Review of My Cousin Vinny (1992) by Chris W — 15 Oct 2013

During a cross-country road trip, two New Yorkers are arrested and jailed in Alabama after being mistaken as murderers of a convenience store clerk. In their desperation, they hire the cousin of one of them to be their lawyer, only to find out that Vinny has only recently become a lawyer, and has no real experience with legal procedure.

According to my research, this film is actually fairly accurate and realistic in terms of how it portrays legal procedures, trials, and that sort of thing. So, going by that, I can get behind this film for trying to do some *ahem* justice to its subject matter.

The film does occasionally dip into outdated and on the nose territory with some of the fish out of water elements, but overall, this is a pretty witty, sharp, and funny comedy.

Ralph Macchio is fine as Bill, but Mitchell Whitfield is only okay as his buddy Stan. As Bill's cousin Vinny, Joe Pesci is a delight. Lane Smith is fun as the prosecutor, Bruce McGill is fun as the sheriff, and Fred Gwynne (in his final film) is quite strong as the judge. The real scene stealer here though, is Marisa Tomei in her breakout Oscar winning performance as Vinny's loudmouth fiancee who is along for the ride. And then of course there's yet another turn by James Rebhorn in an antagonistic role. He's fine of course, but sometimes I wish I could see him go against type.

The film is a bit dated and out of touch, and, like I said, goes for easy and obvious targets with its humor. All in all though, this is a a really funny and delightful film, so give it a watch if you haven't done so yet.