Clay Pigeons

Film Threat Ron Wells

I don't want to say any more about the plot, it's just too much sick fun.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A film that delights by confounding expectations.

Film.com Ted Fry

Script, setting, attitude, and especially casting add up to a smart exercise in dark comedy that's never over-the-top funny, but always engaging for its clever details.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It's got unpredictable plot twists and unexpected laughs coming out of dark corners. The sharp-edged film also looks terrific.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Upon this fine mess shines Janeane Garofalo like a ray of sarcastic sunlight as FBI agent Shelby...With her gift for sweet bile, the sardonic Garofalo makes every second on screen a treasure to be cherished.

Slate David Edelstein

The film, smoothly directed by David Dobkin, has a neat farcical structure but is too in love with its overly tight-lipped protagonist and deadpan pacing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The final half-hour contains enough contrivances and holes to challenge even the most generous movie-goer's suspension of disbelief.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Within Clay Pigeons is a smaller story that might have involved us more, but it's buried by overkill.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The movie seems so convinced of its own entertainment value that it has neglected to factor in the elements that make a comedic thriller more than just a facile exercise -- i.e., suspense, tension, heart. Being amused by plot turns is not the same as caring, and Clay Pigeons never inspires you to grab your armrest or catch your breath. [25 Sept 1998]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Where it stumbles is in the script by Matt Healy, which is often clever, but never quite takes hold.

San Francisco Examiner David Armstrong

The cast's control and Dobkin's assured pacing keep most of the funny things funny and make most of the scary things scary - while maintaining the tricky balance between humor and fear.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I wanted to take these two characters somewhere else and make a real movie about them...But Vaughn provides so many spooky, hilarious, unhinged moments, you won't mind sitting through it.

Film.com John Hartl

An OK debut effort, but like so many "Pulp Fiction" wannabes, it lacks freshness and energy.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Nasty fun all around.

New York Daily News Dave Kehr

Cold-blooded comedy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Much of the acting is energetically good. Moviegoers familiar with "Fargo" and "Red Rock West" will find this adventure eerily familiar.

The New Yorker Jay Fielden

The supporting cast of yokels commit plenty of redneck faux pas, but the witty script is weighed down by the director David Dobkin's heavy hand.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Visual flourishes (handsomely lensed by Eric Edwards on Utah locales standing in for Montana) are polished but derivative, with too many time-lapse sky views, reminiscent of Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho."

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Dobkin, in his directorial debut, seems ready and willing to ply the conventions of film noir in the harsh Montana daylight, but Clay Pigeons never manages to reach the crucial suspense plateaus that noir demands.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

"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?

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Its blurring of the line between parody and exploitation only makes it totally innocuous.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Joe Garden

Perhaps this will seem fresh and interesting years down the road, when the self-aware-thriller genre has long played out, but for now, it's a tired horse that should have been put down in the pitch meeting.

USA Today Mike Clark

The young Pigeon turks who no doubt think they've made a hip black comedy should be forced to see it in a theater of non-sycophants, where only an occasional exasperated exhale signifies the audience isn't dead yet. [25 Sept 1998]

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's young-Hollywood-driven business as usual in this derivative, nasty, and ultimately empty drama.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

It's never clear, by the way, why any of this is supposed to be even remotely funny...This is the kind of movie asinine enough to believe that the mere juxtaposition of sadistic violence and a jaunty tune on the soundtrack is, in itself, clever.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

If you get your jollies from watching women being shot, stabbed and humiliated, you’ll love video director David Dobkin’s pointlessly grisly, tediously derivative feature debut.