My Cousin Vinny

Starring: Marisa Tomei

Directed by: Jonathan Lynn

RS: Not Rated

1992 Comedy

My Cousin Vinny

627 4-2-92
Nobody in this likably dopey farce is out to change the world. Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and his college buddy Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) just want out of Wahzoo City, Alabama, where they've been falsely arrested for killing a store clerk. So Bill phones home to Brooklyn for his lawyer cousin, Vinny, played by Joe Pesci. Bill is shaken when he learns that it took Vinny six tries to pass the bar and that he's never argued a case, but Wahzoo City is a lot more shaken by the sight of Vinny and his babe Lisa (Marisa Tomei) in black leather. The judge (Fred Gwynne) holds Vinny in contempt just for looking and talking the way he does.

Writer Dale Launer (Ruthless People) and director Jonathan Lynn (Nuns on the Run) simply provide the setup and turn the actors loose. Pesci's high spirits are contagious; his mugging with the inimitable Gwynne is no less funny for being shameless. And Tomei is a sexy, comic find. Lisa proves that her IQ is higher than her heels; she knows right away that Wahzoo City is no place to find good Chinese food. You might not remember much about My Cousin Vinny an hour later, but the cast makes the jokes (even the bad ones) go down easy.