#1 Cheap My Cousin Vinny Reviews
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I like coming away from a film glad that I saw it. I love coming away from a film looking forward to the next time I see it.
"My Cousin Vinny" gets rotated in my DVD player as often as "Casablanca" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and my other favorite movies.
I initially dreaded watching it. From the tv promos it seemed to consist of "wise-cracking New York lawyer" going to the South where he outwits the local yahoos. Not quite a generation removed from my Hillbilly upbringing and not that long after "Deliverance", I approached the movie with trepidation... not wanting to see a courtroom version of Hee-Haw.
I needn't have worried. The film delighted me and several times made me nearly choke on my popcorn with laughter.
Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield are driving through the South when they are arrested. A murder has occurred and eyewitnesses claim to have seen them fleeing the scene. Terrified and lacking funds, Macchio summons his cousin Vincent Laguardia Gambini from his sixth attempt to pass the bar to defend them against the Southern Slick District Attorney played by Lane Smith. The late Fred Gwynne gives perhaps the film performance of his career as Judge Chamberlain Haller.
Cousin Vincent is played by Joe Pesci with a wonderful combination of Brooklyn bravado and personal insecurity. Not all characters are fleshed out, but you feel that Vinny and the two defendants are in a precarious situation. If you were a New Yorker falsely accused of murder in Alabama wouldn't you be nervous if your lawyer failed the bar exam five times?
Marisa Tomei won her academy award for Best Supporting Actress as Vincent's girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito. She gets many of the films best scenes and lines, beginning with their appearance outside the Alabama court house, with Lisa in a short skirt and Vinny in a black leather blazer.
Vinny: You stick out like a sore thumb around here.
Lisa: Me? What about you?
Vinny: I fit in better than you. At least I'm wearing cowboy boots.
Lisa: Oh yeah, you *blend*.
The film gives a certain amount of respect to Southern culture. When I went in cringing that I might hear lines like "Boy, yew shore got a purty mouth!", I was pleased to find a key scene that hinged on the time required to properly prepare grits. In other parts of the world grits may be unknown or at least a mystery - but a Southerner takes their grits as seriously as a New Yorker or Chicagoan takes pizza. This movie respects that without a hint of ridicule.
The film would be worth watching if only to see Tomei's reaction when Pesci informs her that the competing District Attorney has invited him to go deer hunting. The story plays as a legitimate courtroom thriller, but the comedic dialogue, expertly delivered, elevates "My Cousin Vinny" to heavy rotation in my house.
My Cousin Vinny Overview
Two carefree pals (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) traveling through Alabama are mistakenly arrested, and charged with murder. Fortunately, one of them has a cousin who's a lawyer - Vincent Gambini (Joe Pesci, Lethal Weapon 3, Home Alone), a former auto mechanic from Brooklyn who just passed his bar exam after his sixth try. Vinny's never been in court - or in Alabama - and when he arrives with his leather-clad girlfriend (Marisa Tomei in her Oscar® winning Supporting Actress performance), to try his first case, it's a real shock - for him and the Deep South!
Great movie; okay Blu-Ray - Jack E. Stoudenmire Jr. - Tampa, FL, USA
I love this movie. The climactic courtroom scene is definitive.
On DVD, it was wonderful. Far better than VHS.
Blu-Ray: not so much.
I felt I was watching the DVD. No real improvement in quality, and the extras were just pathetic.
You got the DVD? STICK WIDDIT.
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