Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead is a crackling, explosively verbose, darkly comic 90's neo noir. In other words, right up my crime infested alley. It operates on a heightened plane of larger than life thugs, Machiavellian crime bosses and an almost beat poetry by way of Shakespeare writing style, courtesy of Scott Rosenberg's pen. The writing is one of the best quality's of this film, and when you watch it and find out what buckwheats and boat drinks are, you'll get it. Andy Garcia turns on the slick as Jimmy The Saint, an ex mobster on the path to enlightenment, attempting to open his own business, called Afterlife Advice, where dying people record pearls of wisdom for their loved ones to see after they're gone. He is called back into action for a job by his old employer, a creepy, all powerful gangster known only as The Man With The Plan, who is played by, you guessed it... Christopher Walken. He is a a perverted, unsettling ghoul in the role, paralysed from the neck down and confined to a blow tube operated wheelchair, lurking in his dimly lit, Gothic mansion and hurling threatening orders like Max Schreck from Nosferatu. He coaxes Jimmy into pulling his old crew together for one last job, a personal one involving Walken's even creepier son. Of course the job goes horrendously wrong, resulting in Walken's wrath raining down upon each and every one of Jimmy's crew, as they all scramble, most of the, unsuccessfully to escape Denver. It's a stark, largely unpleasant bit of violent fun with a snappy vernacular all its own, but don't mistake my review as making out as pure darkness, without a heartbeat. There's an incredibly romantic core, as Jimmy falls in love with two vastly different, beautiful girls at once: an angelic socialite from the other side of the tracks named Dagney, played by the ever gorgeous Gabrielle Anwar, and Lucinda, a scuzzy, spunky hooker with a heart of gold played with twitchy, heartfelt energy by Fairuza Balk. Jimmy's crew is a pockmarked landscape of rough and tumble character actors, all with their own distinct flavour. William Forsythe is aces as Big Bear Franchise, a family man thug, Christopher Lloyd displays warmth and feeling as Pieces, the veteran of the crew, Bill Nunn is great as Easy Wind, and Treat Williams comes out of left field as Critical Bill, a nickname reminiscent of the condition he puts people in, as he's an absolute live wire lunatic, who literally uses corpses at the morgue he works at for punching bags, because his shrink told him he needs an outlet for his rage. Yeah. Steve Buscemi has a sly role as dangerous hit-man named Mr. Shhhhh, because he barely says a word. There's also great work from Jack Warden, Bill Cobbs, Don Cheadle and Glenn Plummer. I have to reiterate again what a lovely script it has, like a particular lingo all its own, that the characters wear like a verbal glove, and share with you with every interaction they have. It's an extremely overlooked bit of hard boiled fun, with just the right touches of scary, shocking violence, world weary golden age regret, with a stable full of wild, wacky characters to keep you more than entertained. Check it out.

TTDIDWYD is only of any interest if you look for the parallels with The Sopranos - the cast, the pseudo-realistic style, the whole 'being a mobster is no picnic' shtick. The opening scene particularly, following Andy Garcia driving through suburbia with a hard urban soundtrack, is very suggestive of the Sopranos' opening credits.Apart from that, TTDIDWYD isn't much cop. Andy Garcia fails to generate any sympathy - or anti-sympathy - for the character because the script makes him out to be a moron, Christopher Walken fails to convince on any level whatsoever, and the way that 'Jimmy the Saint' sets himself up for catastrophe is so obvious that you get impatient to see how it all goes wrong. "Let me be a cop, Jimmy!", says the super-flake Treat Williams. "Oh, all right then!", says Jimmy. "Idiot!", says the viewer.Only worth watching if you're a Sopranos fan wanting to see a sort of early failed attempt.

This film shines as a darkly comedic underworld drama with an unbelievably appropriate cast of actors from legends like Walken and Garcia on down to favorite supporting actors like Steve Buscemi and Christopher Lloyd. The resulting interplay between their characters produces some of the best dialog of the contemporary gangster drama in the setting of post-oil-boom Denver. The plot starts out thin but builds rapidly as Walken's character of "The Man with the Plan " is revealed as a mean-spirited psychopath with a need to spread his own misery to everyone inside his orbit. Garcia's portrayal of dapper, charming ex-gangster Jimmy the Saint, AKA "The Bitch's Bastard" is flawless and ties together the rest of the cast into a plausible crew of small time crooks brought together for some easy money. As the "action" they were conscripted for turns tragic and they find themselves in the claws of Walken's pressure-sore ravaged underworld boss, the film finds surer footing, with Walken and Buscemi delivering convincing, terrifying portrayals of malice in its purest form. While the film's ending leaves something to be desired, the work as a whole has an excellent neo-noir atmosphere and top-notch dialog that earns it a place among more well-known gangster films like "The Way of the Gun" and the "The Usual Suspects."

Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead is directed by Gary Fleder and written by Scott Rosenberg. It stars Andy Garcia, Christopher Lloyd, William Forsythe, Bill Nunn, Treat Williams, Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken. Music is by Michael Convertino and cinematography by Elliot Davis.Jimmy the Saint (Garcia) is a ex-gangster who finds one of his debts has been bought up by his ex boss, The Man With the Plan (Walken). The Man wants Jimmy to assemble a crew to put the frighteners on a guy who stole the girlfriend of his son, Bernard (Michael Nicolosi), who has been so traumatised by the break up he has taken to "bothering" young girls. Calling on four of his old comrades in crime, Jimmy feels it's a simple job that will finally clear him of his gangster debt whilst earning his hard up pals some cash. However, in fighting threatens to destabilise the group and when the "job" invariably goes wrong they all have to deal with the vengeful aftermath of The Man With the Plan.You wanna throw those pathetic yuks some scratch, I applaud your sensitivity.One of a number of films that surfed in on the wave created by Pulp Fiction, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead is a nifty and potent picture at times, with sharp dialogue, moments of brutalising and a fire-cracker of a neo-noir finale. Yet it's hurt considerably by the ridiculousness of the set up. Film hinges on a "shake down" arrangement that just comes off as a weak excuse for a film, in fact it's bad writing. There are a myriad of ways to set up a heist gone wrong and then have the crims be on the run for their lives, this set up is just pathetic. Buscemi's hit man is poorly conceived, with some glaring conflicting in the characterisation, while the Anwar (beautiful and leaving a good impression) love interest angle could have had much more made of it if the makers had had the courage of their convictions.Give it a name.Still, if you can allow the annoyance of the crappy set up to subside, then there's strong noir themes to indulge in here. A one time bad boy struggling to escape his past and characters stuck in a bleak destiny influenced rut they can't get out of. There's a pervading sense of depression hanging over the film, which in a twisted way makes for good film, while the character dynamics are strong because the characters are very memorable. Helps, too, that they have awesome names like Jimmy the Saint, Critical Bill, Franchise and Mister Shhh! Acting is very good, with Garcia earning his quality pathos stripes, Williams doing psycho with ease, Forsythe a mighty machismo presence, Lloyd resigned and pitiless and Walken turning in another in his long line of bitter scary bastards.Worthy of interest to neo-noir fans for sure, but frustration sits in the narrative to stop it being an essential viewing. 6.5/10