Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
1995 Directed by Gary Fleder
Synopsis
Protect. Love. Honor. Avenge.
A mafia film in Tarantino style with a star-studded cast. Jimmy’s “The Saint” gangster career has finally ended. Yet now he finds him self doing favors for a wise godfather known as “The Man with the Plan.”
Cast
Studio
Popular reviews
More-
It is frequent to note the revival in the American crime genre following the works of Quentin Tarantino, to comment on the profluence of hip, stylized and over-scripted genre movies that seemingly erupted. Thus such works as City of Industry, True Romance (which had a Tarantino script), Two Days in the Valley and Things to do in Denver when you’re Dead are often dismissed as crime-revival knock-offs. This dismissal is unfair and in the case of the last film mentioned above has been strenuously protested by the director, a debuting Gary Fleder. Indeed, Things to do in Denver when You’re Dead comes from an intriguing background – a screening at Cannes giving rise to expectations of a hybrid of crime…
-
I've been meaning to see this for about 15 years and no way was it worth the wait. Things.... is a really dull crime movie that was quite schizophrenic. It suffers from trying to be too cool in a post Tarantino world and too complex in a post Usual Suspects world and fails miserably on all counts. This has a pretty huge cast and none of them do anything wrong, all of the failings come from the script as far as I can tell, perhaps a little bit of mediocre direction too. Highlights for me are the tiny part for Don Cheadle and the always superb Bill Cobbs who manages to be a one man sense of gravity, the kind of character I would love to see a movie centred on rather than marginalised as he is here.
-
A clumsily titled (after the Warren Zevon song, and Zevon was reportedly none too thrilled about it) but funny and engaging whatsit that didn’t really deserve all the comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. Andy Garcia is Jimmy the Saint, who used to be in the mob but now runs a service that allows the dying to videotape advice to their survivors. Jimmy’s former boss, The Man With The Plan (Christopher Walken in a wheelchair), asks Jimmy to do one last job. Jimmy recruits former partners Bill Nunn, William Forsythe, Treat Williams, and Christopher Lloyd to perform the duty, which goes tragically awry. Soon, Jimmy must avoid not only hit-man Steve Buscemi but also ardent ragamuffin Fairuza Balk (who wants to have…
-
One of a host of Tarantino-inspired mid-1990s slick, violent crime thrillers Things to Do in Denver... really should be terrible. But, despite some overdone dialogue (there are several forced attempts to coin odd phrases) and the clumsy device of customers from Jimmy's 'afterlife' video messages business providing commentary, it's got a good, surprisingly sweet heart.
Some careful direction and fine acting really gets across the sense of friendship among the luckless hoods. Andy Garcia is very good as the more-or-less reformed nice guy but everyone else chips in with worthy performances from a decent ensemble cast - including Fairuza Balk as a spiky hooker, Christopher Lloyd as a porn projectionist with a mystery disease, Treat Williams as a headcase old friend, Christopher Walken as a wheelchair-bound local crime boss and Steve Buscemi as a near-silent assassin.
It's not a classic awaiting discovery but it is a couple of hours of good, solid entertainment.
-
I remember seeing trailers for this when it first came out. It's only taken me 17 years to get round to seeing it. Glad I did, I really enjoyed it. Not a classic but it's a good watch. Always good to see Christopher Walken do anything.
It struck me me that Andy Garcia and Jason Schwartzman could easily be Father and Son. In certain moments the likeness is quite uncanny. -
One of the more poorly plotted films I've seen in some time, the entire movie is completely reliant on characters doing idiotic things to further the story along.
Recent reviews
More-
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
-
---
-
A pretty standard and thoroughly unsurprising crime drama which I enjoyed mainly because of the hotness that was early to mid-nineties Andy Garcia.
-
Things To Do in Denver When You're Dead feels like a film nostalgic for another era. It pines for a time that may or may not have existed. When not working on "an action," its tough gangster characters hang around a malt shop (!!), reminiscing about the old days and speaking in slang that seems mostly made up for this film. Andy Garcia picks up a girl by telling her she's the bee's knees, so this is obviously elaborate fantasy.
Garcia plays Jimmy the Saint, an impossibly and almost obnoxiously charming reformed hoodlum who gets roped into another job by The Man With the Plan (an ultra-menacing Christopher Walken), Denver's top criminal fiend, who has not let being paralyzed from…
-
I've been meaning to see this for about 15 years and no way was it worth the wait. Things.... is a really dull crime movie that was quite schizophrenic. It suffers from trying to be too cool in a post Tarantino world and too complex in a post Usual Suspects world and fails miserably on all counts. This has a pretty huge cast and none of them do anything wrong, all of the failings come from the script as far as I can tell, perhaps a little bit of mediocre direction too. Highlights for me are the tiny part for Don Cheadle and the always superb Bill Cobbs who manages to be a one man sense of gravity, the kind of character I would love to see a movie centred on rather than marginalised as he is here.
-
This is a good crime thriller. I don't fully see the Tarantino comparisons myself aside from both being crime films and this one coming out after Pulp Fiction shook the ground for a bit.
Andy Garcia is great, it has that down-trodden city thriller atmosphere which is great in films like these. If you've got two hours you really won't be disappointed. Might not be the best crime movie you've seen but it certainly won't be the worst.
One last thing that should be brought to attention is the musical choices made in this movie. The music by Michael Covertino (who also worked on Bull Durham) compliments the tone and mood of the photography well.
Interesting facts about Things to…
-
Steve Buscemi is so cool
-
One of a host of Tarantino-inspired mid-1990s slick, violent crime thrillers Things to Do in Denver... really should be terrible. But, despite some overdone dialogue (there are several forced attempts to coin odd phrases) and the clumsy device of customers from Jimmy's 'afterlife' video messages business providing commentary, it's got a good, surprisingly sweet heart.
Some careful direction and fine acting really gets across the sense of friendship among the luckless hoods. Andy Garcia is very good as the more-or-less reformed nice guy but everyone else chips in with worthy performances from a decent ensemble cast - including Fairuza Balk as a spiky hooker, Christopher Lloyd as a porn projectionist with a mystery disease, Treat Williams as a headcase old friend, Christopher Walken as a wheelchair-bound local crime boss and Steve Buscemi as a near-silent assassin.
It's not a classic awaiting discovery but it is a couple of hours of good, solid entertainment.
-
Great cast but but something seems lazy about the whole film! Love Buscemi as a hitman though.