Rotten
Slanted as a black comedy, but fails to secure the sufficiently outre tone (let alone any real suspense) needed to make it more than a middling retread.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
Clay Pigeons
Lester Long never forgets a friend.
1998 · 1h 44m · R
Comedy, Crime, Drama
Directed by
David Dobkin
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Clay Pigeons
Overview
Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl, kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with the affair. Clay unknowingly befriends a serial killer named Lester Long who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."
Director and cast
- David Dobkin Director
- Joaquin Phoenix as Clay Bidwell
- Vince Vaughn as Lester Long
- Janeane Garofalo as Agent Dale Shelby
- Scott Wilson as Sheriff Dan Mooney
- Gregory Sporleder as Earl
- Georgina Cates as Amanda
- Vince Vieluf as Deputy Barney
- Joseph D. Reitman as Glen
- Nicole Arlyn as Gloria Collins
- Wayne Brennan as Minister
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
63%
Tomatometer
Fresh
This quirky comedy thriller, produced by Ridley Scott, is both blackly funny and, at times, tensely disturbing and quite macabre.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Rotten
"You've got a sense of humor, I like that," Lester Long proclaims at one point. Well, we all like that, but would it be asking too much to have a little coherence to go along with it?
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Rotten
Within Clay Pigeons is a smaller story that might have involved us more, but it's buried by overkill.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
It's got unpredictable plot twists and unexpected laughs coming out of dark corners.
Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
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