My Cousin Vinny - Wikipedia

1992 film directed by Jonathan Lynn

My Cousin Vinny
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Lynn
Written by	Dale Launer
Produced by	Dale Launer Paul Schiff
Starring	Joe Pesci Ralph Macchio Marisa Tomei Mitchell Whitfield Fred Gwynne
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Edited by	Stephen E. Rivkin
Music by	Randy Edelman
Productioncompanies	Palo Vista Productions Peter V. Miller Investment Corp.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	March 13, 1992 (1992-03-13)
Running time	119 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$64.1 million[2]

My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Dale Launer. It stars Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield and Fred Gwynne in his final film appearance before his death in 1993. The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and released in the United States on March 13, 1992.

Macchio and Whitfield respectively play Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein, two young New Yorkers who are arrested in Alabama and put on trial for a murder they did not commit. Unable to afford a lawyer, they are defended by Gambini's cousin Vinny Gambini (Pesci), newly admitted to the bar, who arrives with his fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito (Tomei). The clash between the brash Italian-American New Yorkers and the more reserved Southern townspeople[3] provides much of the film's humor. The principal location of filming was Monticello, Georgia.[4]

My Cousin Vinny was a critical and financial success, with Pesci, Gwynne, Macchio and Tomei praised for their performances. Tomei won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Attorneys have also lauded the film for its accurate depiction of criminal procedure, the rules of evidence, and trial strategy.

Plot

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While driving through Alabama, New York college students Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein stop at a convenience store, where Bill absentmindedly pockets a can of tuna. After they leave, the store clerk is found robbed and murdered, and the boys are pulled over and arrested. At the police station, Bill assumes he has been caught shoplifting and confesses, leading to his being charged with murder in the first degree and Stan as an accessory. Lacking the money for a private attorney, Bill calls on his cousin, Vinny Gambini, a personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn, who agrees to take the case. Unbeknownst to them, Vinny has only just passed the bar after multiple failed attempts and has no trial experience. He travels to Alabama with his fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito, to defend the boys.

Vinny convinces the trial judge, Chamberlain Haller, that he is an experienced New York attorney practicing under the alias Jerry Callo. Haller, however, repeatedly finds him in contempt for his attire, attitude, and lack of courtroom decorum, leading to several brief jail sentences. The prosecuting district attorney, Jim Trotter III, presents a strong but circumstantial case, calling multiple witnesses who implicate Bill and Stan in the murder. Vinny declines to cross-examine these witnesses during the preliminary hearing, alarming the defendants. Stan subsequently fires Vinny and retains the public defender, John Gibbons.

Vinny's inexperience leads him to attempt tricking Trotter into sharing evidence, until Lisa informs him that he can legally obtain it through discovery. She also encourages him to begin interviewing the witnesses, which he proceeds to do. Lisa grows frustrated with Vinny, reminding him of his promise to marry her once he wins his first case, and fearing that day may never come. At the same time, Vinny is eager to prove himself to his mentor, Judge Malloy, who had persuaded him to pursue a career in law.

During the trial, Gibbons's nervousness and severe stutter undermine Stan's defense. Meanwhile, Vinny adopts an aggressive but perceptive questioning style that steadily discredits Trotter's witnesses. He uses his newfound knowledge of the cooking time of grits to show that one witness's timeline of the crime is inaccurate. He then challenges the others by questioning their ability to positively identify the suspects due to obstructions in their sightline and impaired vision. Impressed, Stan promptly rehires Vinny to represent him.

The next day, Trotter calls a surprise witness, FBI analyst George Wilbur. Wilbur testifies that tire tracks at the crime scene match those of the boys' 1964 Buick Skylark, though Vinny gets him to admit the tires are among the most common in the United States. Haller then orders a lunch recess and denies Vinny's request for a full-day continuance to prepare a rebuttal. Exhausted from lack of sleep, strained by Haller's hostility, and fearing he will lose the case, Vinny lashes out at Lisa when she tries to help. Soon after, however, he realizes that one of her photographs, showing the tire marks at the scene, may help the case.

Vinny compels a reluctant Lisa to testify as an expert witness, drawing on her family background in auto repair and her encyclopedic knowledge of cars. Examining the photograph, Lisa explains that only the 1963 Pontiac Tempest, which resembles a Buick Skylark, could have made the tire tracks, due to its independent rear suspension and Positraction. Vinny recalls Wilbur to the stand, who confirms Lisa's testimony, simultaneously discrediting his own. The sheriff then testifies that, at Vinny's request, he identified two men fitting Bill's and Stan's description who were arrested in Georgia while driving a stolen Pontiac Tempest, and were carrying a gun matching the murder weapon. With the prosecution's case dismantled, Trotter moves to have all charges dismissed.

Bill, Stan, the sheriff, Trotter, and Judge Haller congratulate Vinny on his success. As he and Lisa drive away, she reveals that she persuaded Judge Malloy to vouch for Vinny's fictitious "Jerry Callo" résumé. The couple then resume bickering over their long-delayed wedding plans.

Cast

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• Joe Pesci as Vinny Gambini, a New York–based injury lawyer working to get his cousin and buddy acquitted of murder
• Ralph Macchio as Bill Gambini, a college student wrongfully accused of murder
• Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito, Vinny's girlfriend
• Mitchell Whitfield as Stan Rothenstein, a college student wrongfully accused of murder
• Fred Gwynne as Judge Chamberlain Haller, a strict judge presiding over the murder case
• Lane Smith as Jim Trotter III, the prosecutor in the murder case
• Austin Pendleton as John Gibbons, a public defender with a stuttering problem
• Bruce McGill as Sheriff Dean Farley, the incumbent sheriff of Beachum County
• Maury Chaykin as Sam Tipton, an eyewitness during the murder
• Paulene Myers as Constance Riley, an eyewitness during the murder
• Raynor Scheine as Ernie Crane, an eyewitness during the murder
• James Rebhorn as George Wilbur, an FBI analyst with knowledge on vehicles
• Chris Ellis as J.T., a redneck who stiffed Mona Lisa during a hustle
• Michael Simpson as Neckbrace
• Lou Walker as Grits Cook
• Kenny Jones as Jimmy Willis, a store clerk who is the murder victim

Development

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Screenwriter Dale Launer came up with the idea for My Cousin Vinny as a college student, after hearing about a lawyer who had finally passed the bar after their 13th attempt. Launer thought it would be funny to have someone traveling through the Southern United States run into legal trouble and end up being represented by that type of lawyer.[5] Launer did not develop the concept until after he had written a few successful screenplays, including Ruthless People and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He was inspired by the comedy of Sam Kinison, particularly his approach with hecklers, in developing Vinny, and he based the relationship between Vinny and his fiancée on two dating friends who would argue frequently.[5] Launer also took a road trip through the South in which he got stuck in the mud and had repairs to fix his car, which became part of the script. He met an assistant district attorney who became the basis of the character of Jim Trotter.[5] He spent several sessions with an attorney to review the process of legal trials, and learned from him that much of criminal court proceedings are not taught in law school but come from practice, which served well for Vinny's character.[5]

For casting, the studio originally wanted Andrew Dice Clay for Vinny, but this did not work out. Other considerations included Danny DeVito, Peter Falk, Robert De Niro, and Jim Belushi, but save for De Niro and DeVito, none of these were the Italian American they were looking for. They eventually cast Joe Pesci, who had just finished Lethal Weapon 2, was finishing filming in Goodfellas, and was an ideal choice for the role.[5] For Mona Lisa, they approached Lorraine Bracco and Carole Davis, but both passed on the role. Director Jonathan Lynn auditioned several other actresses, but found Marisa Tomei when he was invited to the set of the movie Oscar by John Landis, where Tomei had a minor part. While Fox wanted an actress with more fame, they agreed to Tomei.[5] Ben Stiller and Will Smith were considered for the roles of Bill and Stan but, in both cases, there was concern related to the incarceration of a Jewish and Black person in the South, and Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield were hired instead.[5]

Exterior filming was done near the town of Greensboro, Georgia; the exterior shots of the courthouse and the surrounding square were shot in Monticello, Georgia, and the courthouse scenes were shot in a set in Covington, Georgia, used for In the Heat of the Night.[5] The prison scenes were shot in a real, working prison (Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia) and the prisoners appearing as extras were actual convicts.[6]

Reception

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Box office

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With a budget of $11 million, My Cousin Vinny was more successful than anticipated, grossing $52,929,168 domestically and $11,159,384 internationally, bringing its overall worldwide total to $64,088,552.[2]

Critical response

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On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 85%, based on 61 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "The deft comic interplay between Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei helps to elevate My Cousin Vinny's predictable script, and the result is a sharp, hilarious courtroom comedy."[7] On Metacritic the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics.[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[9]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4. He thought that despite Macchio's co-star billing, the actor was given little to do, and the film seemed adrift until "lightning strikes" with the final courtroom scenes, when Gwynne, Pesci, and Tomei all gave humorous performances.[10] Ebert's television partner, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, liked the film more, singling out Dale Launer's screenplay for praise.[11] Owen Gleiberman of EW described it as a "lumbering, amiably stupido fish-out-of-water comedy" without the wit of Doc Hollywood. Yet he admired the dynamic between Pesci and Tomei: "Punch and Judy gone Brooklyn."[12] Kathleen Maher of The Austin Chronicle thought it was "a good-natured comedy" that rose "above its simple-minded premise and its promise of humor in stereotypes." She disliked how the film seemed to divert "from what we know good and well is going to happen", yet believed watching it was "time pleasantly spent."[13]

Awards and nominations

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Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Marisa Tomei	Won	[14]
American Comedy Awards	Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)	Joe Pesci	Won	[15]
	Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)	Marisa Tomei	Nominated
	Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	Fred Gwynne	Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Marisa Tomei	Nominated	[16]
	Most Promising Actress	Marisa Tomei (also for Chaplin)	Won
MTV Movie Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance	Marisa Tomei	Won
	Best Comedic Performance	Joe Pesci	Nominated

Continuing reputation

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My Cousin Vinny is generally considered to have held up as one of the most remembered and watched movies of the 1990s. The movie performed well in home video sales and rentals and received frequent play on cable television. The film's catchier quotes became well known as well.[17]

One element that aged somewhat awkwardly was Austin Pendleton's role as a stuttering and ineffective public defender. Pendleton suffered from stuttering in his childhood before overcoming it; during filming he did not enjoy dredging up bad memories from his teenage years and, afterward, he was not pleased to be publicly associated with the character. In a 2022 interview, he said that he felt the role nearly ended his career, and, after receiving angry letters from stutterers, said he regretted agreeing to perform the role at all. Casting director David Rubin said that Pendleton's scenes, while funny, probably would have been changed significantly in a newer movie.[17]

Legal accuracy

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The film's director, Jonathan Lynn, has an English law degree from the University of Cambridge,[18] and lawyers have praised the accuracy of My Cousin Vinny's depiction of courtroom procedure and trial strategy,[19] with one stating that "[t]he movie is close to reality even in its details. Part of why the film has such staying power among lawyers is because, unlike, say, A Few Good Men, everything that happens in the movie could happen—and often does happen—at trial".[20] One legal textbook discusses the film in detail as an "entertaining [and] extremely helpful introduction to the art of presenting expert witnesses at trial for both beginning experts and litigators";[21] furthermore, criminal defenders, law professors, and other lawyers use the film to demonstrate rules of evidence, voir dire, relevance, and cross-examination.[22][19][23][24]

Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, one of the most prominent American federal judges of the late 20th century, praised My Cousin Vinny[25] as being:

particularly rich in practice tips: how a criminal defense lawyer must stand his ground against a hostile judge, even at the cost of exasperating the judge, because the lawyer's primary audience is the jury, not the judge; how cross-examination on peripheral matters can sow serious doubts about a witness's credibility; how props can be used effectively in cross-examination (the tape measure that demolishes one of the prosecution's eyewitnesses); how to voir dire, examine, and cross-examine expert witnesses; the importance of the Brady doctrine ... how to dress for a trial; contrasting methods of conducting a jury trial; and more.

In "Ten Things Every Trial Lawyer Could Learn From Vincent La Guardia Gambini", federal judge Joseph F. Anderson praised Vinny's courtroom methods as "a textbook example" of Irving Younger's "Ten Commandments of Cross-Examination", and wrote that the film predicted the U.S. Supreme Court's 1999 decision Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael and its holding regarding the Daubert standard, which governs when expert witnesses can testify in U.S. federal trials. He concluded that Lynn and scriptwriter Dale Launer "have given our profession a wonderful teaching tool while producing a gem of a movie that gives the public at large renewed faith in the common law trial and the adversarial system as the best way to determine the truth and achieve justice".[26] In a 2019 decision, Merrick Garland, then the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, wrote "In 1992, Vincent Gambini taught a master class in cross-examination," and further extensively quoted from a cross-examination scene in the film.[27]

John Marshall Law School professor Alberto Bernabe wrote that "Vinny is terrible at the things we do teach in law school, but very good at the things we don't":[28]

[How to] interview clients, to gather facts, to prepare a theory of a case, to negotiate, to know when to ask a question and when to remain quiet, to cross examine a witness forcefully (but with charm) in order to expose the weaknesses in their testimony

Supreme Court of the United States Justice Antonin Scalia cited My Cousin Vinny as an example of the principle that a client can choose his own lawyer.[29] The authors of Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (2006) gave the film its highest rating along with several films based on real trials, such as Judgment at Nuremberg and Breaker Morant.[30] In 2008 the ABA Journal ranked the film #3 on its list of the "25 Greatest Legal Movies",[15] and in 2010 ranked Pesci's character as #12 on its list of "The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers (Who Are Not Atticus Finch)".[31]

Lynn, an opponent of capital punishment, believes that the film expresses an anti-death penalty message without "preaching to people", and demonstrates the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Lawyers find the film appealing, according to the director, because "there aren't any bad guys", with the judge, prosecutor, and Vinny all seeking justice. Lynn stated that both he and Launer attempted to accurately depict the legal process in My Cousin Vinny, favorably comparing it to Trial and Error, for which he could not make what he believed were necessary changes.[18]

Other media

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Cancelled sequel

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While being interviewed on March 14, 2012, screenwriter and co-producer Dale Launer talked about a sequel he had written involving Vinny Gambini practicing law in England. After Tomei dropped out, the studio hired another screenwriter to rewrite the script without Tomei's character, but the project was eventually shelved.[32]

Novel series

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In 2017, author Lawrence Kelter began a My Cousin Vinny novel series with Back to Brooklyn, which is intended to be in the spirit of The Thin Man series. With the setting updated to contemporary times, the series depicts the further cases of Vinny Gambini with Mona Lisa operating as his investigator.[33] After additionally writing a novelization of My Cousin Vinny alongside the first sequel, a third book, titled Wing and a Prayer, was published in August 2020.[34]

Album

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Pesci reprised the Vinny Gambini character for his 1998 album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You, which contains the song "Yo, Cousin Vinny". The album cover portrays Pesci in a red suit similar to the usher suit he wore in the film.[35]

See also

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• Trial film
• Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai

References

[edit]

1. ^ "My Cousin Vinny". British Board of Film Classification. December 24, 1991. Archived from the original on February 6, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
2. ^ a b Fox, David J. (May 12, 1992). "Weekend Box Office 'Player,' 'Vinny' Show Strength". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
3. ^ Berry, Joanna. "My Cousin Vinny". Radio Times Limited. Archived from the original on October 7, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
4. ^ "My Cousin Vinny Filming Locations". Road Trip Memories. Archived from the original on August 28, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Greene, Andy (March 7, 2022). "'What Is a Yute?': An Oral History of 'My Cousin Vinny'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
6. ^ Audio commentary section from the DVD/Blu-Ray edition
7. ^ "My Cousin Vinny". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
8. ^ "My Cousin Vinny". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
9. ^ "CinemaScore: My Cousin Vinny". Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
10. ^ Ebert, Roger (March 13, 1992). "My Cousin Vinny". rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
11. ^ Siskel, Gene (March 12, 1992). "The Verdict Is In: Sharp Writing Carries 'Vinny'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
12. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (March 13, 1992). "My Cousin Vinny". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 29, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
13. ^ Maher, Kathleen (March 13, 1992). "My Cousin Vinny". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 20, 2025. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
14. ^ "The 65th Academy Awards (1993) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
15. ^ a b Brust, Richard (August 1, 2008). "The 25 Greatest Legal Movies". ABA Journal. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
16. ^ "1988-2013 Award Winner Archives". Chicago Film Critics Association. January 1, 2013. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
17. ^ a b Green, Andy (March 7, 2022). "'What Is a Yute?': An Oral History of 'My Cousin Vinny'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
18. ^ a b Farr, Nick (March 13, 2012). "Abnormal Interviews: My Cousin Vinny Director Jonathan Lynn". Abnormal Use: An Unreasonably Dangerous Products Liability Blog. Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
19. ^ a b Tooher, Nora Lockwood (July 31, 2006). "The verdict is in: 'My Cousin Vinny' still the winner among criminal defense lawyers". Lawyers USA. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
20. ^ Kennerly, Max (March 14, 2012). "Every Young Trial Lawyer Needs To Watch My Cousin Vinny". Litigation & Trial. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
21. ^ Smith, Fred Chris; Bace, Rebecca Gurley (2003). Guide to Forensic Testimony, A: The Art and Practice of Presenting Testimony As An Expert Technical Witness. Addison-Wesley. pp. 1, 4–13. ISBN 9780201752793.
22. ^ Bergman, Paul (2003). "Teaching Evidence the "Reel" Way". Quinnipiac Law Review. 21: 973–992. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2019 – via escholarship.org.
23. ^ "'My Cousin Vinny' Turns 25". Morning Edition. NPR. March 13, 2017. Archived from the original on June 10, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
24. ^ "Amy Coney Barrett's Notre Dame Students And Colleagues Weigh In On Possible Supreme Court Nominee". WBEZ. September 24, 2020. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
25. ^ Posner, Richard (2009). Law and Literature (3rd ed.). Harvard University Press. pp. 446–447. ISBN 9780674054417.
26. ^ Anderson, Joseph F. Jr. (Summer 2016). "Ten Things Every Trial Lawyer Could Learn From Vincent La Guardia Gambini". Voir Dire. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
27. ^ "Novato Health Center v. National Labor Relations Board, ___F.3d ___, No. 17-1221 (D.C. Cir. 2019) at pages 1, 11-12, 11 fn.5" (PDF). United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
28. ^ Bernabe, Alberto (March 12, 2013). "My Cousin Vinny: a story about legal education". Torts Blog. Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
29. ^ "Supreme Court Justices Mull 'My Cousin Vinny'". Fox News. Associated Press. April 18, 2006. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
30. ^ Turner, George (November 1, 1996). "Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (review)". American Cinematographer. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
31. ^ "The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers (Who Are Not Atticus Finch)". ABA Journal. August 2010. Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
32. ^ Farr, Nick (March 14, 2012). "Abnormal Interviews: My Cousin Vinny Screenwriter/Co-Producer Dale Launer". Abnormal Use: An Unreasonably Dangerous Products Liability Blog. Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
33. ^ Harring, Bruce (August 13, 2017). "Comedy Classic 'My Cousin Vinny' Updated By New Novel, 'Back To Brooklyn'". Deadline. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
34. ^ Tomlin, Jimmy (August 12, 2019). "Author of 'My Cousin Vinny' sequel to speak to writers". The High Point Enterprise. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
35. ^ Gallucci, Michael. "Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You". AllMusic. Retrieved February 25, 2009.

Further reading

[edit]

• Greene, Andy (March 7, 2022). "'What Is a Yute?': An Oral History of 'My Cousin Vinny'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 25, 2024.

External links

[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to My Cousin Vinny.

• My Cousin Vinny at IMDb
• My Cousin Vinny at Box Office Mojo
• My Cousin Vinny at Rotten Tomatoes
• Transcript of the trial proceedings Archived November 11, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
• Goodreads entry for My Cousin Vinny: Back to Brooklyn

v t e Films directed by Jonathan Lynn
Clue (1985) Nuns on the Run (1990) My Cousin Vinny (1992) The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) Greedy (1994) Sgt. Bilko (1996) Trial and Error (1997) The Whole Nine Yards (2000) The Fighting Temptations (2003) Wild Target (2010)

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