolta, while he's been good in other movies, you wouldn't know it from his performance here. His swearing, getting uppity and saying such things as "How dare you?", crying, and bulging eyes suggest a director who was reluctant to reign him in for some unknown reason. The only reason to see this is to try and figure out how this got re-released (on DVD) a few years ago.

Good luck finding this - they're selling it on a cheapie DVD in Australia. One of the most obscure entries in Travolta's career, its one of those rare opportunities to see him looking this skinny.Its absolute trash, of course, the kind of preachy exhibitionism that characterises mid-day movies, soap operas and tele-features.*The progression of Travolta's career seems to be characterised by almost total randomness. What is the explanation for the decisions John Travolta has made? Even his biggest, best decisions had a degree of randomness: from TV sweathog Vinne Barbarino to disco king in Saturday Night Fever? From family-movie icon in Look Who's Talking to hit-man in Pulp Fiction? Don't tell me these were the only roles available to him - not true. After Saturday Night Fever, he was the hottest thing since James Dean. He would have been offered a million scripts - hundreds of them probably great, so why the strange bomb Moment by Moment? And after Grease, when he lucked-in again, he could have had any script in Hollywood, so why the strange western drama Urban Cowboy? , he was the hottest thing since The sad truth behind this randomness is that Travolta bases his decisions of what role to take on the Hollywood religion of scientology. So instead of good characters or good dialogue in the script, good directors attached, or his agent's advice - he appeals to whatever mystical devices scientology suggests. Travolta claims that scientology knows best because it was responsible for his great decisions in the 70's (Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Welcome Back, Kotter). But in truth, scientology has been responsible for about five hits (those three, plus Pulp Fiction), and about thirty misses.Travolta is a great actor, with terrific looks (even in expanded form) - so why is it that his career has been a series of almost random ups and downs, every now and then accidentally scoring a hit script, but mostly toiling away in rubbish like Perfect (1985), Two of a Kind (1983), Staying Alive (1983), White Man's Burden (1995), Michael (1996), Phenomenon (1996), Lucky Numbers (2000), Battlefield Earth (2000), Basic (2003). It was the same problem with Brando. Terrific actor, great looking (even in expanded form), but he picked roles based on the highest bidder. Money, instead of script and director quality. Contrast these guys with someone like Jack Nicholson - a pretty good actor, with terrible looks - but he's become a legend! He's been in scores of incredible films, one after another! What separates him? Terrific decisions - perfect decisions for that time of his life, and for his image, and for a projection of how good the final movie might be.*Only scientology could explain someone, even someone with not much weight in Hollywood, agreeing to do this script. Poorly written, it indulges in all the possible clichés of melodramatic trollop - and then is executed in the most trashy manner possible.Still, Travolta is not poor. He makes us believe this crap, which is a real feat.4/10 for Travolta, and that's very very generous.

John Travolta is social worker Scott Barnes, a person adamant about keeping the kids of some innercity area of California from giving into the rampant drug circles that work the street. He's been working the job for so long, he knows the dealers by name, and they know him.The job gets personal when a close friend of his, a 13 year old boy named Tommy (Joey Lawrence), starts dealing. Unfortunately, Tommy has already become much more involved in the "Youth Incentive Program," which is the name for the dangerous clan of cocaine dealers that run the area. Travolta figures that he owes it to Tommy to help him, seeing this as an opportunity to redeem himself after having accidentally killed his only son in an accident where Scott was drunk. Scott, the bold idealist that he is, goes undercover in one of the most dangerous drug rings (which reminds me a lot of Shredder's underground gang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie), hoping that he can rescue Tommy from their grips before it's too late. Though the message is good, considering it is a powerful statement especially where kids are messing up their lives in being hooked on this stuff (they run like rats in the daylights to protect their stash) because they're sold on the false philosophy that they'll become filthy rich. Likewise, it illustrates the failures of the system as Scott tries so hard for other government agencies to help him out and put an end to the mess that he's witnessed for so long. But, it does in part seem a little too unrealistic, detracting from the importance of this message somewhat, as Scott, by himself, tries to disguise himself and his motives from a very ruthless leader (Benjamin Bratt) and his even more ruthless gang of drug dealing thugs. When the stakes are high, these guys will do whatever it takes to protect their product and their money. But is Scott able to do much more to protect Tommy?