Film

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

Director: Gary Fleder

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Former gangster Jimmy the Saint (Garcia) has got himself a legit business (video-recording advice from the dying to their families), so he's reluctant to do one more job for the Man (Walken), who wants the frighteners put on the creep dating his slow-witted son's dream girl. Besides, after meeting Dagney (Anwar), Jimmy's in love himself. Still, the Man wants no real violence done, and lets Jimmy pick his own team: Franchise (Forsythe), Pieces (Lloyd), Easy (Nunn), and Critical Bill (Williams), a deranged morgue attendant and boxer who works out by using corpses as punchbags. Thanks, however, to Bill's volatile temper, the job goes horribly wrong, with the result that the Man deems Jimmy's crew 'buckwheats', human prey for hitman Mr Shhh (Buscemi) to kill in the most painful way possible. Much of the fun to be had from Fleder's stylish, engrossing first feature derives from Scott Rosenberg's lively, literate and engagingly offbeat script. The witty dialogue, its slangy, profane poetry is even more delightful than the plot's tight twists and turns, while the colourful characterisations, sufficiently rock solid to have attracted and inspired a marvellous cast, simultaneously play fast and loose with the conventions of crime fiction.

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