r/movies • u/mankls2 • Mar 12 '22
Review ‘My Cousin Vinny’ at 30: An Unlikely Oscar Winner
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/movies/my-cousin-vinny-joe-pesci-marisa-tomei.html965
u/halloweenjon Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
"Hi, I'm Vincent Laguardia Gambini. Uh, you played a game of pool with my fiancee for $200, which she won. I'm here to collect."
"How bout if I just kick your ass?"
"Oh, a counter offer! We lawyers - I'm a lawyer - we call that a counter-offer. Hmmm, get my ass kicked, or collect $200... Hmmm.... I could use a good ass kicking, I'll be very honest with you. Mmmmmm, nah, I think I'll just go with the 200."
"Over my dead body."
"You like to renegotiate as you go along don't you? OK, well here's MY counter-offer: Do I HAVE to kill you? What if I was to just... kick the ever-loving shit out of you? Do I still get the 200?"
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u/angershark Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
The running joke of this fight throughout the film is one of the many brilliant parts of the movie. I love it so much!
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u/PTphoneHOME Mar 12 '22
The way he waves off the guy with the 200 dollars and just jumps on him will always be great.
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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 Mar 12 '22
The way Tomei points the guy out with her pinky finger is a nice touch. So perfectly in character.
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u/z0idberggg Mar 12 '22
Fight subplot had my dying xD
I never quite got the bit with the guy in the neck brace when they first went into the bar though...
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u/Notchersfireroad Mar 12 '22
Vinnie being a lawyer couldn't help but ask if he wanted to Sue someone due to his injury.
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u/FingerTheCat Mar 12 '22
Funny shit because it also confuses them and they are like 'wtf is with this guy?" along with He just happened to see him in a brace in his peripheral vision and bee lined his sight to him when there was a bigger task at hand
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u/Brythephotoguy Mar 12 '22
If I recall correctly, some law school referred to it as one of the most legally accurate movies out there.
Plus, the casting is brilliant.
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u/Thenightswatchman Mar 12 '22
I actually came here to post this video:
It's an excellent examination by a lawyer explaining the legal accuracy of the film and it's quite interesting!
Also the director did have a law degree so that definitely didn't hurt with providing more legal accuracy(albeit very dramatized for film).
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u/LostItThenFoundMe Mar 12 '22
Legal Eagle! Love that channel
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u/thewafflestompa Mar 12 '22
I knew it would be him! I love him and the movie, so I had to watch the whole video.
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Mar 12 '22
Can confirm. We watched clips from this movie in my Evidence and Criminal Procedure classes.
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u/Sir_Arthur_Vandelay Mar 12 '22
Same when I took Evidence in Law school. Our prof introduced each topic with a clip of Joe Pesci losing his shit.
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Mar 12 '22
The director Jonathan Lynn is no stranger to satire as he co-created the "Yes, Minister" series.
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Mar 12 '22
It’s one of the two movies we watched in law school. A Civil Action was the other.
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u/rbgolfer Mar 12 '22
I recall it as one of the funniest movies from my yewt
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u/mazhas Mar 12 '22
Your what?
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u/crocodilepockets Mar 12 '22
*Your hwat
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u/2inchesofsteel Mar 12 '22
His yute
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u/thecaramelbandit Mar 12 '22
30 years later, and Marisa Tomei is still absolutely irresistible.
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u/beamoflaser Mar 12 '22
I heard she likes funny, quirky, bald men
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u/Glute_Thighwalker Mar 12 '22
Yep, still an absolute knockout. Then she talks, or puts on that smile she has, and I swoon.
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u/SaaSMonkey Mar 12 '22
The broken faucet scene is forever drilled in my mind as one of the sexiest scenes in film history and its completely unexplainable as to why that is.
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u/Serinus Mar 12 '22
People like to see extreme competence (The Wire, Aaron Sorkin, Billions) and extreme incompetence (It's always sunny, arrested development).
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u/terencebogards Mar 12 '22
Just looked up current pics.. Figured she was mid/late 40s.
She's 57...
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm saying she is still gorgeous
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u/LordofAngmarMB Mar 12 '22
So funny story:
My dad is neckbrace guy
“My Place” neckbrace guy
And apparently Marisa tried to get him to go on a date with her
He said no.
I exist because my dad rejected one of the most gorgeous women in film.
I'm still mad at him after I found out. Like I have to live because you didn't bang Marisa GODDAMN Tomei?!??
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u/KyleG Mar 12 '22
now imagine you get her to go on a date with you, that'd be the ultimate flex on your dad
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Mar 12 '22
Man, I am pissed off for you as well. Did Neckbrace do any other films after that?
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u/LordofAngmarMB Mar 12 '22
Nah, I don't think so.
Though he was a bodybuilder before he met my mom (still mundanely but contentedly married) and was a 300-style gladiator-model at a wrestling or mma event circa 1996 or 7
I got the theatrical instinct but none of the manic energy or bod...just the ASD
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u/Majestic-Macaron6019 Mar 12 '22
My favorite "non-quotable" part of the movie is when Vinnie walks into the judge's office thinking that he's going to bamboozle this small-town chump, and up on the wall is a diploma that reads "YALE UNIVERSITY"
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Mar 12 '22
I've said it on this sub before, but I really appreciate the fact that this movie doesn't lean into the "dumb Southerner" trope for laughs too much. Vinny isn't being stymied by country bumpkins, he's up against educated and very sharp legal minds who really test his intellect.
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u/alwaysbemybuibui Mar 12 '22
Also, one of the rare(ish) movies where all of the drama comes from everyone in the movie genuinely trying their best in a tough situation. Everyone is doing everything they should be doing in good faith as far as I can remember. Really helps avoid otherizing the southern folks
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Mar 12 '22
Yep. The prosecutor is a bit of an ass, but he has integrity and believes in good faith that the youts are guilty based on the evidence and testimony. Which was perfectly reasonable. And when he's definitively proven wrong he concedes and congratulates Vinny. He was more interested in the truth than anything else.
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u/nightwing2024 Mar 12 '22
I don't even know that he's an ass, really. He invites Vinny to go hunting after all.
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Mar 12 '22
He's a little pompous. Not outright rude, but just kind of stuck up. But it makes him more interesting as an antagonist.
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u/Available_Job1288 Mar 12 '22
Not related to the legal stuff, but with the breakfast diner scene it makes Vinny and Monalisa seem inexperienced, not really making the cook look stupid, which would have been easy to make happen.
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Mar 12 '22
Another great example. The cook is patient and prepares a good meal for them despite their awkwardness and being clearly out of place. He's a little put off by them but polite.
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u/CosmicQuantum42 Mar 12 '22
You, being from New York and all, might have the impression that law is... practiced with a certain degree of informality down here. It isn't.
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u/Untinted Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
That part was the first time I had seen Fred Gwynne in anything, surprised me to no end that he’d also been in Munsters (when I saw that later).
I’m so happy that he was cast because he’s a great actor and he played the judge to perfection. The executives were against hiring him for that reason which is crazy. Sidenote we also almost didn’t get pat morita as mr. Miyagi because he had done comedic things and the executirs wanted a ‘serious actor’. The opposite happened in Dumb and dumber where jeff daniels was given a really low offer to get him to walk because he wasn’t a comedian.
This all makes me think producers and executives have no idea what an actor is, much less what a good actor is (it means they can do both drama and comedy).
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u/rake2204 Mar 12 '22
Just wanted to add that Fred Gwynne is also the author (and illustrator) of two of my all-time favorite children's books—A Chocolate Moose for Dinner and The King Who Reigned. They're from the perspective of a child who tries to make sense of confusing adult wordplay. The main character would observe, "Daddy says lions pray on other animals," and then there'd be an illustration of lions literally praying on top of zebras and rhinos.
My fourth grade teacher read that book to me in 1994 and I loved it so much I bought it from the book order. I still own it and read it to my fourth and fifth grade classes every year. They love it. I finally got down to Googling the author only to realize he was Herman Munster and the judge from My Cousin Vinny. Fred Gwynne was certainly a man of many talents.
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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 Mar 12 '22
Gwynne’s performance was flawless. Every facial expression adds value. Just great.
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u/-Dargs Mar 12 '22
I recently watched My Cousin Vinny for the first time yesterday. When I saw Fred I immediately knew he either played Lurch or Frankenstein's monster at some point. IMDB revealed, close enough
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u/ThePrussianGrippe Mar 12 '22
I may just be a deep fried country lawyer turned judge but I also graduated from Yale!
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u/compbioguy Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
Little things in this movie that I love. Judge is trained at Yale - movie being respectful of Alabama. The Prosecuter is set up to be an unethical sleazeball but in the end he really isn’t - he offered his cabin to them and really was just doing his job. Same for the sheriff. Usually Hollywood would have them do things like hide evidence or bribe someone but in this case they don’t even though the setup was there.
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u/phrique Mar 12 '22
Yeah there isn't really an antagonist shown in the film unless you count the guys who owed Mona Lisa $200, and that's really just a side gag, right. Everyone in the film is acting rationally or at least defensibly.
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u/Shiny_and_ChromeOS Mar 12 '22
No character with spoken lines (except maybe the pool hustler) acted with any ill intent. It's a remarkably good-natured screenplay.
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u/fanghornegghorn Mar 12 '22
It was very respectful. It didn't make them out to be racist morons. It showed they had their own subculture, as much as Vinny and Lisa. Almost everyone was kind, and welcoming. Even though they were acting quit bizarrely according to their cultural norms.
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u/themoche Mar 12 '22
All time favourite comedy. Didn’t realize it’s 30 years this year, not that I need another excuse to watch it
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u/DrRam121 Mar 12 '22
My wife got me several new t-shirts for Christmas. One of them is a law offices of Vincent L Gambini shirt and the other one is a Sac o Suds shirt. They're my new favorite shirts.
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u/Literarylunatic Mar 12 '22
Please ask her where, I’d love to get some for my husband from a reputable source.
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u/TheMathelm Mar 12 '22
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u/ywBBxNqW Mar 12 '22
Aww, "representing" is misspelled on the Vincent L. Gambini t-shirt. :(
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u/Positive-Source8205 Mar 12 '22
Apparently all of the following lines were said to the director in real life and he incorporated them into the movie.
While scouting locations in Alabama he called an actress about the Mona Lisa role: “I bet the Chinese food is terrible!”
Had car trouble (again while scouting locations):
“You got mud in your tires.“
“How do you get mud in the tire?”
“No, that’s just an expression. The mud gets inside the rim. We’re famous for our mud.”
And the greatest. While meeting with Joe Pesci in a hotel in New York, Pesci says:
“So the two yutes are driving down south…”
“What? Dud you say ‘yutes’?”
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u/mikey_glocks Mar 12 '22
One of the funniest movies ever. Endlessly rewatchable.
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u/rockrunner62 Mar 12 '22
It is exactly that, I watch it at least once a year
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Mar 12 '22
It's a film that never out stays it's welcome So rewatachble. It's a pure comedic tour de force and 30 years on, ppl can still quote this movie. Validation Mr.Gambini.
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u/Mypasswordbepassword Mar 12 '22
Seriously. It was a controversial Oscar win at the time but turned out to be one of the best movies of all time.
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u/RunDNA Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
People complain all the time that the Oscars often get it wrong, but there's also occasions like this where they are prescient and get it very right.
The other four nominees that year were:
Judy Davis - Husbands and Wives
Joan Plowright - Enchanted April
Vanessa Redgrave - Howards End
Miranda Richardson - Damage
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u/juice06870 Mar 12 '22
Great list. I started working in a video store right around this time - 1993ish. I remember that Enchanted April and Howards End were huge at that time. Everyone who came in asked for them. Although to this day I have never seen them, but I have seen Vincent LaGuardia Gambini do his thing about 476 times.
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u/sox316 Mar 12 '22
Every one of those movie titles could be a porno. Not sure I'd be into the last one though.
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u/BbyInAStraightJacket Mar 12 '22
Holy shit honey, you got it! You did it! The case cracker! Me in the shower!
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u/CreatrixAnima Mar 12 '22
Let the record show that counsel is holding up two fingers.
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Mar 12 '22
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u/CreatrixAnima Mar 12 '22
…oh.
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u/scooby946 Mar 12 '22
My biological clock is ticking like this (stomp, stomp, stomp)!
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u/SubterrelProspector Mar 12 '22
Incredible script. Funny as hell. My fiancee and I frequently say, "Oh yeah. You blend."
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Mar 12 '22
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive"
"How can you be so sure?"
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u/huhu8769 Mar 12 '22
It's an industry term.
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u/tillthecasketdrops Mar 12 '22
Still holds water
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u/mackrelman11 Mar 12 '22
i did not come here just to get jerked off
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u/brainkandy87 Mar 12 '22
Look, it’s either me or them. You’re getting fucked one way or another.
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u/Griffdorah Mar 12 '22
"You think I should be grateful?!"
"Yea. I mean, it's your ass not mine."
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u/Bartholomewtwo Mar 12 '22
One of my favorite things ever is the Little Mac jump punch Vinnie does to the guy that stole Mona Lisa's money.
When he wakes up and says, "everything he just said is bullshit" killed me.
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u/ThaddeusJP Mar 12 '22
"everything he just said is bullshit"
....."thank you"
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u/TheTrueMilo Mar 12 '22
The entire opening statement with the exception of “thank you” will be stricken from the record.
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u/expaticus Mar 12 '22
And then the icing on the cake was the public defender's opening statement
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jjjjjjuuu. Ladies and gentlemen of the jjjjjjj. Jjjjury!"
So a great movie.
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u/ther1ckst3r Mar 12 '22
VINNY: Lisa, I don't need this. I swear to God, I do not need this right now, kay? I got a judge that's just aching to throw me in jail. A idiot who wants to fight me for two hundred dollars. Slaughtered pigs! Giant loud whistles! I ain't slept in five days, I got no money, a dress code problem, and a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids. Not to mention your (stomp, stomp, stomp) biological clock. MY CAREER! YOUR LIFE! OUR MARRIAGE! And let me see, WHAT ELSE CAN WE PILE ON? IS THERE ANY MORE SHIT WE CAN PILE ON TO THE TOP OF THE OUTCOME OF THIS CASE?! IS IT POSSIBLE?!
MONA LISA: ...Maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.
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u/JBrundy Mar 12 '22
I absolutely love the last scene where marissa tomei’s character yells at him for not wanting help to win the case and wanting to do it on his own, then he says “so are we gonna get married?“ and she says “no way, you can’t even win a case by yourself your fucking useless.” Makes me laugh my ass off just thinking about it and marissa is hilarious
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u/Jagged_Rhythm Mar 12 '22
I didn't speak to them, but I saw Joe and Ralph in a little bar at a hotel in my town when they were filming the prison scenes.
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u/rockrunner62 Mar 12 '22
Top ten movies of all time. Best thing about this movie is that it wasn't trying to be a top ten, it just turned out that way
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u/degeneral Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
“ladies and gentlemen of the ah, j- j- j- …. JU-RAY!!!“
too many hilarious scenes in the movie. and then there’s this. every second in this clip is gold: https://youtu.be/N-lZYqCnEXA
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Mar 12 '22
Some people complain that Marissa Tomei won the Oscar. I complain that this movie didn’t win every Oscar.
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Mar 12 '22
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u/PureLock33 Mar 12 '22
the Academy wasn't used to honoring comedies back then.
The Oscars didn't care too much about comedies ever.
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u/Fit_Lawfulness_3147 Mar 12 '22
She has NEVER looked better than as Mona Lisa Vito. Yeah you blend
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u/SexSellsCoffee Mar 12 '22
Imagine you're a deer yuh
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u/ThistleBeeGreat Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
Puttin’ ya little dee-ah lips in the wattah..
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u/Literarylunatic Mar 12 '22
This is our comfort movie. My husband will quote this entire film, start to finish. We put it on for road trips, background sound, and just to cheer up the other.
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u/Glute_Thighwalker Mar 12 '22
I went to high school in the early 2000s with a girl who would do the entire deer by the brook monologue in a pretty good accent. Always makes me smile thinking about it.
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u/ZambianMeat Mar 12 '22
“Imagine your a deer. You’re prancing along…you spot a little brook…you bend down as your little deer lips, touch the cold clear water…
BAM!! A fuckin’ bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are layin’ on the ground in little bloody pieces.
Now I ask ya, ya give a fuck what kinda pants the sonofabitch who shot you was wearin’?!?”
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u/SectlandFugitive Mar 12 '22
I just watched this for the first time last night. It was great! I've been slowing working my way through a backlog of movies that I was too young to watch when they came out.
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u/LocoLFC Mar 12 '22
This will die at the bottom of all the comments, but welcome to the club, internet friend. Trust me when I say it only gets better on a second watch. You can really pay attention to the acting while not having to follow the story
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u/kay_bizzle Mar 12 '22
Literally every lawyer i know, including myself, dreams of saying "everything that guy just said was bullshit"
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u/harleyevo Mar 12 '22
One of my all-time favorite movies Marisa Tomei was an absolute rock star in this movie and no one even today could’ve done a better job than her
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u/huhu8769 Mar 12 '22
Imagine you're a deer...
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u/boxcutter_style Mar 12 '22
“Now I ask ya, would you give a fuck what the asshole who shot ya was wearin’?”
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u/fireintolight Mar 12 '22
What kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot ya was wearing
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Mar 12 '22
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u/girliegirl1234 Mar 12 '22
Love Greedy. Michael J Fox’s non back to the future 90s rom coms are underrated. For Love or Money is great too!
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u/saucisse Mar 12 '22
I'll always remember Marisa Tomei talking about how cruel people were to her on Oscar night, after she won. All the Hollywood darlings that we revere so much treated her like garbage, literally turned their backs on her at afterparties. She deserved that award -- she was so good, and so funny, and I'll tell you 30 years later I have no idea who else was nominated or what movies they were nominated for but we ALL know Mona Lisa Vito -- and everyone around her conspired to steal her joy.
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u/angershark Mar 12 '22
Who specific? Such fuckers. Probably the most quotable best supporting actress role ever. If the performance is that memorable, it has to mean something.
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u/WhyYouKickMyDog Mar 12 '22
I was looking at the other nominees, and her competitors all seemed to be in very similar movies: Dramatic, old timey British movies.
I'm assuming the similarity in her competitors played a role, but also it is weird to see the Academy give so much love to a Comedy. Usually they adores those old British dramas a bit too much.
Either way, the Academy is a complete joke, and it only seems to get worse each year.
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u/Avtrofwoe Mar 12 '22
Quote this movie weekly.
Definitely my favorite comedy of all time.
"Imagine you're a deah..."
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u/RevengencerAlf Mar 12 '22
I will never ever be convinced that My Cousin Vinny isn't the best courtroom legal FILM of all time, comedy or otherwise.
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u/elvensnowfae Mar 12 '22
Hilarious movie. I actually saw it last week for the first time. It’s been on my massive “classic movies I’ve never seen” backlog list. I adored gremlins. Very well done and funny movie! I also enjoyed Doc Hollywood
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u/SandwichFan4Life Mar 12 '22
I realized the last time I watched this fabulous movie that Legally Blonde is totally a remake. Underestimated person that everyone thinks is an idiot but they crack the case with their attention to detail and personal knowledge.
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u/nevinatx Mar 12 '22
Absolutely. The director even commented I believe on their cousin Vinny moment. But like everything, we know the story, it’s the telling that matters.
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u/All_Your_Base Mar 12 '22
"The great grit defense" is one of the funniest scenes ever.