Clay Bidwell is having a rough week. First his best friend Earl finds out that his wife, Amanda, and Clay are having an affair. Second, in order to get some revenge, Earl commits suicide to make it look like Clay killed him. Third, Amanda, in a fit of jealous rage, kills the local grease spoon waitress that Clay was banging, and threatens to do the same to any other woman Clay comes in contact with. Talk about a bitch.

Anyway as Clay tries to hide the bodies and cover his tracks, while staying cool under pressure from the local authorities, Clay meets a new best friend in Lester Long. Lester, an easy going and friendly fella, turns out to be more than Clay bargained for. All too soon Clay and Lester are linked together for more than friendship as the body count starts to rise and federal officers arrive on the scene looking for a serial killer. Clay and Lester are about to take us on a buddy movie like you've never seen.

This is one of those overlooked films that you need to rent and watch right now. Joaquin Phoenix plays Clay Bidwell, the straight faced common guy whose penis has got him in more trouble than he could ever imagine. Innocent of all charges except adultery, Clay looks like the guilty man all around and Phoenix does a great job of playing the character. But this movie belongs to Vince Vaughn, who is exceptional as the smug, smarmy, smart ass Lester "The Molester" Long. From his first appearance until his last, you can see Vaughn having a blast playing the character, and his interactions with Phoenix are fantastic. At times Vaughn is humorous, dark, and down right scary, but it is his smugness that seals the role.

There are many great scenes in this movie that just deal with Vaughn's reactions to things and people, great examples are while fishing, Clay and Lester catch a little more than fish and Long begins to chant "Alarm, alarm" I can't go in to much more detail, because of a spoiler.

Another part that made me hit the floor is when the two buddies are in a small restaurant and the guy working the counter is mildly retarded. As he makes Lester a milkshake, Lester sits there and taunts him by saying things like "Your a happy fella ain't ya" and "Please don't touch the straw if ya don't mind" Vaughn's delivery is fantastic.

But the best scene in the whole movie is when Clay and Lester's friendship is having a little break down and Clay goes "What's a wrong with you? Did mama Lester not love you enough?" Lester leaps up and goes "Don't you do it Clay, don't lower yourself." It may not sound funny but when you see the film it is amazing.

To round out the cast we get Janeane Garofalo and Phil Morris as federal agents, both of whom give great deadpan performances. Not heavy on gore there are a few scenes of brutality and a little T&A. It’s the presence of Vaughn that drives this movie all the way home. A truly great flick worth several viewings.

9/10