Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead

Directed by Gary Fleder.

1995. Rated R, 114 minutes.
Cast:
Andy Garcia
Christopher Walken
Christopher Lloyd
Bill Nunn

Jimmy the Saint (Garcia) is a small-time gangster gone straight but his new & legit business is experiencing hard-times. He gets hired by an old friend, The Man with the Plan (Walken) to scare off the boyfriend of his son's ex-girlfriend. He hires his old crew to convincingly do the job but, things go terribly wrong. It is at times funny, violent & even melodramatic. It’s a bit of an uneven watch because it tries to do so many things. However, Andy Garcia holds the movie together. Jimmy the Saint is the perfect character for him. In every role I've seen him, Garcia is ultra-smooth & generally has a glossy look about him. Jimmy is nothing if not smooth. He gives off the kind of coolness that other people recognize and would resent in other people as some sort of act but are inexplicably drawn to it in him. That coolness is fascinating, especially when he lets you in just enough to know that there are emotions there and it elevates the movie. The ending was a little off to me but that's offset by the pleasant surprise of seeing Steve Buscemi in a role where he doesn't just launch into his trademark cynical rants. In fact, he doesn't speak much at all.

MY SCORE: 7.5/10