Gigli

All you want to know about Gigli

For other uses, see Gigli (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Gigi
Gigli

Movie poster for Gigli
Directed by Martin Brest
Produced by Martin Brest
Casey Silver
Written by Martin Brest
Starring Ben Affleck
Jennifer Lopez
Al Pacino
Christopher Walken
Lainie Kazan
Music by John Powell
Cinematography Robert Elswit
Editing by Julie Monroe
Billy Weber
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios
Release date(s) August 1, 2003
Running time 121 min
Language English
Budget $54,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $6,068,735 (USA)
IMDb profile
Ratings
United Kingdom:  15
United States:  R

Gigli (pronounced /ˈdʒiːli/ or /ˈʒiːʎi/) is a film released in 2003 which was written and directed by Martin Brest, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Lainie Kazan. The critical reception of the film was very poor and the film became infamous as one of the worst movies ever made.

Contents

Plot

Larry Gigli (Affleck) is a low ranking mobster who is commanded to kidnap the disabled, Baywatch-obsessed younger brother (Justin Bartha) of a powerful federal prosecutor, to save his mobster boss from prison. Gigli successfully convinces the man, Brian, to go off with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch". However, Gigli's boss does not trust him; he hires a woman calling herself Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) to take over the job. Although Gigli is attracted to Ricki, he resents the fact that Louis (Lenny Venito), his boss, does not have faith in him and that he has to take orders from Ricki. He is also frustrated by Brian's insistence on going to Baywatch and Ricki's lesbianism. The events of the movie take on a darker turn when Larry and Ricki receive orders from Ray to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither of them wants to do.

When Ricki's girlfriend shows up at Gigli's apartment, accusing her of cheating, she slits her wrist 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 eventually go back to his apartment and Gigli confesses his love for Ricki, who has sex with him. Afterwards, they are called to meet with their mob boss. The boss Starkman (Al Pacino) reveals that he didn't approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother, knows that the thumb they sent doesn't match Brian's fingerprint, and shoots Gigli's boss dead. Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Gigli as well, but Ricki points out that only the three of them know what happened, so Starkman allows them to leave and take the brother back to where they found him. On the way, they discover Baywatch shooting an episode on the beach and leave Brian there to be picked up.

Reaction

The movie was considered a bomb, often called the worst movie of 2003, grossing less than $4 million in its opening weekend after costing $54 million to make. It earned nearly universally negative reviews and scores only a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 157 reviews, with the consensus being: "bizarre and clumsily plotted, Gigli is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry." [1] It scored an 18% on metacritic based on 37 reviews meaning "extreme dislike or disgust".[1] It also scores only an 8% on the Rotten Tomatoes Cream of the Crop, a 3% among notable critics at Rotten Tomatoes and a 2.2 among metacritics users. Gigli also set a record for the biggest second-weekend drop in box office gross of any film in wide release since that statistic was kept; its gross dropped by almost 82% in its second weekend compared to its first.[2]. By its third weekend on release, only 73 U.S. theaters were showing it, down from 2,215 during its first weekend, a drop of 97%.[3]

It was also named by the Global Language Monitor as one of the top words from Hollywood impacting the English Language for 2003.[4] Late night talk show hosts in particular blasted the film in their monologues, for example Conan O'Brien said "The Mets are doing so badly that they will be re-named 'The New York Gigli.'" It was eventually withdrawn from U.S. theatres after only 3 weeks (one of the shortest circulation times for a big-budget movie), earning a total of only $6 million domestically and $1 million abroad. In terms of budget percentage, it is one of the biggest box-office bombs ever. In the UK, the movie was dropped by virtually every cinema after critics universally panned it.

The film received six Razzies in the 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards – Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple. For a film to win the "Academy Awards grand slam", it must win the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing, Screenplay. Conversely, winning those awards' Razzie counterparts makes Gigli the only film to ever perform the "Razzie grand slam". A year later, the film won a seventh Razzie for "Worst Comedy of our first 25 Years."

Currently, Yahoo! Movies rates Gigli number one on their Bottom Rated Movies of All Time,[5] with a critics rating of D−.[6] The Onion, a satirical newspaper, ran an article about the film, titled "Gigli focus groups demand new ending in which Affleck and Lopez die."[7] Roger Ebert and James Berardinelli, while panning the film, were two of the very few critics to not write it off completely.[8] Ebert ranked the film with two and a half stars, saying, "They didn't quite get to where they wanted to be, but the film is worth seeing for some very good scenes." Berardinelli ranked the film with 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." A rare positive, as opposed to less negative, review came from Amy Dawes of Variety. She conceded the story was ludicrous and that the film would tank, but stated that on balance she found it a fun film with several good performances.[9] Her review was the only positive one out of 37 reviews from notable critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps the only element of the film that received any noticeable positive attention was Justin Bartha's performance as the mentally handicapped man. Even some of the critics who were completely panning the film gave a sliver of positivity when mentioning Bartha's performance. [2] Nonetheless, his performance did nothing to overshadow the film's nearly unanimous bad reviews. Gigli is often considered, along with Battlefield Earth and I Know Who Killed Me, to be the worst picture of the decade.

Its infamy has made it into the music world also, as in Weird Al's "Virus Alert" the lyrics mention that the computer virus featured in the story will "make your TV record Gigli". Also, in the flash animated video, children are shown crying as they have just seen the movie on TV.

Impact on Lopez

Lopez's career has declined since the release of Gigli. Her 2005 album Rebirth was poorly received despite peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Her only single that reached the top 20 was "Get Right" which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The other single, "Hold You Down" failed to chart the top 40. It was also a commercial failure in the United States and worldwide just selling only 2 million copies. Her 2007 album Brave received an even worse reception and was a chart and commercial failure. It only peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 with a low sales of 53,000 copies in its first week and only sold around 550,000 copies worldwide making it Lopez's lowest selling album of her career. It is also her first album not to chart the top 10. The first single from the album Do It Well only peaked at No. 31 in the U.S. but acheived only moderate success outside the U.S. The second single Hold It Don't Drop It was only released in Europe. It failed to become a hit in most countries in Europe, but did however, peak at No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Play in the U.S. The third single was going to be Brave but was scrapped due to the low sales of the album.

Impact on Affleck

Affleck's career wasn't really much affected by the film like Lopez. The only film that received a poor reception was Surviving Christmas which was a flop at the box office grossing only $11 million dollars worldwide. The rest of his films received mostly either mixed or positive reviews.

References

  1. ^ "Gigli". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
  2. ^ Biggest Second Weekend Drops at the Box Office
  3. ^ "Trivia for Gigli". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
  4. ^ HollyWORDS
  5. ^ Top Movies - Yahoo! Movies
  6. ^ Gigli (2003) - Movie Info - Yahoo! Movies
  7. ^ "Gigli Focus Groups Demand New Ending In Which Both Affleck And Lopez Die", The Onion (2003-07-30). 
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (2003-08-01). "Movie Reviews: Gigli", Chicago Sun-Times. 
  9. ^ Dawes, Amy (2003-08-02). "Gigli Review", Variety. 

External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Martin Brest

Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972) • Hot Tomorrows (1977) • Going in Style (1979) • Beverly Hills Cop (1984) • Midnight Run (1988) • Scent of a Woman (1992) • Meet Joe Black (1998) • Gigli (2003)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigli"

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