That’s right,
pretty much everyone who has ever seen this movie has something terrible to say
about it. I’ve never heard a positive comment about this flick, ever. Most
people call it one of the worst films ever made, in fact. But why? Most people
really never go into why Gigli is so bad, and while I never doubted that it
was, I was always curious as to exactly what horrific alchemical combination of
cinematic elements made this film so reviled. After all, I’m never one to write
off a movie before I even see it. So what better to do now than give Gigli the
Cinema Freaks treatment and figure out why?
First of all,
let’s look at the plot summary: Two professional gangsters, a straight man and
a gay woman, have to live in the same apartment to watch after a retarded kid
so the mob can blackmail some senator, all while the man tries to turn the
woman straight so they can have sex.
….
…..
Okay, well…it
might not be that bad…you never know! It could be…erm, ehhh…okay, that sounds
like the worst idea I’ve ever heard of. But hey, an idea alone doesn’t make a
bad movie, so why not check out the two stars? Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez,
who met on the set of the film, and drew heavy tabloid attention at the time
because of how famous they were. They ended up breaking up after the film was
released, and you can pretty much ad lib your own joke here - there are
numerous different ones. And as we all know, isn't tabloid garbage over the
personal lives of movie stars the foundation for every good movie?
Alright, fine,
let’s just get started on the movie itself. Clearly every element of this
film’s production, before, during and after, is working against it when it
comes to the film’s overall quality, but that doesn’t mean a thing about the
movie before I actually watch it! I stand resolute on that. Let us delve deep
into Gigli’s bloated fat and hopefully come out with a gem or two.
We start off
with Ben Affleck, playing the title character Gigli, doing his laundry:
Extra quarters
needed when you use the dryer for torture methods.
Oops, did I say
laundry? I meant pressure-drying a well-toasted Mexican. I suppose they’re
about the same. I just wonder if this is the same Laundromat that Dr. Horrible
uses. Lord knows this movie would be better with a song and dance number from
Neil Patrick Harris.
After he fails
at that, his boss gets onto him about not being a good hit man. As punishment,
he’s given the task of watching some retarded kid, the brother of a senator, as
blackmail. Affleck goes to pick up the kid, whose name is Brian, and finds
probably the most insulting stereotype you can get outside of Ben Stiller in
Tropic Thunder:
And this guy
went on to play in the Hangover series...you decide which is more of a smudge
on his dignity.
Oh, okay, it’s
not that bad, and as the movie goes on it does actually get a little bit funny.
But seriously, can you get any more shameless pandering for an Oscar? The idea
of this movie winning an Oscar is a bit silly though. And to be fair, he does
have the only funny lines in the movie later on.
Back at Gigli’s
apartment, Gigli basically shouts a lot and acts like a giant douche toward
Brian. If you weren’t charmed by him up to this point, well THANK HEAVEN for
these scenes! I just think any movie could be improved by adding screaming
man-children who try to act way tougher than they probably really are! You know
what else could improve this? An entirely implausible, unrealistic and silly
plot thread introduced for the sole purpose of moving the ludicrous plot along!
There we go!
This is J-Lo, playing Ricki, a female contract gangster-type person who was
hired by Affleck’s boss because he didn’t trust Gigli to do the job alone. What
exactly is so dire about this job anyway? He’s just taking care of some
retarded kid for a few days. It’s not like it’s a matter of utmost importance.
I guess I kinda see what he means; I mean the first five minutes Gigli gets
Brian alone, he shouts at him and threatens him like a schoolyard bully on
steroids. Yeah, real goddamn tough guy, right? But that’s exactly what I mean –
the whole plot hinges on this implausibility, and so without it, the movie
would fall apart. Great screenwriting, guys…
So the next ten
minutes of the movie is pretty much just these three characters annoying one
another. Gigli shouts a lot and in no way does he ever seem convincing as a
tough guy. J-Lo mostly just keeps that irritatingly smug wise-ass look on her
face the whole time and while she’s not as annoying as Affleck, she’s still
pretty goddamn bad. Just watch the scene at the dinner table when Brian won’t
eat and Gigli keeps shouting at him. Ricki gets involved, too, and the whole
scene basically just becomes a cinematic nuclear bomb of annoyance.
Just look at
some of this dialogue from our titular main character: If by some f--kin'
miracle long shot you haven't heard of my reputation let me tell you who the f--k
I am! I am the f--kin' Sultan of Slick, Sadie! I am the rule of f--kin' cool!
You wanna be a gangster? You wanna be a thug? You sit at my f--kin' feet and
gather the pearls that emanate forth from me! Because I'm the f--kin' original,
straight-first-foremost, pimp-mack, f--kin hustler, original gangster's
gangster!
…I am just at a
loss for words. It’s like every 90s stereotype of white kids trying to act
black rolled up into one overpaid, overrated Hollywood actor. If this was a 14
year old kid, it would be embarrassing, but when it’s Ben Affleck? The level of
pure awfulness and life-ruining embarrassment just breaks the stratosphere and
soars way into outer space. If you want nothing but a grown man verbally
abusing a mentally handicapped person and a much smaller, less able to defend
herself woman...well this movie is for you.
"LOOK AT
ME, I'M TOUGH AND BADASS! I'M BULLYING A RETARDED GUY!" I seriously feel
sorry for Affleck though, especially since he's trying so hard to be seen as a
legitimate artist and filmmaker. This can't be helping his quest at all these
days.
I mean this is
bad. Really, really bad. It’s practically unwatchable. This is the equivalent
to going to that family reunion you never wanted to go to, and having to sit
there and listen to your divorced aunt and uncle trade jabs at each other while
your baby cousin screams his head off, while you’re suffering from a painful
ulcer. In fact, I think that’s selling the movie too short – the scenario I
described is actually much preferable to watching Gigli.
So if you
actually didn’t turn off the movie after that, we see Gigli trying to romance
Ricki later on at night, even convincing her to sleep in the same bed as him
for the hell of it. Wasn’t he just telling her how much he hated her a few
scenes ago, and telling her how much he didn’t need her around? Given the way
that Gigli has acted all movie up to now – i.e. like an impudent, tough-guy
jackass – no rational woman would ever listen to him when he asked her to sleep
with him. Hell, no woman would even find it the least bit endearing. But
according to the movie’s warped universe, and its need for the plot to move forward,
Ricki goes ahead and sleeps right beside him in the same bed.
Ohhh yeah,
professional etiquette AND lesbian tendencies right out the window! Tell me,
lesbian readers: just because you're not attracted to men, is it OK to sleep in
the same bed with them because of that? I just love the several different yet
equally proportionate tides of nonsense this movie is spewing all at the same
time, within this one scene. It's just so unrealistic, even for an early 2000s
rom-com, that it's practically the eighth wonder of the cinematic world.
She tells him
she’s a lesbian, and that pretty much settles the whole movie, right? Clearly
this romance will never work because Ricki is a lesbian, and since Gigli is a
man, there’s no chemistry. So I can just turn the movie off now and not miss a
damn thing. Phew. What a relief…
Oh, but of
course that’s not true, because in Contrived Screenwriting Land, this just
means that Gigli has a challenge set up for him! Because lesbianism is fine and
well, unless you’re a really hot chick. In that case, it is the male
prerogative to change her to straight! God this movie is bad. Is this really
our plot now? Unless it’s going to go all Chasing Amy and actually explore the
individual character rather than her sexuality, I don’t think it’s going to
work. This movie has all the charm of an angry Wal Mart customer who lost his
receipt. Incoherent, immature and out of touch with reality, expecting everyone
else to play by his rules…yup, that’s this movie.
The next day
Christopher Walken comes to see them, and at this point all I can wonder is how
they got him to sign on for this. I guess his philosophy is that he’ll act in
anything, with no restrictions on quality – he just loves acting. And you know
what? I can respect that. Walken is a cool, funny guy, and he definitely brings
this piece of shit up a notch. Even if his only contribution to the movie is
talking about putting pie on his head:
Oh yeah Walken,
bringin' the class. Easily the funniest part of this whole circus.
To be fair,
that’s much more stimulating and interesting than what Gigli and Ricki talk
about for the rest of the film. Hell, I’d rather watch a whole movie about
Walken’s character. I bet at least he isn’t a self-important douchenozzle piece
of shit who tries to romance a woman who by all biological laws of nature,
isn’t interested in him and never will be. I’d much prefer Walken’s character
had his own movie!
Sigh, but
unfortunately the trainwreck must go on. Afterward, they go out and eat lunch
at some place where a bunch of hooligans are blasting loud rap music. Gigli
acts like a doofus and starts a fight with them, but Ricki diffuses the
situation by going over and talking about how she can gouge out their eyes with
some martial arts skills she has. Afterwards she tells Gigli that it was all
bullshit and she was just putting on a show…wow, what a useful scene, movie.
What does that establish? That Ricki is a good liar? Wow, what a great reason
to have a scene.
Oh please J-Lo,
bestow upon us some more of your wisdom and knowledge.
They go to see
Gigli’s mom, and it’s pretty much just a waste of time, so I’ll skip it. Back
at home, Gigli comes across Ricki doing some yoga in his room and they fight
about which sex is more desirable in bed, men or women. It’s a stupid argument
because, well, explaining why would just bring me down to the movie’s level.
But I will say this: watching Affleck here, playing the tough guy, the sex
machine, is about as embarrassing as the other scenes of him trying to act like
a tough guy. Watching this scene is just a pinnacle of god-awful writing and
embarrassing lines that I am surprised either actor ever wanted to show their
face in public after seeing. It really comes down to a contest of which is more
annoyingly bad: Affleck’s tough-guy, “I’m the biggest sex god in the world”
act, or Lopez’s “I know everything about everything” bullshit.
…okay, well the
answer is still Affleck. But DAMN does Lopez give him a run for his money here!
You could buy a car if you had a dime for every time she gives an annoyingly
pretentious speech in this movie! Might as well just call it a new philosophy:
The Zen of Ricki.
The next
morning we get introduced to another character that will make you want to bang
your head against a wall, Ricki’s girlfriend, who refuses to listen to reason
and just screams at Ricki for staying in a house with a man.
How come she's
so hysterical? Why is she so rude to just barge into Gigli's place and cause a
ruckus? How did she even know where Ricki was? The movie will have the grace to
answer absolutely none of these.
Even though
both Ricki and Gigli try to tell the woman otherwise, she won’t listen. The
only thing worthwhile about this scene is the following dialogue exchange:
Bitchy
Girlfriend Character: Who the f--k are you?
Brian: You’re
the f--k are you!
Yeah, not much,
but in this movie? I’ll take it. You may notice I haven’t been talking a lot
about Brian, and that’s because frankly his scenes aren’t too bad. They’re not
good, but at least you can tell the filmmakers were at least trying to make
something a little bit likable with them, unlike basically any other part of
the film. He keeps saying he wants to go to “Baywatch,” where “all the pretty
girls are,” and every time Gigli just picks up a flashlight and pretends to
talk into it like a phone, “finding out” that the “Baywatch” is closed for the
day. It’s a pretty jackass move, and I’m not even convinced that Brian is
stupid enough to really believe it, but whatever; it’s still one of the least
offensive parts of this whole mess.
Anyway, if you
can believe it, the bitchy girlfriend character goes nuts in Gigli’s apartment,
grabs a knife out of his kitchen drawer and slits her wrists in protest of, I
guess, the fact that Ricki is with a man. Did we just enter into another movie
all the sudden? What the hell is this crap? It’s got nothing to do with
anything in the film and leads to nothing at all.
This has been
the emotional climax of an entirely different film! Thank you for your time.
Oh, except a
quick joke about Brian coming in his pants when he sees pretty girls. Thanks
for that one, movie…just, thanks.
Later on,
because attempted suicide puts them in the mood, Gigli and Ricki have sex
together. Well actually that’s a bit of an oversimplification. What really
happens is this: Gigli and Ricki are riding in the car and Gigli decides he’s
fed up with it all, that he can’t take it anymore! He confesses his love to
Ricki in one of the worst, least-inspiring movie speeches of all time,
presented verbatim here:
You know
something? You're right. It is sadness. Its sadness and I'm f--king sad. You
got me. You're a genius. You know why I'm f--king sad? Because I got this f--king
beautiful-sexy-gorgeous-hearthrob-o-rama-f--king-smart-amazing-bombshell-seventeen-on
a f--king ten scale- girl sleeping in a bed right next to me and you know what?
She's a stone cold dyke. A f--king untouchable, unhaveable, unattainable brick
wall f--king dyke-a-saurus rexi. So its sad. Okay? What you want me to do? I
feel f--king sadness about that. There's nothing I can f--king do. And not only
is she a major babe, but I really like this girl a lot, a lot, I mean she's not
like anybody else I ever knew before and that's a completely f--king new one on
me, and I don't even know her real f--king name so there you go. Oh and in case
you're interested, my life sucks. Alright? Stick a fork in me I'm done.
My heart is
just crying. But you know what the strangest part of this whole sad-sack love
story is? That speech up there; that contrived, poorly done, emotionally
retarded speech? IT WORKS.
That’s right –
it actually gets her into bed with him. I guess the secret to any lesbian’s
heart is making horrible profanity-laden, immature and selfish speeches!
Straight men, rejoice!
They talk some
more about which sex is better at having sex, and, okay, I’ll bite: how is this
argument in any way worth having? They’re literally arguing for or against
homosexuality. Dude, Affleck; it’s not really up for debate which team she’s
swinging for! It’s not like they’re impressionable little kids choosing which
sport to play, you know! But I guess he really does think lesbians can be
swayed easily to turn straight…and in this case he was right…sigh. There goes
more of my faith in humanity. The idea of these two having sex so casually and
spontaneously after Ricki just went through an emotional confrontation with her
girlfriend is just ludicrous, and further shows that the film is completely
detached from reality. A logical plot? What’s that?
Then we get
some other long, drawn out bullshit about this mob boss guy played by Al
Pacino, of all people – unlike Walken he does not give a film-redeeming
performance, and instead just comes off as incredibly dull, loud and obnoxious.
His whole point in the movie is to tell them that he didn’t like the idea of having
Gigli kidnap Brian. That’s really about it…amazing…he kills the other mob boss
guy who we saw at the beginning, and then threatens to kill Gigli and Ricki,
too. Until Ricki goes on another one of her oh-so-enlightening speeches and
talks him out of it pretty quickly, to be honest…I mean really? This is your
big final confrontation? A guy changes his mind after a pretentious lesbian
makes a speech?
He looks like
an out of touch old codger trying to remain cool and hip...great character
movie; I'm just so blown away. I'm also blown away that you got such an
irritating performance out of Al Pacino of all people.
After that the
movie decides it’s done torturing us, and decides to just kind of end. They
drive Brian to the beach, which he claims is the Baywatch he’s been looking for
all movie – some kind of filming set with a bunch of chicks and dudes in
bathing suits. He finally goes and talks to one of them, which I guess is
supposed to be the emotional climax of the movie.
…or is the
emotional climax when Ricki comes back and tells Gigli she wants to be with
him?
Alriiiiight,
they had no chemistry and by all the laws of human interaction, this scumbag
shouldn't have ended up with this pretentious lesbian, BUT IT'S A HAPPY ENDING!
WHOO!
I don’t know;
the movie couldn’t even decide. This whole thing is like five different movie
clichés all in one! Is it the touching story of two unlikely people who fall in
love? A mob scheme gone wrong? Or is it the story of how a cold-hearted thug
helped a mentally ill person?
Well, either
way, Gigli is just unbearable. It’s as bad as everyone says. I will say there
are a few moments that maybe could have worked, if done by a more competent
director and given more emotional weight, like the parts about Brian. The film
is poorly acted, poorly written and the directing is ho-hum at best. But most
of this is just ear-raping, eye-gouging horrors at how annoying Affleck and
Lopez can be, and amazement at how they’re annoying in such specially unique
ways. It’s seriously amazing how little chemistry on screen these two have.
Doubly so because they were legitimately interested in one another offscreen -
you'd think that would have translated to at least a little bit of a feeling
like their characters at least liked one another. But I guess the power of the
awful script really just transcends any other efforts to salvage the film,
because the two of them act like they just met in an elevator before being
asked to come make the movie.
Really, Gigli
is just living proof of how we shouldn’t expect so much from a film solely
based on who’s acting in it, and especially not if said actors are notoriously
popular heartthrobs famous for tabloids and “who’s dating who” tidbits. The
late 90s and early 2000s was full of this kind of celebrity idolization, in a
much deeper way than today’s more informed generation has it, and Gigli was the
final nail in the coffin for that kind of shallow appreciation of movies. I
really do think people have gotten a lot wiser since, though; because really,
there hasn’t been a big flop like this since. Not one that everyone was really
on the edge of their seats waiting for, anyway. So it’s good that we’re finally
learning that much, anyway, and if that’s the best thing I can take away from a
viewing of Gigli, then I’m okay with that.
And I think the
BIGGEST lesson I’ve learned from this terrifying journey is that I don’t have
to restrict myself to any one genre to review movies. Hell, even when I started
out, I knew that. Where did I lose the way? From now on I think I’ll just make
a vow to review anything, from any genre. That sounds like a way better idea
than just becoming stagnant by only reviewing one type of film. So I guess this
is a good happy ending after all. And to think it came from Gigli. Who ever saw
that one coming?
Grade - F
