Review of Clay Pigeons (1998) by D M — 20 Sep 2013

This wasn't a bad movie by any means, it's just a terribly inconsistent with jarring tonal shifts. I just don't think the dark comedy is mixed in very well with the more serious stuff. The reason the Coens can get away with injecting moments of comedy during darker moments is that they never let the comedy completely take away from the drama.

In this movie, it's either one or the other and because of that the movie never finds a consistent tone or identity. I think it has some good performances from the cast, mostly Vince Vaughn and I think there are some clever moments in the film, but they're simply not enough to make the film good.

As good as the cast is, and it's not like they're outstanding or anything, the script simply doesn't match their talents. There are some good ideas here but this is a below average script with severe identity issues.

It simply doesn't know what it wants to be, and it's really transparent from watching the movie. It's a script that certainly isn't confident in itself. At the very least, this film is watchable but it's still not particularly good.

To me at least. I don't have much to say really, as this movie's kind of dull.