Things to do in Denver when you're dead (1995)

[Mike Krumlauf]

I had known about this film for decades but only recently (within the last month) finally sat down to watch it and was instantly a fan. I think it's a great little film that went under the radar during it's time as people were comparing it to the mega hit of the time Pulp Fiction. Christopher Lloyd and Andy Garcia are by far the best parts of this film and it really does showcase the city of Denver pretty well and proved to me that Denver is a very photogenic little city. I honestly think in a genre that usually goes to one of the top 3 cities (LA, Chicago, New York), it was fresh seeing a film like this set in a smaller more unfamiliar city in cinema like Denver. Worth a look if you haven't seen it.

 

[OldCorpse]

I saw it at Cannes back in the day, and even spoke to the screenwriter (who got a lot of kudos for the dialogue). Personally, I'm meh on the film. To my mind, it's one of those "big on promise, small on delivery" - starting with the title... you'd think "wow, dead, huh?!" and look at what was delivered - I'm not saying it shoulda been a ghost story, but c'mon, huge build up and what's the actual goods. That's also my feeling on the dialogue - grabby without consequence; example: when mentioning how sh|t tastes, says "kinda chewy", which has realism quotient of 0, just an excuse to discuss eating sh|t, except you can't make it work, like screaming "****!" to grab attention, but once you have it, you don't know what to do with it - the whole film in a nutshell. We all know that one of the biggest failires of films is "the third act problem" - it's easy to make a huge promise, or extravagant set-up to grab attention (hey, the man is chained in a cage with a hungry tiger and...), but then you can't deliver on an interesting resolution (so how does the man get out of that situation - oh, it was all a dream). That's this film, except it's like a third act problem in every act and every scene from the start. Sorry, not a fan - of course YMMV, just a one person opinion.

 

[Mike Krumlauf]

I can understand how it didnt hit home for everyone. Its one of those films where you love it or hate it, no grey area. Maybe if I saw it when I first heard about it in the early 2000s I might not have liked it, but, currently living in Denver I feel like thats a big reason why I connected with it. I also think that it was just released at the wrong time. There were a few films in the mid 90s that tried to piggy back on the success of Pulp Fiction, this being one of the first that did and instead of people seeing the film as its own thing, they ripped it apart because it was "trying to be like pulp fiction". I read that the screenplay for this film was finished long before Res Dogs was even released.. just bad timing for production I guess.

On the denver side, I found it really interesting how seedy Colfax looked in the 90s. Looked like Randolph or State Street in chicago in the 90s. Granted Colfax is no peach today but it def has gotten better in 25 years. here i thought they dressed the bluebird theater as a porn theater where Christopher lloyd works... nope.. it was actually a porn theater back then. Today its one of the most popular venues for bands to play in the city.. funny.

 

[Scott F]

I lived in Denver around 96 til 98. I remember being excited to rent the VHS tape from Hollywood Video. (which IIRC was on West Colfax!!)

The Bluebird Theatre was pretty legit when I lived there...both great local musicians and touring bands, definitely not adult films. But plenty of that to be found in the Colfax neighborhood! I don't recall Colfax being super "seedy", (I mean, it wasn't great) maybe they dressed things up a bit for the film?

I enjoyed the film quite a bit having been a resident. Thanks for the memories!