Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / My Cousin Vinny (1992) - Jonathan Lynn | Houselights #277

Transcript

My Cousin Vinny (1992) - Jonathan Lynn | Houselights #277 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to House Lights here on the Nerd Party Network,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: a podcast that broadly looks at the works of directors
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: by different decades, different styles, and different influences. And we
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: are here in the House of Lynn, Jonathan Lynn in
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: specific where we are looking today at his classic nineteen
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: ninety two comedy My Cousin Vinnie, a movie known by
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: reputation even if you've never seen it before. I am
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the presiding judge, John Mills, and I am joined by
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the two lawyers presenting the case for My Cousin Vinny,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: which is the New York lawyer who has a questionable background,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Darren Moser, and the down South lawyer who has an
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: end with the FBI for a third act surprise, Tristan Riddell. Gentlemen,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we all three come to this as big fans of Clue,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and this is directed by Jonathan Lynn, so we will
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: explore today as to whether he continues his winning streak
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: with My Cousin Vinnie or gets a guilty verdict for
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: not being as righteous as the first film we looked at.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: So this is unbelievably my first time watching My Cousin Vinnie.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I have known this movie by reputation for decades. I
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: had friends who saw it at the time. It was
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: not a principled stand where I didn't want to go
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: see my cousin Vinnie. It's just a movie that eventually,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: when it fell off, I felt I had seen all
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of the jokes from it by a certain point, and
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I knew Marissa Tomay had won the Best Supporting Actress
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: oscar for it. But Tristan, I know you also didn't
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: see it before this viewing. But Darren, you did. When
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: did you first encounter my cousin Vinnie?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Like, were was it?
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I mean it was obviously on video. I know you
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: weren't going to see this in the theater.
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: No, this was literally like a month ago. I sat down,
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: I watched this. Okay, it is I have watched it,
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: but it was fairly recently.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: That's kind of a cheat.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: Come on, man, I'm allowed to watch movies that aren't
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: in the house light lineup.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: No, of course, you're allowed to watch movies that aren't
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: in the house lights lineup. But that is one hell
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of a synchronicity right there. So essentially we're all new
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: my cousin Vinnie. So all right, then, I mean, what
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: did you know about it? Had you seen lots of
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: clips before? Was it just one clip in particular that
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: sold you on it? And why did it take you
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: so long to see it?
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah? I mean, especially nowadays with internet shorts, where every
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: single movie seems to be chopped up and playing just
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: the best clips. That's how sometimes I get inspired to
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: watch something. So the but the the main clip that
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: I was familiar with was the you know fifty seven
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: Chevy timing belt, you know scene with Melissa Tomay where
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: she's like, oh, this is you know bs question because
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: it doesn't actually exist, and you know, she's just putting
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: her foot down and Vinnie's just sitting back there going
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: watch this. So that's the scene I knew. But yeah,
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: this was definitely a missing frame for me that I
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: was really looking forward to watching. You know, I love
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: fred Gwynn. It's just a I love seeing him in this.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: I love the monsters and seeing him in this just
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: I want more. I want I want, like just follow
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: him through the whole movie. I know he's not the
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: main character, I don't care. I want more food Gwinn.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: But yeah, so one scene I knew, but I knew
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: I was in for a good.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Time, Tristan, the same question to you, like how much
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: of this movie had you seen before you win it,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: like you're watching this movie for the first time, where
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: you like, I saw a quarter of this, I saw
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: two scenes from it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: I think I've seen a good portion of this actually
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: in retrospect because of tbs, like old school TVs. Yeah,
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: like you guys, like people of a certain age know
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: what I'm talking about. Like this was playing all the
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: time on old school TVs. And I think my mom
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: really wanted to watch this because of Fred Quinn and
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: the Munsters. She's like, oh, this is his last film,
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: we need to watch this. And so really, the only
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: memory I had of this movie was the grit scene,
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: the grits scene where he says, He's like, are these
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: magic grits? Did you get these from a giant on
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: a beanstalk?
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Like that was the only scene that I had in
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: memory of this movie. And when I saw it again,
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, yeah, I've seen this before, but
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: at least, but that's the only one that I remember
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: one hundred percent see for.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Me, the only bit, I mean, it drilled into your
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: brain at the time, and for my whole life basically
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: has been what's a ute? Right, that whole thing making
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: fun of the New York accent I'd seen, of course,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, you blend those little snippets.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I've seen plenty of.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I think it's a testament to the movie that it
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: can still be referenced this many years later. But my question,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: just right out of the gate, because I know how
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: I feel about it, is, you know, Tristan, this is
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: a two hour comedy.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I've often come from the perspective that the faster you
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: tell the joke, the better. That the longer you take
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: to tell the joke, the harder it is to sell it.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: I remember a very famous line from an instructor of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: mine back in college, where it was like, don't let
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: planes land when you're telling a punchline, And what he
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: meant by was like, just don't take too long to
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: get there. So, I mean, Tristan, I'll throw it to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you first. Is this worthy of the full two hour run?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Did it have you laughing and engaged for the full
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: two hours or was there any part where you're like, oh, okay,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: we're repeating jokes or anything like that.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: I think we needed way more courtroom scenes, Like, if
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: you're going to fill the two hours, we need more
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: court room scenes, more hygiens, more Joe peshe doing what
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: he does in the courtroom, because I was actually surprised
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: at how long it took us to get to that
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: first courtroom and I barely can count the arraignment, and
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: so it's yeah, i'd say that it would be a
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: little I wouldn't say a little bit. I think it
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: would be a lot better if it was fifteen minutes shorter.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: If it was fifteen minutes shorter, we'd get to the
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: courtroom stuff sooner. You have a much tighter film.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Darren, same question to you.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it could be tighter. But I and
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: I agree with what you're saying about comedy where you
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: really want to keep it rolling. But in another in
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: kind of a macro view of the story, I like
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: how they do spend a nice little chunk of time,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: you know, establishing the stakes, because with courtrooms, drama not comedy.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Now a standing in a courtroom, if you don't understand
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: the stake involved, then the courtroom part doesn't work. Where
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: you're like, well, I don't know who this kid is,
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: I don't know why I should care if he's you know, thrown,
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: you know, in jail.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: So I liked.
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: I felt like that was kind of the balance that
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: they were having to strike, is Okay, well, we need
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: to spend enough time and we're also seeing the events
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: of the crime, but we need to see enough of
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: it to know that he's innocent and the plausible you know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: suspicion of the characters of the town, and then you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: we get Yeah. I'd say if there was anything that
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: could maybe be trimmed is when he's in jail from
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: the very beginning, like before Vinnie shows up. I get
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: it's you could tell with the writing they're like, Okay,
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: there's a moment where he says, I'm gonna call my
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: cousin Vinnie, like and then everything builds to that and
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: and we probably could have gotten there faster, just a
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: little bit, but it worked. So I'm not discounting the
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: amount of lead up we had to the courtroom, even
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: though Lectriston said, it is a good chunk into the movie.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: That's one of my favorite. Hey, that's the name of
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: the show when he says my cousin Vinny.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think from my perspective, there are a few cuts.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: This feels like, in all honesty, a ninety minute movie
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: that could have been stretched to an hour forty hour
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: forty five. Fine, but I think it overstays. It's welcome.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I think that the waking up with the different sounds
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: of a southern town bit gets a little bit stretched.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: As you know, it goes on a little bit too much.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I think that there is a whole character that you
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: could cut and the movie would not suffer for it
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: at all, and that's Austin Pendleton as the public Defender
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: because it goes nowhere. The entire purpose of the character
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: is just to introduce a public defender with a stutter,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and there's like no payoff because you know that the
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the uh, the stan Rothenstein, you know, jumps up at
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the end of the that one segment he goes, I
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: want to go back to my cousin Vinnie. And it
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: feels like it should have been much more of a
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: payoff of like, yeah, he's sticking with my cousin Vinnie,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and instead I was like, oh, well, well that was
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a pointless detour, then, wasn't it. And I know that
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I'm stating it really harshly, but it's like, if I
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: feel I can remove a whole character that no.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: Feel like, no, your joke is wrong in the least.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: It's like even back then, it was ghosh to make
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: fun of somebody with a stutter like that, especially professional.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: You know a professional who's struggling with a stutter, and
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: apparently that actor I really like him, Yeah, Austin, Yeah,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: he's great. He's a fantastic actor.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: And every time he shows up, I love it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: He actually had a stutter, and so he got typecast
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: as an actor with a stutter, and he didn't want
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: to do this, but because he was friends with the director,
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: he's like, Okay, fine, I'll do it. But I feel
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: like this is one of those where he should have
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: said no.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, even setting that aside, even if the
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: character didn't have the stutter, the character is still pointless.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Like I just I think the character could have been cut,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: and I think that's something you can do with the
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: script stage. It's impossible to cut him from the film
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the way that it's constructed, but he's within a hair's breadth.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: You could almost cut him entirely just with an editor's
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: blade and be done with it. But I do want
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: to focus more on some of the positive stuff, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I do want to focus on Marissa Tomay in this
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: role because Rex read rest in peace. Rex started the
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: rumor that Jack Palance or Polance. I don't want to
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: anger his ghosts. However, he wants to pronounce his last name,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: had misread Tomay's name on the nomination and said she
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: had won when she had not actually won. Now this
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: discounts the fact that Price Waterhouse Coopers, who verifies the results,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: was on hand and their protocol was not triggered. If
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: anybody remembers the controversy around Moonlight, yeah, we know that
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: such a protocol exists. I think that's the exact moment
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: where you know, you know what, have.
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: Hams coming out and stopping the show and changing it
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: like that is their job. They will wrong like, oh
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: it's embarrassing. We're not going to actually fix it.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: No, My definition of somebody who deserves an oscar for
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: performance is if I removed them from the film and
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: replace them with another actor or actress, then there is
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: there's something lost. And before I give my opinion, Darren,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I'll toss it to you. Does Marissa Tome bring that
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: energy to my cousin Vinnie? Do you think that this
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: movie is elevated because of her completely.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: I can't imagine, you know, single Vinnie driving out and
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: trying like there's nothing. She's the straight man to his comedy.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: But she also keeps him in his place. There's the
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: girlfriend dynamic, there's the intelligence, there's it's such a clever
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: character that makes everything Vinnie's putting up with funnier. I
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: think it would drastically narrow the scope of this movie
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: if she was not in it.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Tristan, I agree with what Darren's saying about the character there.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Do you think that Marissa Tomain specific elevates the character
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: as well to the point where you go, that's a
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: that is one humdinger of a performance that powers that
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: role and the film to an extent.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I'm not really uh. I really don't mean this in
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: a disrespectful way. I really don't like I don't think
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: it was a good bad performance. In fact, I think
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: it was a good performance. But the idea, like, when
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: I'm watching this, I because I know Marissa Tomey won
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: an Oscar, and I think Marsa Toma is a fantastic actress.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: But I had no idea it was for this movie.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: And after I watched it. I actually asked you just
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: like five minutes ago, you know, like what did she
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: win the Oscar for? And You're like, oh, this movie.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: And I'm like really, like, that's a huge surprise to
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: me because like when I see this, I don't think
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: Oscar level performance. And maybe it's because I'm biased towards,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: you know, dramas, like like the Academy is itself, you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: like a you know, like maybe I'm not giving comedy
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: enough credit. Like is she a great comedic actress? Yes?
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: Did she do fantastic in this role? Yes? Did she
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: improve the movie? Yes? Would it have been a lesser
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: movie if she wasn't in it? Absolutely? Was it Oscar worthy?
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: I don't think so. But I'm Schmucky the clown, So
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: you know my opinion doesn't matter in that regard. I
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: mean she got the Oscar and more power to her. Yeah, yeah,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: if that makes sense.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: No, I mean it makes sense.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: And something that we always talk about is, you know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: in the context of when the award was given, who
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: was the person up against, Like what was the field like?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: And so I'll revisit that she wins in the year
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that Judy Davis is nominated for Husbands and Wives. Joan
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Plowwright is nominated for Enchanted April. I have no memory
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: of these films, much less never having seen them. So,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: you know, Vanessa Redgrave in Howard's End, which was merchant Ivory,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I think like that that was the hotness for a
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: few years. And Miranda Richardson in Damage with Jeremy Irons
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: and Juliette Binoche. I can't give an opinion about any
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: That makes a lot of sense, Like that does make
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: it's who is up against.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: And I think that regardless of all of that, I
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: do think that this is a really strong performance, and
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: a strong performance specifically in the sense that I think
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that TomEE inhabits this character so completely that I forget
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I'm watching Marissa Tomey.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Even though it's a comedy. It's easy in.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: A drama when you have like Christian Bale lose you know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: two hundred pounds, so he's on the point of death.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: He doesn't look like himself. I'm like, I can't see
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Christian Bale in that well, yeah, his own mother can't
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: see him in that role. But Marisa tome without putting
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: herself through anything like that, puts on some mannerisms, puts
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: a little streak of white hair dye in her hair
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: and dresses, you know, and puts on the accent. I'm like,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I don't see Marissa Tome. I see that character on screen.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: So by that standard, I think this is a an
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: A ward worthy performance because that's transformative.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: She's Mona Lisa Vida.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: You know, right, yeah, I don't see anybody else up there. Now,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I mean this was a weird year to begin with,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: because like al Pacino won the Best Actor for a
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Scent of a Woman, which was really kind of a
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: makeup Oscar, while Denzel Washington lost for his role in
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Malcolm X. And it's like, huh interesting, Like it was
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: just it was a weird year at the Oscars. But
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: you know, I think to May deserved it definitely. Now
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: with my cousin Vinnie PESHI was not the first choice.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Do you, gentlemen, know who the first choice was? Did
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: you do your reading ahead of time for who the
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: first choice was?
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: The first choice?
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: No?
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I read a lot of names, but first choice not.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: Was it Danny de Vito?
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: No?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: The studio originally wanted somebody who was for a brief,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: brief moment in Time, a really caustic comedian. Oh yes, yeah, okay,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I do remember Andrew dice Clay, which I can guarantee
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: you that my cousin Vinnie would not be the beloved
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: classic that it is if Andrew dice Clay had been
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: in the starring role.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Not there's a lot of chance, and I think foxing
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: the right decision win. Oh yes, he had a failed
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: movie before this. I can't I can't.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Remember Adventures of Ford Fairlane, which I saw in the
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: movie theater. I was sorry for you. I was one
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: of the four people who saw in the movie they
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: put Robert England. Freddy Krueger himself was in the movie,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: and I was like, Okay, I'm kind of committed here.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: So I went to go see to support my buddy
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: for being Freddie, but not Freddie.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: So I will say.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: That my memory of the Adventures of Ford Fairline Ford
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Fairlane was that it's not the worst movie I've ever seen.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: But as you both can attest, I have a special
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: fetist for watching terrible movies, so I'm skewed in terms
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: of what's truly awful. So that brings us to Joe Peshi.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Though Peschi's known for playing the mobster characters. He's already
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: had his turn in Goodfellas by this point, he's been
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: in Raging Bull. He's been a ton of Scorsese films.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Darren Is, this is this Pesci's role from Open Clothes
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: beginning to finish. Did they find the perfect cousin Vinnie?
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: I think they did. I mean when he took on
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: the role, it's the kind of role where I think
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: it was like eighty percent on the page and then
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: twenty percent, like it's just Joe Peshi and that like
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: rounded out a lot of little corners. Just the way
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: he'll like say something, or the way he'll look at something,
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: or just the mannerisms of Joe Peshi like that that
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: became Vinnie, and we see those mannerisms in other movies
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: he does and in ways he reacts to people, his
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: little temper and things like that. So yeah, I think
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: they struck gold where you have this actor do this
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: great performance. But also it just fits into kind of
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: the box you need because he's he needs to be
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: kind of like the likable jerk, but he's also really prideful.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: Like that's the thing I keep looking at in this movie.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: From you know Mana Lisa to Vinnie to many of
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: the main characters, like they actually have a nice little
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: chunk of depth like they they they're kind of multifaceted.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: Like I'm not getting not going over into the drama category,
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: but there is something there and it just makes it
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: a more enjoyable film.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that Peschi is he's doing a riff
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: on himself in a lot of ways. Uh, but it
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: works for this role in specific because I think that,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: like with Breaking Bad, you know when you have an
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: actor come in who has a certain amount of cachet
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: from a role that he's really well known for. And
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Brian Cranston was beloved as the dad on Malcolm in
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: the Middle, so when he comes in, there's sort of
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: good will built up with a knowledge of him as
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: the silly, good natured dad, so that his turn, like
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: you unwittingly put your contextual knowledge in there and it helps.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: And I think with Peshi, the hot headed, stereotypical Brooklyn
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Italian is built into your brain when you come in
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: to watch my cousin Vinnie, and so he behaves this
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: way and you're like, well, yeah, that's that's how this
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: that's how this character should like he helped write the
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: stereotype basically, and so yeah, it plays perfectly well for
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: you know, for what it's trying to accomplish. But obviously
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: there are a lot more pieces to a movie than
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: just the performances, and one of those things is going
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: to be the cinematography, the shot selection, the way the
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: camera moves. So, Tristan, do you see anything special about
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: this or is this just is this just you know,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Yeoman's work. They put it together and it's just shot
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: and we're done.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: This was an exhausting photographed film. It was so basic,
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: it was so one two one two one two. It
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: was really annoying. And then when it started to get inventive,
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: it started doing a dreamlike floaty Dutch ang a couple
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: of times for no reason, and then they just abandoned
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: it in the last hour. So like in the first
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: hour of the film, you have like three or four
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: shots where you just have this random Dutch and I
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: don't know if it was trying to show people lying
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: or people in a weird state. I'm not quite sure
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: what motif they were trying to go for. But no,
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: I hated the cinematography in this. Darren did you feel
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: the same way.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean the the main shots that I come
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: to memory is the wake up moments when he's at
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: night and like the outside wakes him up, and that's
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: usually that makes the most sense for those weird shots
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: because it's like down at him in the bed and
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: it's just supposed to You're supposed to be uncomfortable, like
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: he's uncomfortable, So that makes sense. But yeah, like Tristan said,
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: there are some other Dutch shots where sure you could
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: not level the camera if you want, but it's it's
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: a courtroom movie. It's a it's a one to two one.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: I don't know what you're really gonna do in the courtroom.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Once you're there, that's where you're gonna spice it up.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: I think you need to watch then if you want
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: to find ways to spice up the courtroom with cinematography.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I think I think there were, Yeah, there there were definitely, Crane, Yes,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Danny Crane, there are definitely opportunities that they miss. I
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: think it's what got under my skin wasn't just the
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: shot selection. It was the lighting was so painfully obvious,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: like it it never played like a real environment for me,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: even when they were outside and when they were in
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: real environments.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Nothing felt real to me in this movie.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: It basically felt like, uh, you know, a TV movie
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: of the time. Now, what's interesting is this cinematographer went
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: on to work with David Lynch on Lost Highway and
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Moholland Drive. And I'm one of the few people that
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: hate Smulholland Drive, so don't come at me. And he
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: also worked on Twin Peaks the Return, which I believe
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: is Tristan's favorite television show of all time. And I
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: think that you can see I think that it plays
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: well with with Lynch because Lynch has a very specific style,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: and you know, I think the cinematographer slides into that.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: But what I really want to do to just sort
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: of like really get under Tristan's skin is can you
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: guess what nineteen ninety seven movie he shot that was
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: directed by Wes Craven. Oh, that would be Scream two,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: so you know, and he also was the cinematographer on
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Scream three, So there you go. I think Lynn just
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: didn't care. Yeah, like, I think he just didn't care.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: He was there and it was like, yeah, just whatever.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: But what's shocking to me about that is he obviously
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: cared with Clue, because remember we're talking about Clue and
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: we're like, the way the shots were done was great,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and we could navigate our way through that entire house.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I never get a sense of place with the town.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Where is what hotel in relation to what other place?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Like things are just randomly put together, which then goes
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: into the editing. Now, Stephen Rivkin, who was the editor
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: for this, also worked on Avatar as well as the
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Pirates of the Caribbean film series. So in terms of
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: the editing, I've already trashed I guess the macro by
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: saying this is a ninety minute movie stretch to two hours.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: But was there anything that stood out as good to you, Darren,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: like in the micro level or the macro level for
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: the editing, Well, one other.
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: Thing I'll defend a bit. I mean, you're not wrong
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: with Clue and the way that there's a lot of
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: care in it. But this is a lower budget than Clue.
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: Blue is fifteen million, This is eleven million, So this
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: was a very low budget movie with few locations, you know,
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: few people, and kind of that roster of I'm not
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: gonna say B level actors, but like you see all
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: the actors around, and you're like, oh, I don't quite
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: remember your name, but I know I've seen you in
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: a lot of things that I really enjoyed. But yeah,
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: as far as the editing, I mean, we've we've said
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: a bit about the runtime. I think, like in most comedies,
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: you're building to that big punchline, and it's tricky because
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: it kind of takes us a while to figure out
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: what that punchline is. You'd think it'd be winning the case,
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: and it kind of is, but it's actually him getting
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: exposed as a fake lawyer, which is kind of just
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: after the case is won. So it's an interesting timing
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: of your You're crescendoing with we won, and then it's like,
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: oh and we got.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: To get out.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: Like we joke about after the you know, movie being done,
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: you want to end the movie as fast as possible,
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: you know, once you have the climax, once the climax
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: is done. But yeah, this is not quite done because
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: we still have a major plot point to resolve, which
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: is you know, Fred Quinn chasing him down or sorry
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: the judge.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I you know, let's let's go on that for
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: a second. It's I would stop short of saying clever,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: but it's definitely they keep it consistent because the joke
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: goes through the movie, so that him running away works,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: you know, like it does give a reason to wrap
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: it up as quickly as possible without you know, lingering
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: on anything. But that's another joke where I think it's
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: it needed a restructuring at the script level. I think
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: you could have gotten away with that whole thing because
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: he is a lawyer. He's just not a very experienced lawyer.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: He's not a litigator, right, and so it's a lawyer.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: He's not he passed the bar, he's just not an
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: experienced litigator, right, And so it's like it's one of
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: those things where I mean, maybe there's some sort of
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: technical legal thing that I'm not plugging into, but if anything,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: it just shows that Vinnie's pathological liar to try to
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: cover his own ass, in which case, you know, it's like,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: well then I mean maybe that does mean he's a
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: good lawyer. I don't know, but it does seem like
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the whole thing is a like I think they introduced
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: the idea of it and then wrote themselves into a
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: corner and they were like, well, okay, well we can
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: use it as an excuse not to have a heartfelt
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: hug and speech at the end of the movie and
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: just get him out of Dodge. Speaking of getting him
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: out of Dodge, did you gentlemen know that there were
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: actually books extending the universe of My Cousin Vinnie?
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, so yes, I found When I found out about that,
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: I got pretty excited. Did they actually happen or were
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: they just attempted?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it says.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, Lawrence Kelter began a My Cousin Vinnie
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: novel series with Back to Brooklyn, which is intended to
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: be in the spirit of the thin Man series. The
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: settings updated to contemporary times and it depicts the further
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: cases of Vinnie Gambini and with Mona Lisa operating as
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: his investigator, and he wrote an additional novelization of My
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Cousin Vinnie alongside the first sequel. A third book was
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: published in August twenty twenty, called Wing End of Prayer.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: So there's actually a whole expanded universe.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: I do. I kind of want to read those.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: And also in nineteen ninety eight, Vincent La Guardia Gambini
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Sings Just for You was released with.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Joe Pesci leading the album on there.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, this movie has a reputation that I
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: think you can already understand. I'm having a little trouble
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: plugging into because it's just there are a lot of
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: movies from the nineteen nineties where I understand the reputation
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: extending this far in. But help me out, Darren, Am
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I not latching onto? Is it just that when he
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: orders his Southern breakfast and they deliver it and he's
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: being picky about it, I'm looking at him, going, Okay, listen,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: you're used to eating in diners in Brooklyn. They're filthier
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: than this, and number two, you eat your grits and
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: you'd be grateful for him because they're delicious. Am I
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: just biased because of that scene?
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: I mean, maybe there's always a bias there, but now
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: I think at its core it's a it's nineteen ninety two,
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: You're like, I mean, guys, I don't know if you've
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: looked at the stats of the movies we cover here
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: on House Lights, but the nineties win by a mile.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: We watched so many nineties movies, Yes, a country mile
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: and you know it this I could tell you this
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: was in the mid nineties if I even didn't know
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: it when it was like if I going in blind,
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: just pop this in because it's the kind of thing where,
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: like I was saying, you kind of recognize the secondary
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: actors and you saw them in the one thing, but
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: you don't. No, there's no IMDb. You got to just
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: go to blockbooks or and ask a friend who that
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: is and what movie they were in, or talk about
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: it because you don't know. And it's just but it's
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: part of its charm. It's a charming movie. It's it's funny,
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: your characters are all offbeat and just, and it's a
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: rooting it's a rooting for the underdog movie. So you
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: guys are absolutely right, And a lot of these kind
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: of sharp corners and and things that could be worked out,
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: could be polished. It could use a lot more of that,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: for sure. But I can definitely see why this became
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: a cult classic, where after home video release and decades
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: of you know, you know, Turner classic movies and and
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: all of that, that's why this still has staying power.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, So you would say that part of this is
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: that it just spent so long on cable that it
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: just sort of brainwashed people into believing that it was
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: great to a point, I the Christmas story effect, except
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: the Christmas story is freaking awesome.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: See look, look everyone, there's an example of a brainwashed individual.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: No no, no, you make comments like this, man, you're
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: out of arm's length again.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: You wouldn't say that you're still down here.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: No. But but digging into that for a second, I
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: fully believe with Christmas movies and things like that, I
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: think Cousin Vinnie also falls into that category. It A
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: big chunk of that is did you grow up on it?
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: Like I did not grow up on a Christmas story.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: It was not one that was in rotation, and so
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: I could take or leave it. I don't think it's
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: a terrible film. I just have zero attachment to it.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: And I think that's what Tristan is, you know, inferring
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: in his dig But I think the same thing kind
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: of with Cousin Vinnie. Like a lot of people have
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: that kind of nostalgia lens on it because they saw
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: it on cable TV so much, or I mean there
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: wasn't like you know, courtroom seeing a muss time of
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: year where we watch all these movies obviously like Christmas,
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: but the cable did the same for yourself. Okay, okay,
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: you watch all those courtroom dramas on that third Thursday
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: of Neeptember.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: I actually, in my research I found out that a
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: lot of people like this movie because of the accuracy
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: of the courtroom scenes, which I find ruhilarious.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: Well, didn't Lynn do what doesn't he have a like
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: a loyally background or something like that, or was it
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: the screen writer?
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: He studied law in Cambridge, as we talked about last week.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: That's kind of crazy. That is kind of crazy, So
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: maybe maybe there is something there to be Like Okay,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: How we got the gig?
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, but my my follow up question, because you
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: guys know, I have a huge blind spot with this
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: huge blind spot being a gen x er who was
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: you know, raised on in the wild in terms of
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: video car days and stuff like that, this is rated R.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Can plain to me why it's rated R? Can anybody language?
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: Language? The language there's lots of words and gds and.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Like totally like almost didn't even hear them, Like just.
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: I think you're just we're so used to R being
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: like blood and violence and sex.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Like a lot of this very graphic sex.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, this is straight up language, are I guess That's
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: what I guess.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: That's why I'm blind to it.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: Like I I know the language was used, but it's
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: one of those things where it's like it's no different
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: than my kid hearing me in the car when we're
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: in a traffic jam or something like that.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: So I don't know. No, this this movie easily could
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: have been PG, honestly, like yeah, yeah, yeah, they may.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: Take out the language. It could have been language, But
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: I also don't think it. Webably would have sold as
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: well as a PG. You know, oh, do you want
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: to see the PG Joe Pesci Courtroom movie?
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: True, norue. But at the same time, you could have
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: made it PG thirteen and probably winden the audience.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: One f bomb at the right time.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: I mean, it made sixty four million off eleven million budget.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: Which who is usually successful. That's a very good.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: This was the most successful Joe Peshy movie where he
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: was the lead. I think at the time.
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: Say, you got to clarify that because he was also
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: at Home Alone, which did really good.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: That was only Yeah, you know, while filming this, he
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: won the oscar for good Fellas. He actually brought it.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: That's right, which which is? Which is kind of crazy
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: on his table in the cars. Hey guys, check this out.
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: Check it out. You know.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: I do want to take a moment, though, to give
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of recognition to fred Gwynn, because I really
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: think that Fred Gwinn brings that sort of believable you know,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I hate the word gravitas, so I'm not going to
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: use it, but he.
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: Believes the anchor anchors a real role.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: He's a very believable antagonist because he's not mean, and
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: he doesn't have a problem with Vinnie because he's from
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: New York. He is simply saying to a lawyer, Listen,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know you. The other lawyers I work with
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: know how I run my courtroom, and you'd better play
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: by my rules. And he's just a believable, hard ass judge.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: And it's like, I'm so glad that you brought that up.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Because he's not a villain. He's the antagonist. He's the
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: losing force.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: There's a big difference between those two things. And like
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Lane Smith and Bruce McGill as Jim Trotter and the
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: sheriff early, they're just doing their jobs. M h. And
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, I mean the sheriff is doing it poorly,
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: but he's just it's not out of malice. And same
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: with the judge. And so I really like that about
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: this movie is that there's no there's no mustache swirlers.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: There's no one who knows that the boys are innocent
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: and you're gonna get them anyway, you know, none of that.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: It's just none of this.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: We can send him message to those Northerners driving through
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: our town.
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah right, no corporate law like, oh, we're gonna just
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: screw over these kids' lives. Like that's gonna be like
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: our goal. Like no, there's no malice. It's just we
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: believe that they're guilty and look at all this evidence.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: Like but yeah, it's a it's a refreshing court drama
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: because yeah, it's just how it's set up.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Now, I I have a favorite joke in this I'll
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: go first, but I want us to say what our
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: favorite joke is. My favorite joke, believe it or not,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: is when he uses the tape measure to test the
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: witness's eyesight and he holds up two fingers and goes, now,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: how many figures am I holding up? And the judge
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: goes too, and he just gets this flustered thing. He's like, ah,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: would the witness please tell me? And and Fred Quinn
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: has this moment where he suddenly realizes he was just dumb.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: In the moment, it's just like, but it's the type
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: of mistake anybody would make.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: You can understand why he did it.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: I think it's I actually I had a legitimate laugh
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: at that moment.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: That was my favorite joke in the movie.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: There is a moment when my mom was having some
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: memory issues. It was passing. She's fine now, but we
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: had to take her to the hospital. We had to
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: take her to the er and the doctor is asking
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: her a whole bunch of questions and he's like, Okay,
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: how many kids do you have? And my dad says
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: she has two kids. I lean over to my dad
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: and I was like, who do you think they want
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: to answer that question exactly?
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: And it's always funny. So, Darren, what's your favorite joke
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: in the movie?
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: Hush It? I mean that one is a classic. I
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: love how I mean, not only is he saying too,
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: he like says it in a judge way of let
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: the record show, you know, please write out that the
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: witnesses that he's holding two figures up, and it's just
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: it's like, oh, it's the worst possible way he could
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: answer it.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: And on top of that, apparently like when he said
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: he's like, he's like now miss Riley, and apparently that
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: was Joe Peshi's addition to that line, like he beautiful,
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: perfectly done. Same with the utes. Actually utes is not
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: an ad lib. But what happened is is that when
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: Peshi was giving that speech or or like saying that
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: and he says utes, the director stopped him and said,
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: what on earth are you saying? Oh really? He says, oh,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: excuse me, you youths yes, And so they actually put
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: it into the script and had friend Gwynn say it
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: instead of instead of the director, that's beautiful. That's beautiful.
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: But your your favorite joke Darren in the movie.
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: You know, there's so many great lines. But it's an
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: interesting movie because I'm almost having trouble thinking of individual lines.
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: It's more like little tiny micro scenes like those are
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: the memories, Like I really like when he first shows
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: up in the terrible suit and he's just like he's like,
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: well it was this or you know, like I have
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: no I have no choice, and he's just laying out
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: his situation and yeah, so I again the I think
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: you you nailed like pretty much the funniest just single
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: quote in the in the movie. But all the other
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: ones are just these little micro scenes, like the Ford
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: timing belt one, like that's a that's a whole mantra.
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: You have to say the whole thing or you just
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: say bs question.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: I guess, well, but the thing is I like you
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: pointing out the suit thing because is that one was
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: very relatable because it's almost like a metajoke making fun
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: of the way New Yorkers always complain that places aren't
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: like New York, where he's like, right, there is no
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: twenty four hour cleaner here or one hour cleaner here
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: to take care of the things, because every time a
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: New Yorker goes somewhere, it's always something like, well, back home,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: I can get a bagel at one thirty in the
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: morning with no and it's like, well cool. The rest
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: of us sleep because we don't live in a dystopian
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: nightmare of concrete and steel. But like, I do love
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: that suit scene. Especially because the judge is like, are
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: you mocking me? And he's like, that's the part. No,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not. I have no choice. Yeah, yeah, that is
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: that great line, are you mocking me? Because he's talked
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: to him about, you know, the mud covered the first suit.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: But it's just like he comes in, You're like, oh,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: this is gonna be bad.
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: It's bad.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, but I can tell you. Also, it's a very
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: relatable thing talking about the suit. Uh, It's never happened
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: to me like this, but I think everybody who's ever
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: been in a relationship can understand that moment where you know,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: he pulls like the crowbar out of the trunk and
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: there's something in a plastic bag on top of it
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: for no apparent reason, and it flies out. In this case,
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: it's his suit, and he doesn't yell or anything. He's like,
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: what was it in the pag that was there? And
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh, that's soon I took to get dry clean,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: and it's just like, of course it is, of.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Course it was.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: Can we please talk about I know Hollywood has a
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: long history with this, but Joe Pesci is over twenty
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: years older than Marissa Tomey Marsa Tomey was twenty six
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: when this was filmed, twenty seven when it was released,
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: and they've been engaged for ten years. So she was
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: sixteen and seventeen when she got engaged with this thirty
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: seven year old man.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they never say what her age is on screens.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: So she's playing older.
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're not wrong. She could the character could be
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: played older, and he could be played younger. But you're
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: not wrong.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: With Joe pesshi by this and played younger. I'm sorry, John,
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: but like, yeah, yeah, played younger. That that's the key.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: There was anyone else really bothered by the very obvious
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: literal tape facelift that was going on with Joe Pesci.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: I don't know that it was tape.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: It was it was, it was well, it didn't look great.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: But I'll miss what I will fixate on as a
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: proud bald man. Is that wig really annoyed me through
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: the whole movie.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: Whole fake facelift. It was bad.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I personally was offended by the wig. I'm offended by
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: every every wig in t pay because embrace who you are, please, gentlemen,
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: embrace who you are. Did Captain Picard teach us? Nothing
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: as as a people the future will care, nobody will care.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: And uh, but that wig in particular. I look, we
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: don't we don't ever really talk about like costuming and
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: makeup on this show.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: But that was shameful.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: If I'd gotten the first set of dailies back, I'd
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: be like, Okay, no, no, hard no, we're stopping production.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: For a day.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: I'll cut what I need to from the film, but
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: we're getting a better wig for this man, because that
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: did not work at all.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: It was terrible, terrible. But Tristan, your favorite gag from
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: the movie.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: Probably the thing that I remember from the movie before
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: I saw all of it, was the grits scene. I
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: think it really showed how good of a lawyer he
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: could be and how his personality works. I'm glad that
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: they stopped it when he said, are these magic grits?
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: You know, because like a lesser movie would have just
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: let them go with that. But in a real case scenario,
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: that's when the prosecutor goes and says, oh, jeck shit.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Right now, before we give our final thoughts and ratings,
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: because we've mentioned them several times, both of you, gentlemen, have.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: Had grits before.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, oh, of course, and we all.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Agree that they're actually magnificent and Joe Peshi turning up
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: his nose at them is unfathomable.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Right. Well, there was a lot of things like where
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: they tried to make them fish out of water and
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: it didn't quite work, like with the grits. I mean,
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: come on, like, you're from New York, and grits, when
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: prepared a certain way, at least prepared in that way,
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: was the most plain looking thing. And he said that
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: it was corn based. It's not like he said. It
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: was anchovies mixed in with liver, which you would actually
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: find at a deli in New York. And also had locks.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, locks on a cream cheese bagel. Yeah, delicious.
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: But really, what I'm what I'm trying to say is
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: like the whole oh it's too loud. You're from Brooklyn, right, yes.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: Right, yeah, you sound like the l train rolling by
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: or you know.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: Although although I will give them the credit that the
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: best night sleep that he gets is when there's a
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: prison riot going on.
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: It's a different kind of noise.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I do.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: I do have to give him that. And also one
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: of my favorite stories to tell is when my now
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: wife then girlfriend came to say at my p parent's
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: place for the first time. Because there's always this Jork
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: joke that she's from northern Illinois. I'm from central Illinois.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: Anything south of I eighty is the south to somebody
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: who's from northern Illinois, the Chicago Land area, and that's
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: where I was born and raised. And so she stayed
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: there and for the first night, the first morning after
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: staying the night, I go in and wake her up
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: and she's just she looks like she's in terror. And
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: I'm like, what's wrong. She's like, what's that noise out there?
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: I'm like, Oh, it's it's nature. Yeah right, yeah, yeah,
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: all right. So here we are.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: I think we've given a good walk through with this film,
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: so I think it's time for our final thoughts and ratings. Tristan,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I'll talk to you first, So your final thoughts and
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: you're rating on the blessed five star scale that guides
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: us as sure as assuredly as a straight laced in
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: the South. What are your final thoughts and what's your rating?
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: For my cousin Vinnie.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: I give this a three. It's a solid three. This
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: is not a negative kind of three. This is this
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: is where the movie is entertaining. It's good, but it's
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: not great. It's just kind of okay. Could it have
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: been better? It would have been better if it was shorter.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: There were certain things that would have been better if
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: it was cut. Some of the things that we talked
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: about John that the stuttering lawyer absolutely need to be cut.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: It added nothing to the picture. We could have gotten
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: to the courtroom scenes a little bit faster and so
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: and I don't think there was really anything in there
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: that made me lose it other than a few things
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: that we talked about. So three, it's it's a fine movie.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Well I'll go next, and Darren can go last because
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: he cheated and watched the movie a month ago. So
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna also give it a three, and for pretty
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: much the same reasons. It's solid, it's funny, it's too long,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: and I get why the two utes thing sticks. There
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: are certain standout moments, but as a whole movie really
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: should have been closer to ninety two one hundred minutes period. Like,
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's kind of unconstable that it was two hours.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: So whoever's fault that was for not putting their foot
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: down and saying it's gotta be quicker, get more showings.
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: You know, Hey, that's on you. So three from me.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: So Darren, are we going to be you know, playing
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: the slot machine here and get three threes in a
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: row and win the jackpot?
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Or what are you rating it?
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah? I mean we I enjoyed talking about this movie
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: because there's a lot of different aspects to it that
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: we don't often kind of cover in house lights. But
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: I still wanted to give another shout out to to
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: Lane Smith. I think like he is right up there
• 47:49
  Speaker 5: in billing as the you know, the prosecutor. Again, not
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: a bad guy. He like gives him evidence, he takes
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: him in his truck. Like but you're like, no, but
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: he's the prosecutor. It's like, but he's just a prosecutor
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: from the South. He's a simple country lawyer. And you know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: Bruce McGill cracks me up every time as the ships.
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: It's a tiny micro role. That's what I also love
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: about this movie is the and again it's ninety so
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: you're seeing all these people and they look like they
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: look in similar movies, you know, when we see you know,
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: James Rebhorn is the FBI analyst. I'm like, but you're
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: about to go talk to the president an Independence Day,
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: Like everything starts to merge together, at least when I'm
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: watching movies of this era. But yes, John, this is
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: three across the board.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: I wanted to give it a four because I really
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: enjoyed it, But for our discussion I did see a
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: little bit more of the cracks that were there. But
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: I will watch this again. This is definitely going to
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: the rotation. This is a great you're packing for a
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: trip movie, you know where it's on in the background,
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: and you don't necessarily need to pay attention, but you
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: do for those couple of scenes. But yes, three for me,
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: three witnesses, all with glasses.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: So that's three threes. And that's my cousin Vinnie. A
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: little bit of a loss, you know, a backward step
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: from Clue to my cousin Vinnie. So I'm excited to
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: see if we rebound next week.
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: So Darren, what is it that we're going to be watching.
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: Oh, something's going to be bouncing next week. We're talking
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: about nineteen ninety six. Is Sergeant Bilko starring Steve Martin
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: next on House Lights?
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Join the Revolution, Join the Ned party