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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Clay Pigeons

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Matthew L. Healy
Directed by: David Dobkin
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 25, 1998
DVD: January 11, 2000
Running Time: 104 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong scenes of sexuality, language and violence
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gregory Sporleder, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, and Georgina Cates
Lester Long (Vaughn) has a firm handshake, a ready smile, and some strange ideas about friendship in this 90's noir. As dead bodies start piling up in a small Montana town, Lester burrows his way into Clay's (Phoenix) life and plays a twisted game of shifted blame and double-cross.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Fred Claus Shanghai Knights Wedding Crashers
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Ron Wells
I don't want to say any more about the plot, it's just too much sick fun.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A film that delights by confounding expectations.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The final half-hour contains enough contrivances and holes to challenge even the most generous movie-goer's suspension of disbelief.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Within Clay Pigeons is a smaller story that might have involved us more, but it's buried by overkill.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
An OK debut effort, but like so many "Pulp Fiction" wannabes, it lacks freshness and energy.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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?
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Its blurring of the line between parody and exploitation only makes it totally innocuous.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a5:
There's some cute stuff here, and the film has more of a Montana feel than other films about Montana not actually filmed there. It came really close to being a good show in a Coen sort of way, but there was just something about the assemblage that didn't snap. Just because Phoenix's character doesn't care much about himself shouldn't mean we can't either. And it's OK if the sheriff understood what made him tick if we had been let in it. And Garafalo. Again we see in her quirky way she really is a splendid beautiful actress and it is such a tragedy that her politics confirm a seriously arrested mental outlook.
Ted A. gave it a 9:
The movie is well acted with interesting characters. Garafalo is good in her Cameo. Vaughn is a great pshyco killer. Phoenix is great as always as the 'victim' in this quirky mystery.
