Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)

To me, this movie is perfection.

How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Jimmy 'The Saint' Tosnia (Andy Garcia) runs an afterlife advice business which is a service that allows his 'terminally ill' clients the opportunity to leave a recorded message (via video) to their loved ones after they have passed away. With his business currently in a bit of slump, Jimmy is presented with an opportunity to make some easy money from criminal overlord Christopher Walken (who is simply credited as The Man With The Plan). Walken offers Jimmy $50,000 dollars simply to rough up a man who is marrying his son's ex-girlfriend to try to stop him from marrying her. Due to some heavy debts, Jimmy agrees to do the job, but requests help from some of his criminal cronies; Pieces (Lloyd), Franchise (Forsythe), Easy Wind (Nunn) and Critical Bill (Williams). However, the job doesn't go to plan and as a result of their failure Walken hires an assassin to track down and kill the 5 men.The first half of this film isn't actually too bad - yes it's a little slow to get moving, but it does seem to present itself as a potentially interesting and thrilling story. The problem with this film is that the first aspect of the story (the job) is built up rather admirably only then to come to an end rather abruptly. This in itself wouldn't be a problem if the film had the same flow about it after 'the job' has been completed, but the truth is that it doesn't I'm afraid....Once the job is completed the film generally splits off in 3 different directions; Tosnia and his relationship with Dagney (Gabrielle Anwar), Tosnia and Lucinda (Fairuza Balk) and the assassin hunting Tosnia and his team down. Aside from making the second half feel unfocused, none of these elements are really strong enough on their own to make me care about what's going on? Tosnia's relationship with Dagney was uninteresting and took up far too much screen time. The story arc involving Lucinda was half-cooked and left unfulfilled - it also didn't seem to add much to the story. Finally the story arc involving the assassin pursuing Tosnia's gang wasn't given nearly as much screen time as it should have been given. As mentioned too much time was spent on lousy and uninteresting sub plots. I also felt that there was too much focus on Tosnia and his relationship and not enough time was given to his criminal gang meaning that character development was practically non-existent. As a result of this, the film lacked intensity and more importantly there was a noticeable absence of thrills on offer as well.Anyone who has seen any of Tarantino's films will no doubt notice some similarities between the feel of this film and the feel of Tarantino's films, but that's basically all TTDIDWYD manages to achieve. When watching this film you get the violence and profanity of your average Tarantino film, but what you don't get is good dialogue and strong storytelling. Essentially then what you're left with is basically a Tarantino film but with all the good bits removed.TTDIDWYD is a very poor film and is probably one of the biggest wastes of acting talents that I've seen. I've given it a 3 out of 10 but that's only as acknowledgement to the many talented actors that were involved in this shambles.

This film could have been so much better. The storyline is good and offered the potential for the making of an excellent film, but ultimately it disappointed, which was a real shame.I'll give you my opinion on what really let this film down. There were two things: Andy Garcia - he's an average actor at best and here, he really spoilt the essence of the main character. He didn't have enough depth, conviction or raw energy needed for such a dark mob character. He put too much emphasis on typically ridiculous Hollywood style over-acting, and not enough to reflect what the character was about. Shame on the casting director for picking him. Someone more in the mould of Harvey Keitel or Gary Oldman would have been perfect.His relationship with the main lady - unlike other mob films where there is genuine development of a love interest, this film had a haphazard and an unconvincing romance story. In other films, like Carlito's way, Casino, Goodfellas, there was so much more on offer and the love interests became an integral part of the mobsters lives. Here, it was a dreary and irritating sideshow.There are very good parts of the film. Chrisopher Walken, who I am a big fan of, was excellent. His role as the crippled mob boss was perfectly cast and he played it superbly. He was suitably detached, unflinching, dark and menacing.Steve Buscemi, who I am also a fan of, was also excellent. He was also cast perfectly as the quiet, quirky yet violent hit man.Overall, the story line was good, Walken and Buscemi and some of the supporting actors were excellent, but the main character and the over-emphasis on style ultimately let this film down.Worth a watch, but I struggle to tell you much about it. For me, that's enough of a sign.

This is a good movie. What is a good movie then? It is entertaining and has a good story line and is acted out and directed well so that you don't have to do a thing but sit back and let this movie pull you into its world. It doesn't fail on that pull either. You will be introduced to thoughts and ideas in the underworld that are only known by those thugs that hang out there. Of course, these are men and women with a soul too and that is what comes across. Sure, they are on the wrong side of the tracks, but think for a moment that "there go I but for the grace of god" and you will be alright watching them go through their daily messed up lives...There are some stand-out performances and I would say that all actors give them. When it is their turn to act and convince us, they do. This is entertainment. The title throws you off, but after seeing the movie, you make allowances for it. One last thing. If you like malts, you know ice cream malts, well, have a pitcher ready when you watch this film. It is no fun to drink alone....enjoy

This might be one of the worst films I have ever seen. The story is terrible, completely unbelievable. The dialogue is terrible, the writer director seemed to just make up sayings, and greetings that didn't make any sense. I can't think of one enjoyable moment in this movie. I wish I had my 2 hours back. Do yourself a favor and skip this one, especially if you're looking for a gangster flick (as I have seen some people describe it). It is a slow moving quasi love story with little to no character or plot development. The people who made this movie should be ashamed of themselves. I might be biased because I read a few rave reviews about this movie, but don't believe them.