Clay Pigeons

            Clay (Juaquin Pheonix, Gladiator) has had a streak of bad luck. His best friend finds about Clay’s affair with his wife, and then commits suicide, making it look like Clay killed him. Not only that, but the wife is still infatuated with Clay, and begins to stalk him, eventually murdering his girlfriend. A third dead body tied to Clay is the one he finds while fishing with his new buddy, Lester Long (Vince Vaughn, Dodgeball). Lester seems dodgy about the subject, though he has no problem taking over with Clays mistress after Clay tells her off.

            That’s where things get even trickier, for soon after Lester takes up with the woman, she winds up dead. It seems Lester has been seeing a lot of women who wind up that way. Before you know it, Clay is under the suspicion of an FBI special agent (Janeane Garafolo, Mystery Men).

            The whole thing comes down to the wire, and the little Midwestern town, complete with Deputy named Barney, is in for a surprise ending as the three way face off comes down to the wire. A really cool movie, with some great performances by big actors who were underrated at the time, but, come through big. Vince Vaughn shows his dark side, as he did in much of his early work, including the remake of Psycho. This movie is definitely a 2, and is in there with the “before they were famous” collection, including two of my most favorite movies ever, Zero Effect, and A Life Less Ordinary.