Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

My Cousin Vinny Blu-ray Movie Review

Only an uninspired collection of extras detract from an otherwise solid Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 6, 2009

We gonna run enough electricity through him to light up Birmingham.

The 1980s and early 1990s were one of Comedy's golden eras, and Director Jonathan Lynn's (Clue) My Cousin Vinny ranks up there with several of the uncontested gems that have come to define that timeframe. Just as funny, well-made, and superbly acted as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stripes, or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, My Cousin Vinny may not be a watershed movie for the genre but it's certainly one of its more memorable, serving up a brand of humor that's somewhat understated but far funnier than the more direct, grotesque, and intelligence-insulting style that's come to define the genre for the past decade. With a smart script and a wonderful collection of talent in front of the camera -- including Marisa Tomei, (The Wrestler) in her Oscar-winning performance -- My Cousin Vinny hasn't lost a laugh since its debut some 17 years ago.

Vinny and clients eagerly await the posting of the latest Blu-ray.com review.

On a road trip through the South in search of that perfect college, New York-based buddies Billy (Ralph Macchio, The Karate Kid) and Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) find themselves in The Middle of Nowhere, Alabama. After an innocent stop at a convenience store to stock up on some goodies for the road, the two are pulled over at gunpoint and hauled down to the local lockup. After an awkward back-and-forth where they believe their troubles to revolve around nothing more than a can of tuna that accidentally ended up in Billy's pocket, they find themselves charged with the murder of the convenience store clerk. Desperate for help but unable to afford a top attorney, Billy's mother suggests they contact Vinny (Joe Pesci, Casino), a family cousin and lawyer. Unfortunately, Vinny doesn't exactly come as advertised. He's never actually tried a murder case, or any case for that matter. In fact, he's never set foot in a courtroom, but he does have a law degree; it just took him six tries to pass the bar exam. With nowhere else to turn, the boys can only hope that Vinny and his longtime fiance Mona Lisa Vito (Tomei) can prove their innocence before the state proves their guilt.

Like most films, My Cousin Vinny doesn't particularly innovate insofar as the nuts-and-bolts of its plot is concerned. Where the film does innovate is in its delivery of the material and ability to place a fresh spin on an old tale. It takes two cinema staples -- the so-called "fish out of water" Comedy and the courtroom Drama -- and meshes them together for one of the more uproariously funny one-of-a-kind hybrid pictures ever unleashed on the Comedy-minded movie-going public. The humor stems from all sorts of different places, most notably from both the absurdity of the entire experience and Vinny's dealings with not only the regulations of an Alabama courtroom but with Southern culture as he sorts out the local dialect (that element a two-way street that popularized the Joe Pesci way of saying "youths"), cuisine, and generally relaxed way of life. Although My Cousin Vinny -- and most other "fish out of water" movies -- relies heavily on pitting one stereotype against another, the film never falls victim to simply tossing opposing characters into a blender and hoping for the best. Though stereotypes define the basic structure of each character -- the by-the-book judge, the uppity defense attorney, the flashy Brooklyn defender, and the loud-mouthed but big-hearted girlfriend -- the script and the actors both paint them as more involved and complex than their cardboard veneer may suggest. Each character bursts forth from the mold and makes for an interesting and somewhat complex persona that far supersedes in quality the mere static and generic figures so many lesser films toss onto the screen hoping to only induce a few cheap laughs and keep the plot moving rather than going the extra mile and creating a core group of characters that audiences will come to love and, by extension, make the movie all the better.

Moving past such a collection of otherwise-stereotypical characters and breathing real life into them requires a cast that's talented enough for the task, and My Cousin Vinny gets its cast absolutely right. Though there are no megastars to speak of in the film -- Ralph Macchio at the time probably the best known for his roles as Daniel in the Karate Kid films -- each player brings their respective characters to riveting life and, just as important, they mesh wonderfully together to make every scene a winner. It's easy to paint either Joe Pesci or the Oscar-winning Marisa Tomei as the film's only standout characters; Pesci's performance is spot-on and, like Tomei's if only for her Oscar, a career-defining effort that sees the actor in his element without going too far over the top as seen in the final three Lethal Weapon films. While each of those two bring playful energy and a strong sense of comedic timing both verbal and physical to their parts, the film's several secondary characters all shine in their respective roles. The aforementioned Ralph Macchio makes the most of his screentime, his performance genuine and convincing throughout as a young man that finds his lawyer's antics none-too-amusing as he can only sit idly by as his future lies in the hands of a bumbling and untested lawyer. His best scene comes early on when he plays a one-sided conversation with a panicked mother over the telephone after his arrest. Also of note are the efforts of a trio of character actors that shine in their roles -- Bruce McGill as the town's sheriff, Lane Smith as the district attorney, and Fred Gwynne as Judge Haller.

My Cousin Vinny Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Cousin Vinny makes its Blu-ray debut with a rather strong-across-the-board 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. Detail is appreciably high in both foregrounds and backgrounds. Clothing, from Vinny's leather jacket to the judge's zip-up robe, look just fine. Small, medium, and large object detail, too, looks good. Everyday items such as chairs, a picnic table, or the benches and other wooden adornments found in the courtroom take on a fairly realistic and pleasant appearance. Though not eye-popping in intensity, colors impress throughout and appear lifelike and neither overly bright nor terribly faded. Several of the courtroom scenes do look a bit hazy. The transfer sports a moderately heavy layer of grain but it does lend to the image a fine film-like appearance. Flesh tones are stable and remain a rather neutral appearance without veering too heavily away from a shade of red. Likewise, blacks never seem overly problematic. My Cousin Vinny makes for yet another in the ever-growing list of quality 1080p catalogue transfers from Fox.

My Cousin Vinny Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Cousin Vinny testifies on Blu-ray via a DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music as heard at the beginning of the film positively blares, but dialogue in subsequent sequences sounds a bit small in comparison. Things even out nicely afterwards, however. Music continues to play at a rather high volume but offers a fine deal of clarity across the front, with a nice helping of rear channel support throughout the entirety of the two-hour experience. Sound effects, particularly those that flesh out the running gag of the offending noises that wake up Vinny and Mona Lisa all through the night, sound just fine and appropriately lifelike, from the factory whistle to the rumbling train that seems to steam through the entire soundstage with a hefty amount of bass. At its core, however, My Cousin Vinny is a dialogue-driven Comedy, and save for the few moments as noted above, it never sounds muffled or otherwise unintelligible. Still, the disc does a fine job of sprucing things up with both the music and effects, making this a track that's not particularly noteworthy but certainly up to the challenge and more than satisfactory for the film it accompanies.

My Cousin Vinny Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, My Cousin Vinny takes the stand with only a commentary track and a few advertisements for the film. The commentary features Director Jonathan Lynn speaking rather dryly on a plethora of subjects, including how he was offered the job, the film's look and the shooting techniques, its cast, shooting locations, Marisa Tomei's Oscar, and more, mentioning and defining several filmmaking techniques along the way. The disc also features a pair of My Cousin Vinny theatrical trailers (480p, 1:55 & 1:24) and two 480p TV spots: "Up to His Ears" (0:32) and "Lover" (0:32).

My Cousin Vinny Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though a bit far-fetched and hard-to-swallow if taken even remotely seriously, My Cousin Vinny works wonders as a take-it-for-what-it-is, sit-back-and-relax experience meant to tickle the funny bone and allow viewers to leave their troubles at the door and escape into a two-hour topsy-turvy big-city-meets-small-country tale of justice, love, and laughs. Though a Comedy first and foremost, My Cousin Vinny also enthralls at several points throughout during its heated courtroom scenes, even if said scenes are dotted by the film's trademark humor that serves up gut-busting laughs through the minutiae of the overreaching absurdity of the situation. With a cast that, to a man, immerses themselves in the world and the characters they portray, My Cousin Vinny is one of the better Comedies to come from the genre's last great era. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release of My Cousin Vinny delivers a quality 1080p transfer and a fine lossless soundtrack, but the disappointing lack of extras might turn off some potential buyers. Nevertheless, this disc comes recommended based on the strength of the film and the sound audio/video presentation.