My Cousin Vinny (1992)

"I always wanted to eat a grit." Vinny Gambino

It took a foreigner to be able to accurately depict the comic differences between Southerners and Yankees from NYC, but Britisher Jonathan Lynn did it and made one of the best comedies ever in doing so.

My Cousin Vinny starts out with a pair of college students, Billy and Stan (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield), traveling to college at UCLA via the southern route. Soon after stopping at a convenience store (The Sack o' Suds) they are pulled over and arrested.

After a brief questioning, they are charged with murder of the convenience store clerk - this just after Stan had been catastrophizing about the medieval legal system in Alabama. That's right, they are in the vast metropolis of Wazoo, Alabama. The sheriff tells them if they lose, they'll get a jolt of electricity enough to "light up Birmingham."

The two suspects put their heads together and realize an attorney for a murder case will probably cost $100,000. On the obligatory phone call home, Macchio's mother tells him about his cousin Vinny, the lawyer. At this point the movie shifts into high gear and never slows down.

Vinny arrives in a dilapidated Cadillac convertible of uncertain vintage, accompanied by his taller girlfriend Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei). The first thing he learns from a local is he "has mud in his tires," making the car shimmy as he drives down the road.

There is a hilarious first meeting between Vinny and Stan while Macchio is asleep, and Stan gets a totally wrong idea about Vinny, aided and abetted by Vinny's NYC vocabulary that reinforces Stan's worst fears.

Vinny then meets the prosecutor (Lane Smith) and judge (Fred Gwynne - the Munsters) and Vinny proves to be completely outside their expectations. There are many running jokes and it's better for you to see them yourself, but be advised you will probably enjoy this as much as I did.

Besides having a fantastic script with literally hundreds of quotable lines, the performances of Pesci and Tomei are "dead nuts accurate," to use an expression made popular by Tomei's character. In addition, Fred Gwynne does such a superlative job as the hostile but fair judge, he deserves to be singled out. Gwynne is one of those guys who does a great performance every time and it's sad we had to lose him, just after this movie was completed. The exchanges between Pesci and Gwynne are priceless and will have you laughing until your sides hurt. Lane Smith as the prosecutor offers up a lively performance and Austin Pendleton as a public defender with a stuttering problem will have you laughing in spite of yourself.

The 20th Century Fox DVD runs 2 hours exactly, is presented in 1.85:1 theatrical format, and is in color. There is a full length director's commentary with Jonathan Lynn provided as an extra feature.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening