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

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jimmy "The Saint" Tosnia	Andy Garcia	½
Pieces	Christopher Lloyd
Franchise	William Forsythe	½
Easy Wind	Bill Nunn
Critical Bill	Treat Williams
Joe Heff	Jack Warden	½
Mister Shhh	Steve Buscemi	½
Lucinda	Fairuza Balk	½
Dagney	Gabrielle Anwar	½
The Man With The Plan	Christopher Walken	½
Malt	Bill Cobbs
Lt. Atwater	Marshall Bell
Baby Sinister	Glenn Plummer
Gus	Don Stark
Cuffy	Willie Garson
Rooster	Don Cheadle
House	Tiny Lister

Review

From the smug title to the predictable ending, director Gary Fleder takes us on a style-over-substance tour through Denver. Given the subject matter – a bunch of ex-gangsters botching up their final job for a local crime boss before finding themselves on his kill-list – this tour should have been an intense adrenaline-kick, but we're feeling more in tune with the Andy Garcia character, who seems to think "We're gonna die, what's the big deal". The script is by Scott Rosenberg, a man who has penned both great gems (Beautiful Girls) and great embarrassments (Armageddon). Here he seems to desperately want to emulate the success of Quentin Tarantino in recent years, with confident, clever dialogue between dangerous, unpredictable characters. Unfortunately, Rosenberg lacks the crispness and urgency of Tarantino's scripts, and the all-star cast can't find a way to up the ante. Except for an inspired Treat Williams, they walk through this in technical mode. And the result is a film which looks good and feels like it could be both clever and engaging, but which ultimately is neither.