"Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" review

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

Directed by Gary Fleder
Writing credits Scott Rosenberg

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 is on the dangle. The Man with the Plan is paying 50 large for an action. Jimmy gets together a crew. He ropes in all the pig brothers from back in the day: Critical Bill, Franchise, Pieces and Easy Wind. They screw up the job and become Buckwheat's. Buckwheat's! Jimmy the Saint has things to do in Denver before he's dead. Someday he'll have his boat drinks.

Do real gangsters talk like this or only hyper movie gangsters? If the above dialogue amuses you, you may like this movie. Jimmy the Saint and crew botch a job for the boss and talk and talk about it. I liked the scenes where they would huddle together to have their skull sessions. If you're not in the mood for a gangster vocabulary lesson, stay away.

The rest of the movie is not that interesting. Jimmy has a love interest which goes nowhere. We get to see scenes from Jimmy's business which also go nowhere. There are some violent spots but nothing too outrageous. The only thing good about this flick is the dialogue. But even that tends to wear out its welcome. Still, it's worth a look if you like gangster movies.

SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Hollywood gangsters