Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead

This past weekend we lost the talented character actor Bill Nunn. Probably best know as Radio Raheem in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Nunn was a very gifted performer. Not long after his acclaimed performance in Do The Right Thing, Nunn was stealing scenes from Harrison Ford and Annette Bening as a compassionate caretaker in Regarding Henry, probably my favorite performance of his. Since I've written about Regarding Henry before, today I thought I would take a look back at another one of his films, the 1995 ensemble crime drama Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead.

Andy Garcia stars as Jimmy "The Saint" Tasnia, a former gangster who is trying to go straight. He gets pulled back into the life however when his former boss, the wheel chair bound The Man With The Plan, Christopher Walken, asks him to do one last job for him. Jimmy feels like he owes him, so he puts together his old crew, that includes Nunn, William Forsythe, Christopher Lloyd, and Treat Williams, to help him pull it off. But when the job gets botched, The Man With The Plan hires a hitman named Mr. Shhh, Steve Buscemi, to rub out the crew.

Back when this movie came out, there were a lot of Quentin Tarantino knockoffs due to the success of Pulp Fiction, and this one was one of the better ones. Garcia is terrific as the former tough guy with a heart of gold. He is perfect in these kind of roles. And the supporting cast, that also includes Gabriel Anwar, Fariuza Balk, and Jack Warden, is also great. The real scene stealer however is Treat Williams as the unhinged, loose cannon of the group. Walken's role was originally written for James Caan, who backed out at the last minute. Maybe he didn't want to play another wheel chair bond character after Misery.

This was written by Scott Rosenberg, who has an ear for great dialogue and has crafted a tight crime drama.He would go on to write other great heavy in dialogue films like Beautiful Girls and High Fidelity. The director, Gary Fledor, was probably at the top of his game with this film.

This is a very smart and enteratining crime thriller.

It's available on dvd.