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.

When Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction hit the scene in 1994, it took filmmakers and cinephiles by surprise that a film involving murder, betrayal, and theft could also be so wickedly funny and hilariously in its conversational fluidity. Tarantino was fearless, not worried about halting the plot-progression for just a short amount of time so the characters could ramble or comment on something random and completely off topic. As simple as it was, it was surprising to many; here was dialog unrelated to the plot and central story being used with such confidence.

Because of how Tarantino took convention and ordinary crime-drama filmmaking by storm, he obviously spawned many inspirations and "copycats." I only bring this up because, for reasons I have trouble understanding, people have written off Gary Fleder's Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead off as a Pulp Fiction ripoff. Since its release in 1995, the film has gone far under the radar and scrutinized, only to be viewed by the curious cinephile or a hardened crime drama fan; consider me both.

The film stars Andy Garcia, a leading man I, and many, it appears, have forgotten about as much as we forgot about this particular film. He plays "Jimmy the Saint," an ex-con looking to get out of the business and run his own shop where people record their wills for their family and friends before they die. Catering to the business serves as his day job, until he's approached by his paraplegic boss "The Man With the Plan" (Christopher Walken),who requests his services for one more little odd job. Unsurprisingly, the job goes wrong, and this means Jimmy is in the hottest water. Now, Jimmy must find a way to secure his own future, as well as continue to maintain stable connections, while pleasing his newfound love interest (Gabrielle Anwar) through all this chaos. In the meantime, we are introduced to a wide variety of characters played by big-name actors: a quiet hit-man nicknamed "Mr. Shhh" (Steve Buscemi),ex-gangster "Pieces" (Christopher Lloyd),petty-thug "Big Bear Franchise" (William Forsythe),the loquacious "Easy Wind" (Bill Nunn),and the argumentative and angry "Critical Bill" (Treat Williams).

The film bears a relatively age-old story, but the film is complicated by strangely vague dialog and an overabundance of characters with unique names. The dialog itself seems to be describing linear, straight-forward statements and requests and loading them with slang and alienating jargon that takes a great deal of time getting used to.

Once one comes to terms with the dialog, at hand, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead becomes your average mob flick, comfortably paced, sometimes fun in a gloomy way, and often brooding and dark, like the dapper characters it focuses on. If director Gary Fleder and writer Scott Rosenberg (who's eclectic filmography includes the amiable Kangaroo Jackand the wildly misunderstood Pain & Gain) has anything down here, it's the films tone, which knows when to be comedic and when to be haunting at just the right times.

Consider the scene when this particular operation goes wrong, and Jimmy and his gang land themselves in hot water. Up until this scene, the film has maintained a traditionalist mobster theme of being mildly dark and slightly comedic. When this incident occurs, it suddenly all goes black and the seventy of the gang's actions finally catch up to them. Fleder shows this nicely and packs a lot of character intrigue here with such a great cast.

Films centered around crime and the mobster lifestyle are often broken up into three categories with cinephiles: the classics, Scorsese, and everything else. While Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead exists in the latter, it is nothing shy of an enjoyable and intriguing viewing. The actors possess enough charisma and charm to carry out a screenplay like this, Fleder's direction always seems to hit the right tones, and Rosenbaum's writing always finds ways to take dark and exciting turns. The fact that the film has somehow mingled its way into being mistaken for a clone of one of the most popular crime dramas of all time is quite a shame because of how much quality is in its product to begin with.

Starring: Andy García, Christopher Walken, Christopher Lloyd, William Forsythe, Bill Nunn, Treat Williams, Steve Buscemi, Gabrielle Anwar, Jack Warden, and Fairuza Balk. Directed by: Gary Fleder.

Jimmy 'The Saint' used to work for a gangster known as 'The Man with the Plan'; now he is trying to go straight but his business is in trouble and 'The Man with the Plan' owns the debt; now he wants Jimmy to do one last job; the woman his somewhat simple son loves is marrying another man. Jimmy is to assemble a crew and give this man a good scare… he stresses that this is an action (scare) not a piece of work (murder). Jimmy assembles an unlikely team; 'Pieces', 'Franchise', 'Easy Wind' and 'Critical Bill'… the last so named because anybody who crosses him is lucky if he only ends up in a critical condition. Inevitably things go horribly wrong and the man is killed, not only that, so is his fiancée who they didn't expect to be present. 'The Man with the Plan' tells Jimmy that he has forty eight hours to get out of Denver; his crew won't get that luxury; they will be killed… slowly. To complicate matters Jimmy has just got involved with a woman but doesn't want her to be caught up in anything. He also wants to save his crew before hit-man 'Mister Shhh' gets to them.

This is a solid '90s crime drama with a decent story and a really good cast. Andy Garcia is on good form as Jimmy, a charismatic character who is likable despite his gangster past. He is ably supported by Christopher Lloyd who impresses as an elderly gangster; Treat Williams, who is great as 'Critical Bill' a character who is clearly a danger to anybody around him and Christopher Walken who is impressively menacing as 'The Man with the Plan'. The rest of the cast are pretty solid too. The film is full of sharp dialogue and inventive slang that give it a cool feel without seeming that it is trying too hard. Given the subject matter it isn't surprising that it is quite violent at times; sometimes this is quite shocking and other times it is darkly comical. Overall I'd say this won't be for everybody but I'd certainly recommend it to fans of the genre.