Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)--"I am Godzilla, and you are Japan! GAAAAAH!" Thus screams Critical Bill (Treat Williams), one of Jimmy the Saint's (Anthony Garcia) gang of two-bit hitmen who wind up in hot water with the wheelchair-bound baddie The Man With The Plan (Christopher Walken) when a heist goes sour in Denver. Director Gary Fleder borrows unabashedly from QT with a host of grumbling mobsters and a turn by Steve Buscemi as a creepy mob assassin, but the gifted cast and busy-enough dialogue make this a furtively enjoyable sleeper.
The Salton Sea (2002)-- Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) is a tattooed trumpet player turned meth informer who's out to avenge the murder of his wife and purge the world of evil, one junkie/dealer/cop at a time. Though a flashback-heavy plot and the wild babbling dialogue seem a tad hokey at times, Kilmer's barrel-blazing journey through the grimy dope houses, dusty desert gas stations and burning bathrooms of vigilante-ville help maintain a loose sense of mentally diseased surreality. Wacky villains played by Vincent D'Onofrio, Luis Guzmán, and Anthony Lapaglia lend a sweaty hand as well.
Boondock Saints (1999)--Connor and Murph (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) are fraternal twins who go from barroom brawlers to crime-avenging archangels overnight. Nothing too serious here, and the QT dialogue kicks in full-force as the duo navigates porn-house shootouts, plunging penthouse toilet bowls and fat guys who go down execution style. A serious boost comes from flashy Detective Smecker (Willem Dafoe) who follows the saints' gruesome exploits with both horror and vicarious glee. The excellent slow-mo violence and goofy gun-dropping sidekicks smooth over the few rough spots along the plot.
Killing Zoe (1994)--After only one day in Paris, safe-cracking wizard Zed (Eric Stoltz) has slept with call-girl Zoe (Julie Delpy), gone doping with his old crime buddy Eric (Jean-Hughes Anglade), and signed on for a bank heist with an international crew of drug-worshipping party animals. Writer-director Roger Avary lifts druggie hallucinations and bloody shootouts from QT (his real-life personal friend), and the pre-heist shoot-up spree through the bowls of gay Pari will certainly turn your tummy. A good film for fans of philosophizing psychopaths.
