Gigli (/ˈdÊ'iËli/, JEE-lee) is a 2003 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Martin Brest and starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Lainie Kazan.
After a protracted battle between studio and director, a radically revised version of the original film was released. There was significant media attention and popular interest prior to its release, primarily because Affleck and Lopez, the film's stars, were romantically involved at the time. Critical reception was extremely negative, and in the years since its release Gigli has been considered as one of the worst films ever made. The film was also a box office bomb, grossing back only $7.2 million against a $75.6 million budget.
Plot
Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who isn't nearly as tough as he likes to act. He is commanded to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to save New York-based mob boss Starkman (Al Pacino) from prison. Gigli successfully convinces the young man, Brian (Justin Bartha), to go off with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch", which seems to be Brian's singular obsession, and turns out to just be the beach. The man who ordered the kidnapping, Louis (Lenny Venito), does not trust Gigli to get the job done right, so he hires a woman calling herself Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) to take charge.
Gigli is attracted to Ricki, but he resents the fact that Louis does not have faith in him and that he has to take orders from a woman. He is also frustrated by Brian's insistence on going to "the Baywatch" and by Ricki's being a lesbian. The events take a darker turn when Gigli and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither wants to do. Worse, Ricki's girlfriend, Robin (Missy Crider), shows up at Gigli's apartment, accusing her of cheating. She slits her wrists and has to be rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, Gigli goes to the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to his boss as Brian's thumb. Gigli and Ricki go back to his apartment where Gigli confesses his love, and the two sleep together.
They are summoned to meet with the mob's boss. Starkman reveals that he didn't approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother and scolds them because the thumb they sent won't match Brian's fingerprint; he then kills Louis. Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Gigli as well, but Ricki talks him out of it. They decide to take Brian back to where they found him. On the way, they discover Baywatch (or a similarly themed show or film) shooting an episode on the beach. They leave a happy Brian there. At the last minute, Ricki decides to leave town with Gigli, who finally reveals her real name - Rochelle.
Cast
- Ben Affleck as Larry Gigli
- Jennifer Lopez as Ricki/Rochelle
- Justin Bartha as Brian
- Lainie Kazan as Mrs. Gigli
- Al Pacino as Starkman
- Lenny Venito as Louis
- Christopher Walken as Detective Stanley Jacobellis
- Missy Crider as Robin
- Terrence Camilleri as Man in dryer
Production
The film was shot on location throughout Long Beach and Los Angeles, California.
Release
Box office
Gigli grossed $3,753,518 in its opening weekend from 2,215 theaters averaging $1,694 per theater and ranking #8 at the box office. The film set a record to date for the biggest second-weekend drop in box office gross of any film in wide release since that statistic was kept; it dropped by 81.9% in its second weekend compared to its first, grossing $678,640. By its third weekend in release, only 73 US theaters were showing it, a 97% drop from its first weekend. The film ultimately earned $6,087,542 domestically and $1,178,667 internationally for a total of $7,266,209 on a $75.6 million production budget.
The film was withdrawn from US theaters after only three weeks (one of the shortest circulation times for a big-budget film), earning a total of only $6 million domestically and $1 million abroad. In the United Kingdom, the film was dropped by virtually every cinema after critics panned it.
In 2014, The Los Angeles Times listed the film as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time.
Critical reception
Gigli was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 6%, based on 177 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10. The critical consensus states: "Bizarre and clumsily plotted, Gigli is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry." The film also has a score of 18 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".
On Ebert and Roeper, critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper both gave the film thumbs down, although Ebert showed some sympathy towards the film, stating it had "clever dialogue", but was "...too disorganized for me to recommend it". Roeper called the film "a disaster" and "one of the worst movies I've ever seen". He then included Gigli on his 100 worst films of the decade at #7.
Ebert and James Berardinelli, while panning the film, were two of the very few critics to not write it off completely. Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying, "They didn't quite get to where they wanted to be, but the film is worth seeing for some very good scenes." Berardinelli gave it two stars, saying, "This isn't a good film, but, when set alongside the likes of Dumb and Dumberer and Legally Blonde 2, Jen & Ben offer less pain."
Entertainment Weekly '​s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "C+", stating "A watchable bad movie, but it's far from your typical cookie-cutter blockbuster. There are no shoot-outs or car chases, and there isn't much romantic suspense, either."
One of the few positive reviews came from Amy Dawes of Variety, who wrote that the story was ludicrous and that the film would tank, but that on balance she found it a fun film with several good performances.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for nine and received six Razzies in the 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards â€" Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Couple. A year later, the film won a seventh Razzie for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years". The film was also nominated for eleven and received five Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 2003; Worst Actor and Worst Fake Accent - Male, Worst Actress and Worst Fake Accent - Female and Worst On-Screen Couple.
Legacy
Its title was named by the Global Language Monitor as one of the top words from Hollywood having an impact on the English language in 2003. Late night talk show hosts in particular lampooned the film in their monologues; Conan O'Brien said "The Mets are doing so badly that they will be renamed 'The New York Gigli.'"
Yahoo! Movies rates Gigli number one on their Bottom Rated Movies of All Time, with a critics' rating of Dâˆ'. The Onion, a satirical newspaper, ran an article about the film, titled "Gigli focus groups demand new ending in which Affleck and Lopez die."
See also
- List of films considered the worst
- List of films featuring diabetes
References
External links
- Official website
- Gigli at the Internet Movie Database
- Gigli at Box Office Mojo
- Gigli at Rotten Tomatoes
- Gigli at Metacritic