Gigli
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 Not the best way to end Martin Brest's career.
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Gigli (pronounced "Gee-lee") is a 2003 American romantic comedy crime film written and directed by Martin Brest, who also did Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, and Scent of a Woman, and starring Ben Affleck as Larry Gigli, Jennifer Lopez as Ricki, and Justin Bartha as Brian, with guest appearances from Al Pacino and Christopher Walken.
The film is known to have suffered through various re-writes until the Bennifer romance (then a big media craze) became one of the biggest celebrity stories of 2002, and studio executives decided to cash in on the trend. This also meant that the film's original plan of being a black comedy about gangsters was to be scrapped. Popular media gave attention and interest to the film during production, primarily because Affleck and Lopez, the film's stars, were romantically involved at the time. The film was released on August 1, 2003.
With the film finally came out, however, it was a huge box office bomb that only made $7.2 million out of its $75.6 million budget and was a failure with both critics and audiences alike. It managed to win the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture of that year. The film also permanently killed Martin Brest's film career, since he doesn't direct movies anymore after this failure and it also shut down his production company, City Light Films.
Plot
Larry Gigli is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who isn't nearly as tough as he likes to act. He also gets annoyed quickly when his last name is pronounced wrong. He is commanded to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to save New York-based mob boss Starkman from prison. Larry successfully convinces the young man, Brian, 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, does not trust Larry to get the job done right, so he hires a woman calling herself Ricki to take charge.
Larry 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. A suspicious detective comes to the apartment to question Larry if he is aware of Brian's disappearance. Larry, who is further annoyed when his mother takes an immediate liking to Ricki, both of them needling him.
The events take a darker turn when Larry and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither wants to do. Worse, Ricki's ex-girlfriend, Robin, shows up at Larry's apartment, accusing her of changing sexual orientation. She slits her wrists and has to be rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, Larry goes to the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to the prosecutor as Brian's thumb. Larry and Ricki go back to Larry's apartment where he 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 or cut off the thumb and rages at them because the thumb they sent didn't match Brian's fingerprint, nullifying any potential for coercing the prosecutor; he then kills Louis, presumably for the kidnapping and stirring a hornet's nest in law enforcement. Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Larry as well, but Ricki talks him out of it by pointing out that only they know where Brian is, and only they can silence him and prevent him from fingering Starkman in the kidnapping. They leave Starkman's, decide to leave the mob, and discuss taking 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. Brian begs to be let off there and finally they consent.
Larry convinces Ricki to take his car, but at the last minute, Ricki returns and picks up Larry, and they leave town together.
All of the characters are transformed by the episode. Louis's mob is disrupted, Larry has dropped his hyper-masculine facade, Ricki has a heterosexual fling with Larry, and Brian gradually emerges from his shell, noticing other people and conversing.
Why It's Not Turkey Time
- The film can't decide if it wants to be a romance comedy or serious crime film.
- Although Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were an actual couple during the time this film was made, they have no chemistry with each other in it.
- Monotonous and boring plot that goes nowhere because of Larry and Ricki's romance getting in the way.
- The characters are either bland or unlikeable to the point that Al Pacino's and Christopher Walken's only roles in the film are to point out how stupid the characters are.
- Offensive stereotypical behavior of a mentally handicapped person.
- On that topic, there's another offensive stereotype of having Ricki somehow change her sexuality from lesbian to completely straight after almost immediately falling in love with Larry.
- False advertising: In the trailer below, Larry acts like a troubled man with a split personality and has a hidden secret about being a criminal, but in the film, he switches from being a tough gangster and then becomes squeamish. The poster also makes it seem like Larry and Ricki are falling in love, but they have no chemistry (mentioned earlier) and actually spend most of the time yelling at each other.
- Executive meddling: The film was originally supposed to be a black crime comedy rather than a romantic comedy, but media interest in the Bennifer romance meant executives hastily rewrote the film, subsequently ruining it. Because of the rewrites, the film permanently killed Martin Brest’s career as a filmmaker.
- The film was mainly a celebrity buzz film. For more information, see FanboyFlicks' review.
- Horrific pacing. Despite being 121 minutes (2 hours) long, the film feels longer than that. What's worse is that there are a bunch of scenes that drag on for too long.
- It's annoying to hear Larry correct people about his last name when it's mispronounced.
- Lame plot twist: It's revealed that Starkman, Al Pacino's character, didn't approve of Louis' order for Larry to kidnap Brian or cut his thumb off.
- There are weak supporting characters that are seen for several minutes and are not brought up again, such as Christopher Walken's character, Robin, Ricki's girlfriend, Starkman, and Larry's mother.
- Laughable and grotesque dialogue, such as when Christopher Walken's character talks about getting pie and ice cream, or when Brian states that the ladies at the Baywatch make his penis sneeze, and especially the infamous scene where Ricki says " It's turkey time. Gobble gobble."
- Terrible directing by Martin Brest himself, which is a huge downgrade from his previous films like Hot Tomorrow, Going in Style, and Midnight Run.
- This film also permanently killed Brest's career because he hasn't directed nor wrote a single film since then.
- He even permanently shut down his film company, City Light Films, following the horrible failure of this film.
Turkey Time Qualities
- The soundtrack is pretty good, thanks to John Powell.
- The cinematography is great.
- The ending was pretty heartwarming.
- Both Larry and Rochelle drop Brian off at the Baywatch.
Reception
Gigli was universally panned by critics and audiences and in the years since the year of its release, it has been considered one of the worst films of all time. The film currently holds a 6% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 2.7 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads, "Bizarre and clumsily plotted, Gigli is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry.". On Metacritic, the film has an 18/100 based on 37 reviews, meaning "overwhelming dislike". On IMDb, the film currently holds a 2.6/10.
Film critic Joel Siegel of ABC's Good Morning America stated about the film, "To qualify as a historic failure, a film needs a measure of pretension, and all Gigli ever wanted to be was a romantic comedy. What it is is a dreadful romantic comedy."
Film critics James Berardinelli of ReelViews and Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times had given the film negative reviews, however both critics had some soft spots for the film. Roger stated that the film had some "clever dialogue" but was "...too disorganized for me to recommend it". Berardinelli stated "They didn't quite get to where they wanted to be, but the film is worth seeing for some very good scenes."
Box Office
The film had a budget of $75 million and only grossed $7.2 million as mentioned earlier, making it one of the most expensive box office bombs of all time.
Awards and Nominations
Gigli earned six Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Actor, Worst Screen Couple, and Worst Director. It would later win one more for "Worst Comedy for Our First 25 Years".
Trivia
- According to actor Matt Damon, who is a close friend of Ben Affleck, Ben gets upset and twitches whenever someone brings Gigli up. Ben even issued an apology for being in the film.
- In one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's songs, "Virus Alert", one of the things a virus will do is make your TV record the movie.
- In a 2015 review, Jennifer Lopez stated that "There are many movies out there that are way worse than Gigli."
- Gigli was immediately pulled from many U.S. theaters and pulled from many U.K. theaters after being panned by critics and audiences, especially for its poor box office performance. As mentioned above, the film was both a critical and commercial failure. It was universally panned by both critics and audience alike and was also one of the biggest Box office Bombs of all time.
- It's considered the #1 Worst Movie of 2003 due to the fact that that it was pulled from cinemas after it only earned $7.2 million at the box office against a $75.6 million budget and was awarded six Razzies.
- Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are an actual couple in real life, though they don't have feelings for each other in this film.
- As of 2021, this was the last film produced by City Light Films as well as the final film Martin Brest has directed.
- Larry Gigli is very similar in character to Holden McNeil, Ben Affleck's character from Chasing Amy.
Videos
External Links
Gigli at the Internet Movie Database
Gigli on Rotten Tomatoes
Comments
- Mature
- 2000s films
- Comedy films
- Crime films
- Romance films
- Black comedy films
- R-rated films
- Adult films
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture winners
- Box office bombs
- Columbia Pictures
- Worst Screenplay winners
- Films with misleading posters
- Movies that killed their studios
- Sony films
- Live-action films
- Movies that killed careers
- Revolution Studios
- Aware of how bad they are
- Films featured on Wikipedia's Films Considered the Worst page
- Featured on TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible