Depending on who you ask, the fact that comedies rarely win at the Academy Awards is either an indictment on how predictable the Oscars are or simply proof that making people laugh doesn’t necessarily make a great film. So, when a comedy does manage to net itself or one of its stars cinema’s highest award, you know it’s a good watch. Enter the brilliant Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei ’90s classic My Cousin Vinny.
Despite being the vehicle with which Tomei won the big prize, the film often gets left out of the conversation when it comes to great comedies from the era. But now, it seems that the internet is granting the comedy some deserved recognition, ranking it above the equally iconic Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
Like so many online arguments (both light-hearted and depressingly aggressive), the battle between the two films began on Twitter. However, netizens who remain on Elon Musk’s hellsite were pretty clear about which one they favored, leaning so heavily toward the Pesci film that it ended up trending on the site. With that said, the balance was tipped by one particularly popular account throwing its weight behind the comedy — a fan account for Jersey Boys the Musical.
My Cousin Vinny stars Pesci as the eponymous character, a mechanic/out of practice (well, never practiced) lawyer from New York who is sent to the Deep South to help his cousin (the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio) get out of a mistaken homicide charge. He brings along his whipsmart fiancée Mona Lisa (Tomei). The film was praised for its accurate depiction of courtroom procedure, which sounds dull but is the basis of a lot of the laughs. The main reason it’s such a great watch, though, is Tomei and Pesci’s undeniable on-screen chemistry, both as lovers and sparring partners. After all, there’s a reason she won that Oscar.
With that said, Murray’s Groundhog Day (about a man who has to keep reliving the same day over and over again) currently has a slightly higher rating on RT (94 percent to Vinny‘s 87). Back in the early ’90s, when both were released, they both were given mostly good reviews with some poor ones thrown in, although overall were critical and commercial successes. It’s a close call, no matter what Twitter (and myself, as it turns out) thinks.
Whether you prefer seeing Murray kill himself in increasingly bizarre ways, or watching Pesci muddle his way through court proceedings under the eye of a very unfriendly judge, in the end both films are worth revisiting for the laughs.