‘They can die quickly. They can die slowly. But they must die!’

Directed by:
Gary Fleder

Written by:
Scott Rosenberg

Cast:
Andy Garcia (Jimmy ‘The Saint’ Tosnia), Christopher Lloyd (Pieces), William Forsythe (Franchise), Bill Nunn (Easy Wind), Treat Williams (Critical Bill), Jack Warden (Joe Heff), Steve Buscemi (Mister Shhh), Fairuza Balk (Lucinda), Gabrielle Anwar (Dagney), Christopher Walken (The Man with the Plan)

Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia) is a decent guy with a criminal background. He now runs a video business where dying people can record final words of wisdom for their loved ones.

Things are going well for Jimmy: he meets a nice girl (Gabrielle Anwar) and leads a pleasant life, but then his old boss calls for him. The crippled gangster ‘The Man with the Plan’ (Christopher Walken) asks Jimmy to do one final job. Jimmy agrees and brings along four old friends. The job goes horribly wrong, and the five friends are now marked for death.

What is especially notable about Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is the awesome cast. The ‘good’ guys are a wonderful collection (Lloyd, Forsythe, Williams, Nunn), with a charismatic Garcia in the lead. The other camp isn’t shy of great players either: Christopher Walken gives a very sinister performance, but the scene-stealer is Steve Buscemi. The scenes in which his character Mr. Shhh appears are the best in the whole movie.

The problem with Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is that during the first hour, it is hard to see what the makers wanted to achieve. It appears to be a whacky gangster film / black comedy, seemingly inspired by Tarantino, who brought out Pulp Fiction a year earlier. But if that is the case, it is not whacky enough – and not funny enough, for that matter.

When Christopher Lloyd starts talking about the good old days and says, “We did the things,” I couldn’t help but think: why not now? There is too much talking about stuff that happened before the movie. Things to do in Denver when you’re dead? These guys don’t even do stuff when they’re alive!

Then again, as the movie approaches its ending, it becomes clearer what the screenplay is aiming for. The ending is a fairly impressive piece of writing. It makes you think about death, only in an enjoyable way. Now that can’t be too bad, can it?

Rating:

Quote:
CRITICAL BILL: “I am Godzilla, you are Japan!”

Trivia:
Screenplay writer Scott Rosenberg (Con Air, High Fidelity) wrote the script in two weeks. It was partly in reflection to the death of his father from cancer.