Clay Pigeons is one of the odder films floating around out there, but it's a damn good time at the movies. It fits into a subgenre that I have lovingly dub as 'desert noir', other prime examples being Oliver Stone's U Turn and John Dahl's Red Rock West. Intrigue and murder abound under a sun soaked, parchment dry landscape in these types of films, always with a healthy helping of dark humour and unsettling, psychopathic characters running around, perpetually up to no good. Joaquin Phoenix (adding to the U Turn vibe) plays Clay, a good guy who seems to have a real problem with bad luck. He finds out his friend has killed himself, which seems to be the first swirl in a spooky spiral of trouble that veers towards him like a dust devil. Soon nosy FBI agent Dale Shelby (reliably perky Janeane Garofalo) comes to town, turning her attention towards him. Dan Mooney (ever great Scott Wilson stealing scenes with perched stealth) is Clay's friend and the town Sheriff, also on the lookout for clues. These two are the least of his worries though, as the worst is yet to come with the arrival of charming serial killer Lester Long (Vince Vaughn). This is my favourite Vince Vaughn performance because he shows his versatility with the brittle, lightning quick turns of personality injected into Lester. One minute he's your best buddy and a lovable loudmouth, the next a coiled viper with untold violence beneath the jovial exterior. They always say serial killers are charmers, and Vince Vaughn takes that sentiment, dances around you in circles with it and then proceeds to strangle you with it when you least expect it. So yeah. The bodies pile up and no one seems to be able to tie them to anyone. Lester treats everyone like his best friend until they're too comfortable to see the blind side coming, and poor Phoenix wanders around looking disshvelled and stressed out. It's good fun all the way through, doing a nice see-saw rhythm between quaint, cartoonish antics and a grim, scary turn of events. Underrated and more than worth your time.

There's a lot to like about "Clay Pigeons". It has three established, credible young (at the time) actors in the lead roles, and it has elements of a suspenseful thriller with a healthy dose of humor. It's also an impressive debut for director David Dobkin, who directed music videos prior to working on this film. Dobkin would go on to direct some great movies, such as "Wedding Crashers" (2005). Unfortunately, while this film has its strengths, its weaknesses lie primarily in the storytelling and the motives of the main character, Clay Bidwell (Joaquin Phoenix).By no means was Phoenix terrible in this movie. He is a great actor. However, he had very little to work with here. Phoenix plays a small-town gas station attendant whose friend Earl (Gregory Sporleder), in the very beginning of the film, shoots himself in front of him. The reason is because Earl is not particularly intelligent and could possibly be insane, but mainly because he knows Clay has been having an affair with his wife Amanda (Georgina Cates). In the first improbable scenario of this movie, Earl commits suicide in a way he claims makes it look like Clay did it. Since the camera backtracks at this moment, you don't see him very well, and you wonder how in the world Earl can make it looks like homicide after dying instantly. Does he throw the gun towards Phoenix after he shoots himself? Impossible.However, Clay, apparently lacking in common sense, puts Earl in a car and makes it look like he died while drunk driving. The reason why he didn't tell the police what actually happened is never explained. This is not the first time in the movie I wondered what was going through Clay's head.Later, Clay understandably cuts his relationship off with Amanda, who happens to be a shallow slut and does not remorse over the death of her husband. Amanda gets jealous, and kills Clay's next girlfriend while he is making love to her. It does not occur to Clay to call the police (again!), or even kill Amanda out of self defense. Instead, Clay makes things harder for himself by dragging his dead girlfriend's bullet-ridden body out to a river. As he's doing this, you can't help but wonder, "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST CALL THE POLICE!?!?!?"The problem is that Phoenix's character, who is supposed to be the moral compass of this film, isn't established well enough. It would be nice to know what is going on in his head, or at least get some explanation as to whether or not he trusts the police and why. There could have been a brief subplot where he got in trouble as a kid for snitching on a felon, or some life-altering event that happened to him earlier on. He could also just be a really stupid guy, but such a characteristic is also not extrapolated upon here.So where does Vince Vaughn come in? Well, he plays Lester Long, a tall, denim-wearing modern cowboy who's altogether a colorful character and a seemingly nice guy. He befriends Clay at a local bar one night, and they hit it off pretty well. Unfortunately, a body (supposidly that of a woman) pops up from the river when they're fishing together one day, and a murder mystery that I won't give away ensues.Such murders pile up in this small town (presumably in Wyoming), and it's too much for the local sheriff (Scott Wilson) to handle. FBI Agent Dale Shelby (Janeane Garofalo) comes in to investigate, and the mystery progresses. The intensity of the climactic chase and murder scenes following Garofalo's entrance is quite extreme, which makes the film worth watching. Although Garofalo's character is supposed to be straight-laced, she is still a colorful character, and she has some great lines. They may not be laugh-out-loud, but Garofalo was still well cast.Similarly, Vaughn was perhaps the best thing about this movie. It's interesting too, because Vaughn is not a character actor. In the many movies he has been in, he usually plays himself, or sort of the same wise-cracking character ("Swingers" (1996), "Made" (1999), "Wedding Crashers" (2005)). Here, he's still over the top, but the down home country boy he plays is still believable. When he played this role, he was still an up-and-coming actor, and not the A-lister he is today. Still, even if you know him from his big budget roles, you don't think he's Vince Vaughn even though he's not wearing any prosthetics.If, judging from this film alone, you were to guess which actor would go on to be nominated for two Academy Awards for acting, you would probably pick Vaughn, not Phoenix. Although it's not entirely Phoenix's fault that his character was so weak and underdeveloped, he also shares some blame for maintaining the same morose expression on his face regardless of the situation. He doesn't seem to show any signs of shock when people die in front of him, nor is there any stress on his face when he is being interrogated by the FBI. Although it is great that he became a better actor later on, this movie showed that he still had some more work to do.So "Clay Pigeons" would have been better if the characters that needed to be better rounded would have been. It's still an enjoyable film, but the writing needed to be a lot better. While it's still an entertaining movie, your wondering how certain scenarios could occur given the circumstances could ruin your experience.

This 'lil' film noir has been done over the years many times & it is one of those chestnuts I can & will see many times.Innocent man trapped,Evil woman killed. Our hero is innocent, That is the basic plot.As in other reincarnations the film is saved by the actors in it. Once again good acting makes a routine film seem much better than it should be,This is a 1998 film & the 2 stars are now big name players, Both Joachim Phoenix & Vince Vaughn had only made a few films before this. & you can definitely see why they became big time players in a few years.Joachim is our young, not so innocent hero, & Vince portrays of all things a serial killer (this was made before he did Norman Bates in the redo of Psycho. Both turn in first rate performancesAlso Janeane Garafalo plays a winning FBI agent She is always good.Scott Wilson is a quiet sheriff. This is a film noir & for comic relief we have an overly sleepy deputy sheriff named Barney.I don't think his last name was Fife or is it now,Even though this movie is a wee bit too long at 104 minutes, It held my interest from exciting beginning to satisfactory conclusion . It was filmed in beautiful MontanaRatings *** (out of 4) 83 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 100

There must have been something in the original script for this film to get the mutually antagonist Scott brothers (Ridley and Tony) behind this. It hardly seems worth the fuss. It's a contrived potboiler with tiny shades of David Lynch, the Coen brothers and Tarantino, and even Hitchcock. In fact, the film appears to be mostly a redneck version of Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train.' It also has an interesting cast, although in the end it is the characters that matter and no casting can save what isn't written or directed well. Vaughn's part is the showiest and he has the looks and zest to make it work, but his Lester Long character is played too loudly. There's no undercurrent of madness or menace, no dropping down of voice or personality to reveal the evil behind the mask of charming bravado. And such a flamboyant persona on a traveling mass murderer would make him stand out a mile during an investigation. Indeed, this film's own lack of subtlety is a big part of its problem. It sets up Phoenix's 'Clay' character's dilemma early on, but strains credibility by adding on another murder and then shoehorning in, by utter coincidence, a serial killer (Vaughn's 'Lester Long') to pile up the body count. In fact, even the set-up suicide at the beginning is forced: the humiliated husband would simply kill Phoenix then himself, maybe even the wife, too. He wouldn't go through all the trouble to set things up just so he'll be dead with the idea that Phoenix will be accused of murder. In the history of sexual affair crimes when has that scenario ever been seen? And then we follow with another killing by another character (Georgina Cates as the widow) to be followed by Vaughn's 'Lester' popping up to do so more killing. C'mon, now, this is silly. Then there is a pair of federal agents showing up to investigate and we get Janeane Garofalo and John Morris. Now, I think Garofalo is adorable with a low-key presence that is just right for the film (and an antidote to the histrionics of Vaughn) but I can't buy her as a long-time cop. Not for a second. She's slumming as a guest star here ("Special Fun Appearance by Ms. Janeane Garofalo") and her partner Morris is something out of an Esquire magazine fashion ad ("Special Non-Speaking Performance by Male Model") About the only on-the-money characters are Sheriff Mooney and the slutty widow. Scott Wilson is perfect as the Sheriff and quite believable. Unlike his deputy (named 'Barney' - oh, brother!) the character is not played as a yokel who is in over his head. Then there is the evil widow, played by Georgina Cates, who is letter perfect in the role. Not only that, but Cates is an English actress, yet you can't detect even a hint of her natural accent. And on the pulchritude scale, she and Nikki Arlyn (as the waitress-victim) rate highly. And as for Phoenix, he tries... but it's hard to get behind a character low enough to have an affair with his best friend's wife, and who also can't seem to summon the intelligence to deal with the psychotic personalities of Cates and Vaughn. I also agree with many others who feel that the ending is a sloppy cop-out. It's an attempt at adding one more trick but it seems as contrived as everything else: more about cleverness than common sense.