Clay Pigeons (1998)

As Good As It Gets

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

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.

Before David Dobkin directed Wedding Crashers and Shanghai Knights, he did this, his first feature film. Now, while I would rather run nude through the mall (sorry for that image) than admit I have ever watched these two films, I have to admit that he did a great job with this one.Casting Vince Vaughn as the villain was brilliant, as I see him that way, and I was most impressed with Joaquin Phoenix; more than I have ever been.The supporting cast was brilliant also: Janeane Garofalo from The West Wing as an FBI agent; Scott Wilson from C.S.I as the sheriff; Georgina Cates and Nikki Arlyn (who we see way too little of) as the victims.The soundtrack was so good, I headed to Amazon.com to get it immediately.Great thriller with some great characters. Worth your time.

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

This movie is unpredictable. So unpredictable that you don't know whether you are suppose to laugh or be scared. It is personally one of my favorite movie because you never get tired off watching it. Clay Pigeons stars Joquin Phonix who delivers his lines with such conviction you really believe that it is happening. You never know what kind of predicament Clay will get himself in or what kind of mess his friend Lester will get him in.Whether or not Lester played by Vince Vaghn is suppose to be a funny character, I don't know,but I find him hilarious especially his laugh. All together this movie is great, it is kind of weird, and the characters are memorable. This movie is really unique and very enjoyable.