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My Cousin Vinny
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My Cousin Vinny (1992) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 18 | slideshow) Videos (see all 7)
My Cousin Vinny -- hv post
My Cousin Vinny -- Vinny can't find the right pair of pants for his hunting trip.
My Cousin Vinny -- Vinny calls his girlfriend up to the witness stand.
My Cousin Vinny -- Vinny's girlfriend is worried that they will never get married.
My Cousin Vinny -- Vinny lies to the judge about his real name.

Overview

User Rating:
7.3/10   29,033 votes »
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MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 5% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer (WGA):
Dale Launer (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for My Cousin Vinny on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
13 March 1992 (USA) See more »
Genre:
Tagline:
Rambo. Terminator. Indiana Jones. Vinny Gambini. See more »
Plot:
Bill and Stan are mistaken for murderers while on vacation, and Bill's family sends his cousin to defend them for his first case as a lawyer. Full summary » | Full synopsis »
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination See more »
NewsDesk:
(48 articles)
Corey Haim Remembered In Today's Twitter-Wood
 (From MTV Movies Blog. 10 March 2010, 1:00 PM, PST)

The Oscars: Facts, History & Trivia
 (From FilmShaft.com. 6 March 2010, 1:41 PM, PST)

User Reviews:
Underrated. See more (156 total) »

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Joe Pesci ... Vinny Gambini

Ralph Macchio ... Bill Gambini

Marisa Tomei ... Mona Lisa Vito
Mitchell Whitfield ... Stan Rothenstein
Fred Gwynne ... Judge Chamberlain Haller

Lane Smith ... Jim Trotter III

Austin Pendleton ... John Gibbons

Bruce McGill ... Sheriff Farley
Maury Chaykin ... Sam Tipton
Paulene Myers ... Constance Riley (as Pauline Meyers)
Raynor Scheine ... Ernie Crane
James Rebhorn ... George Wilbur

Chris Ellis ... J.T.
Michael Simpson ... Neckbrace
Lou Walker ... Grits Cook
See more »
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for language.
Runtime:
120 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 See more »
Sound Mix:
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Fred Gwynne's final feature film appearance. See more »
Goofs:
Plot holes: At the end, Lisa tells Vinny that she had a friend in New York send a fax to Judge Haller "vouching for the very impressive resume" of the lawyer known as Jerry Callo (Vinny's supposed alias). Yet, Lisa couldn't have known of Vinny's use of the name Jerry Callo to Judge Haller because he never told her. See more »
Quotes:
John Gibbons: Mr. Tipton, I see you wear glasses.
Mr. Tipton: Yes I do.
John Gibbons: Could you show those glasses to the court, please? Okay, now were you wearing them that day?
Mr. Tipton: No.
John Gibbons: Uh huh. You see? You were fifty feet away, you made a positive eyewitness identification and-and-and-and-and-and-and YET, you were not wearing your necessary, prescription eye glasses.
Mr. Tipton: They're reading glasses.
John Gibbons: [after long pause] Um Mr., Um... Could you tell the court what color eyes the defendants have?
Mr. Tipton: [after quick glance] Brown and hazel green.
See more »
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
SECRETLY See more »

FAQ

What exactly are grits?
I'm confused by the photo of the car with the top up, identified by all three witnesses as the getaway car. The top was clearly down when the yoots were driving away from the Sac-O-Suds.
Why does Judge Haller continue to call Vinny "Mr Gambini" if he thinks that Vinny is really Jerry Gallo?
See more »
53 out of 58 people found the following review useful.
Underrated., 19 December 2007
Author: tightspotkilo from Oregon, USA

Underrated. I won't belabor relating and describing the plot, because that's been recited nicely by numerous others. I'll simply return to my one word point. Underrated. Even though Marisa Tomei broke through and won Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance, an award she earned and much deserved, I still say underrated. This film really never got on the public's radar the way it should have, probably because there are no big-name actors featured as box office draw. Joe Pesci was as good as it gets that way. In 1991 he was the hottest name in the cast. But has Joes Pesci ever established himself as a leading man who could carry a movie by himself? I ask that in open-ended wonderment, and certainly not disparagingly. Just asking, is it fair, has it ever been fair, to expect Joe Pesci to carry a film?

Regardless of Joe Pesci's latent starpower, this cast of players as assembled possessed remarkable chemistry in the performances they gave, not only in their interactions with one another, but also in the creation of a final product that excels way beyond the sum of its parts, beyond any of their individual levels of genius, certainly beyond anything that could ever have been reasonably expected of them. Competent though they may have been, these were not thespian heavyweights or comedic savants. You ever wonder why this singular performance 15+ years ago and counting remains Marisa Tomei's magnum opus? That might be one big reason why. The Germans have a word for this. It's called gestalt.

My inclination is to give most of the credit for this winning final product to director Jonathan Lynn. It seems obviously to be his creation. Who else singularly deserves it? Along the way it would have been such a cheap trick and easy thing to surrender to the obvious, but Lynn didn't do it. This is a story built around stereotypes. New Yorkers. Ethnic Italian New Yorkers. Southerners. Small town southerners. Southern justice. Southern small town justice with New York Italians in the dock. It would have been so easy to traffic in those stereotypes, to over-the-top cash in on them, to submerge the movie in them and to exploit them for all they were worth. These people could have been made into cardboard cartoons of themselves. Surely the Englishman Lynn was thusly tempted, but it was a temptation he mainly resisted. Oh, almost obligatorily, he dances us over to that edge and gives us a big whiff of all that, but instead of jumping in and wallowing in the stereotypes, he deftly pulls it back and carries it all off and away in a new and different direction, indeed in an uplifting direction. Just as there are no cheap tricks in this movie, there are no cheap shots either. People are not ridiculed for who they are or where they are from. It rises above that. Lynn raises it above that. Yes, the regional differences that exist are juxtaposed. And yes, we get the fact that cultural differences divide these characters. But the beauty of it is that no one is treated unfairly. In fact, the viewer comes away with the feeling that these are all good people.

Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei are given a broad canvas to create great humorous art, bouncing one, two, three liners or more off of each other, at the other's expense. It's the game they play with each other, the nature of their characters' relationship, and it's fun to watch. And this must be said: not only does Marisa give an exquisite performance, she is an utterly delightful feminine creature to watch here. As for the southerners, in not taking the bait to exploit the southerners as dumb hicks, Lynne actually captures part of the true but rarely portrayed essence of the south: polite gentility. Lane Smith embodies that essence. And Fred Gwynne? He practically steals the show, and would have were it not for Marisa Tomei.

What has been going through Joe Pesci's and Marisa Tomei's heads for the last 15 years? What is wrong with their agents? These two needed a sequel. If not a sequel, then more film(s) together. The dynamic between them was too good to just be abandoned. We should have been treated to much more of them together.

As a trial lawyer let me say that the portrayal of courtroom events, while certainly not perfect, is more than adequate and passable. One thing that is accurately captured is the fish-out-of-water experience of a city lawyer when subjected to trying a case in a far-flung rural county. This depicton conveys the essence of what that's like.

This movie deserves more recognition. It is clever, funny, and fun. I recommend it. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and indulge yourself.

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The reason people hate Marisa Tomei's Oscar win... acsuc99
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Scotch tape on Pesci's face Heidi_Smiles
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