Clay Pigeons-Starring Vince Vaughn as You've Never Seen Him

If you think having an affair with your best friend's wife is only the beginning of your life being turned inside out, then welcome to Clay Birdwell's (Joaquin Phoenix) life in the 1998 "dark comedy", Clay Pigeons, starring Phoenix, Vince Vaughn and Janeane Garafolo. Mix in a cheerful killer, a relentless FBI agent and you have a poor "pigeon" who doesn't realize he is being set up until it is way too late.

I mean, one minute you're out in the desert, having beers and shooting up bottles with your buddy Earl (Gregory Sporleder) and before you know he shoots himself with your gun to make it look like you have killed him because of the affair you're having with his smoking hot wife Amanda (Georgina Cates). Matters go from bad to worse when Amanda gets pretty nasty about the whole situation after Clay tells her what happened, publicly and privately, which makes Clay look pretty suspicious and worse yet, leaves him to try and clean up the mess all by himself. She even can't believe that Clay gets a little upset that he asks for her help in making Earl's death look like a car accident. That is how the movie starts off and Clay's life begins a spiral that heads toward a collision course with the "Cowboy Killer" Lester (Vince Vaughn).

Vaughn's Lester is laid back, funny and dresses like a cowboy from a bad production of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, while palling up to Clay and filling his head with all sorts of worldly advice at the local bar around the pool table.. The question becomes as this odd friendship develops, is Lester really the quirky happy-go-lucky takes life as it comes free spirit cowboy, or something else all together. Even though you find out the answer fairly early on in their relationship, it doesn't ruin the story one bit, as a matter of fact even when it becomes a certainty, you still see Lester as the kind of guy that is great to down beers with.