Gigli

Plot synopsis:
Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who isn't nearly as tough as he likes to act. Louis (Lenny Venito), a higher-ranking member of Gigli's organization, commands Gigli to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to use as a bargaining chip 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", apparently a reference to the television show of that name, which seems to be Brian's singular obsession. Louis 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 both Louis' lack of faith in him and having to take orders from a woman. He is also frustrated by Brian's insistence on going to "the Baywatch" and by Ricki's being lesbian. A suspicious detective (Christopher Walken) comes to the apartment to question Gigli in reference to Brian's disappearance. Gigli is further annoyed when his mother (Lainie Kazan) takes an immediate liking to Ricki and when the two women team up to needle him.
The events take a darker turn when Gigli and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something that neither wants to do. Worse, Ricki's ex-girlfriend, Robin (Missy Crider), shows up at Gigli's apartment, accusing Ricki of changing sexual orientation prompting her to attempt suicide by slitting her wrists and is rushed to the hospital, where she thankfully survives. While over there, Gigli sneaks into the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to the prosecutor as Brian's thumb. Gigli and Ricki go back to Gigli's 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 did not approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother or the order to cut off Brian's thumb. He nevertheless rages at them because the thumb they sent didn't match Brian's fingerprint and therefore not only failed to increase pressure on the prosecutor but even undermined the organization's credibility. Starkman then kills Louis, presumably in retaliation for the kidnapping and associated scrutiny by law enforcement. Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Gigli as well, but Ricki talks him out of it by pointing out that only they know where Brian is and only they can silence Brian and prevent him from revealing the involvement of Starkman's organization in the kidnapping or even accusing Starkman of having been personally involved. 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.
Gigli convinces Ricki to take his car to escape to parts unknown; but at the last minute, Ricki returns to pick up Gigli, and they leave town together and a life of crime.
All of the characters are transformed by the episode. Louis's mob is disrupted, Gigli has dropped his hyper-masculine facade, Ricki has a heterosexual fling with Gigli, and Brian gradually emerges from his shell, noticing other people and conversing.

Tags: cult

Review:
`Awful', `Hopeless', `Terrible', `Benifer's Gate'.These are the words I read from some of North America's most respected film critics in my research before viewing the debacle Gigli starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
Ricky has an ex-lover show up at the house and attempt suicide, the gangsters ask for the thumb of the prisoner sent to the prosecutor, Gigli has to rush to his mothers house and learns that good ole ma knows all about lesbians and throughout the film we are constantly annoyed by conversations between Gigli and his crime boss, Lenny over the phone.
So I began to wonder why this film in particular ended up on everyone's poop list even though there were plenty of worse films people were throwing good money at (Boat Trip, Bad Boys II, Masked and Anonymous).
In my opinion, and I do not think I am wrong, if Lopez had a small nude scene and / or the movie was done as an independent film for under 2 or 3 million, Gigli would have been a giant success.
You're left to ponder the short term agony weighed up against the long term benefit as Martin Brest's story unfolds with the principle characters of a unlikeable, emotionally and sexually retarded thug with a soft centre (a fat Affleck), a lesbian who isn't really a lesbian because you can be converted to heterosexuality by an emotionally and sexually retarded thug and an actually retarded man who was probably supposed to be a Rainman-type character who redeems Affleck's arrogant meathead but is in fact a cringe inducing, self-harm facilitating caricature of the mentally handicapped.
Witness, if you can, the Penis Vs. Vagina scene in which Affleck argues the case for the male genitals or the tear jerking moment in which the soft hearted Affleck, having given the Mentally Handicapped Brian relationship advice, looks on like a proud father as his new friends woos an Australian bombshell during the filming of a Baywatch beach party.
Lopez is awful; someone who has done this crime comedy style movie before should have been much better but she acts like she is in a simpering rom-com.
Walken is good but his character appears and disappears without reason, Pacino is much better simply because he does his menacing `woo-ha' thing and is very effective.Overall this is not the `worst film ever made', those who tell you that have clearly have a limited viewing experience; many of the reviews were made harsher by the back lash against the whole Bennifer thing.
I borrowed my friend's Gigli DVD to see if the movie was really as bad as the ratings and other comments here will indicate.
That ranking was undeserved, as the movie does have decent technical aspects (editing, sound) relative to Manos and Future War. Its good to see Gigli settling a little further down the list.
J-Lo is just too famous for anyone to see her as gay, not to mention, she never acts like it in the film.As for Ben, he's really bad too.
That's basically like Gigli, a movie that's not particularly good as a whole, but has some knockout individual scenes.First off, let's be honest...it's not as bad as we've been led to believe.
Watching this movie is akin to having an annoying roommate who keeps changing the channel between Rain Man, Prizzi's Honor, Chasing Amy, a failed sitcom about hit men, and any play with one set and no budget.Why do I kinda like this movie then?
Much worse than Gigli, which has some redeeming qualities, these movies didn't seem to find their way to the IMDB's bottom 100 of all time.
Aside from the glaring contrast between these movies from the same time frame, we aren't here to talk about them.Gigli does feature Affleck at his worst (and I know he can and has done a lot better); however, Jennifer Lopez was surprisingly good in this movie.
It's no masterpiece, and has some serious failings, but also dodges most obvious clichés and has some major high points.The Affleck/Lopez pairing actually works quite well - I never really bought them as mob goons (him more than her), but as an on screen couple they work, and their characters as a whole come out as quite well rounded (just not their occupations).It suffers from being too long, and the ending especially should have been a lot tighter, but that merely places it into the "average" bracket, not the "unimaginably awful" as some people would have you believe.
But while Ben Affleck was a bit of a horror, Jennifer Lopez shone (in terms of sexual appeal) throughout the film.One of the weakest parts of the film for me was the fact that they had a romantic relationship even though she was a lesbian.
From beginning to end, I though GIGLI was very enjoyable, well acted, well written with great diologue, and had a good pace.Ben Affleck was having a good time with his role.
(MEET JOE BLACK, A very underrated film) I get the feeling that he won't be able to direct another movie for a long time.
I just thought the movie had a nice story, some funny dialog, and actually deserved better than it got from fans.
I like this Film, I don't know what's should be so wrong with this Film, that many People on IMDb gave this movie such a bad reputation.
While these actors have probably been miscast, and the suject of the kidnap in this filmmakes this movie an uncomfortable mix of tenderness and gangster grit there are some good scanes here - which can surely not be said of clunkers like"Rude Awakening" "Hardware" "Graveyard Shift""1969" and a million others which are far worse, but without merit of top name talent to even make the memorable enough to dispise.It's not real good, but it sure dosen't deserve a spot in the bottom 100, let alone  the bottom 15..
There are a handful of scenes this film - most notably Al Pacino's cameo - which really make the movie worth your time.
Bad Things Happen to Good Movies.
Maybe I had the advantage of having no expectations whatsoever, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film.It's not a cinematic triumph, nobody's going to get an Oscar, though Al Pacino (as always) probably deserves one for chewing up the scenery.
I think people had two fundamental problems with the movie:  it wasn't an action movie (and everyone's on an action sugar-high after a dozen or so summer action films) and the female lead was a lesbian.
For the most part what they talked about was intriguing.It's a shame, but bad things sometimes happen to perfectly good movies.
I found the film somewhat emotional due to the cruelty Larry Gigli puts the poor disabled kid through (I have two kids of my own, and to even imagine talking to them like he does to the kid in this movie is heartbreaking) and the ending where the kid finally gets to see "the Baywatch" made me somewhat misty-eyed.
I thought there many funny moments in this movie and Jennifer Lopez was very good.
Of course, comparison's to "Chasing Amy" are inevitable, but just as worthy as comparing "Kill Bill" with "Hard to Kill."   Watch the movie and you'll probably leave thinking what's the big deal.
Walken and Pacino are not the same as they used to be (I've talked about that before).Ben Affleck is the main star as Larry Gigli, a kind of gangster that works doing jobs that include killing people, taking money and other stuff.
I don't know if the retards are the ones that stand out in films where hardly the rest does (I'm talking about Leonardo Di Caprio's character in "What's eating Gilbert Grape"), but he gives a measured performance, without exceeding in something we've seen tons of times before.
Justin Bartha gives a stellar performance as a psychologically challenged person that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are assigned to protect in Gigli.The film is well shot by veteran cinematographer Robert Elswit.
Nevertheless, I tell anyone who will listen that I have seen the movie and even OWN the DVD and (after they stop giggling), I offer it up for them to watch so that they can come to their own conclusion, which I'm guessing many people have NOT done.
I think the whole Bennifer thing caused some kind of mass hysteria and people have ripped Gigli for reasons that don't have much to do with the movie.It WAS tiresome, in some ways.
If you took the same plot with two different actors, I don't think you would have seen such an outcry of hate.The biggest problem is that Gigli is supposed to be a Bad Ass Tough Guy hitman, but we never see that from him.
I've known guys like Larry Gigli and I think Ben created a very adorable and realistic character in Larry.So why is this movie sooooo hated?.
And fact: Pretty much all of them absolutely suck.So imagine how I must have felt when I heard that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, were chosen to play in a role in a film that tries to rip off The Godfather.
It's in the painful excruciatingly bad, almost like puncture wounds being inflicted in the cinema area.Manos The Hands Of Fate, may still be the worst movie of all time but it has got some powerful competition from Gigli.
At the time this was released Bennifer (as they were called) were all over the press non-stop and I think that annoyed people and made some give it a 1 just because it turned into a fad doing so, a lot without seeing it before (similar to THE INTERVIEW where people gave it a 10 because they claimed threats from North Korea if releasing it)This was before Ben Affleck was a respected actor and filmmaker in Hollywood, he was sort of the laughing stock around those days (unfairly IMO but such it was)And I think a lot of people went into the movie just looking for flaws, and yes this movie has flaws but if you go into a movie looking for flaws how could you possibly enjoy the rest of it?And I strongly think the positives outweighs the negativesAnd maybe they were expecting a action-comedy?
I know that the Swedish DVD I own has it listed as a action-comedy with J Lo and Ben both carrying guns on the coverThis is NOT a action-movie, it's a feel-good drama-comedy really, and a darn good one too if you ask mePositives:-Entertaining performances from J Lo and Ben -Funny dialog for the morepart -Nice well-played dramatic moments as well -Awfully underrated performance from Justin Bartha -Killer soundtrack -Good coming of age story -Jennifer Lopez is more stunning than everNegatives:-Christopher Walkens super-bizarre 2 scene performance where he pronounces words very oddly -The sex talk which there is a lot of can at times admittedly be a little cringe-worthy -Affleck and especially Lopez are a little too nice to be truly believable as tough criminalsBut yeah that's about it overall a very enjoyable movie and laugh at me if you want but I usually cry a teardrop or 2 in the end of the movie.
Some of the movies critics love like As Good As It Gets are much worse than this.
Affleck's performance in particular struck me as unforgettably real, and I , once again, I had to keep telling myself that Ben was just an actor, and not a real-life street thug.JLo's impersonation of Ricki, a sweet-voiced lesbian gangster, is quite simply out of this world.
But more likely people wanted to jump on the "Dump on the Hollywood Couple That Everyone Loved to Hate" Bandwagon.Look, _Gigli's_ not fabulous, but it's not bad.
It's not a marquee movie.I think it's worth it for the good parts, if only to see just how wrong bad hype can be.Wait for the video if you want or see a matinee, but give it a chance.
If you don't love hearing endlessly about Ben and J-Lo, you may very well have a hard time sitting through this one.For some reason that I don't pretend to understand, Ben and J-Lo each play hardened gangsters in Gigli (named after Affleck's character, who in turn is named such for no apparent reason), with Gigli a slightly younger and cockier thug while Ricki (Lopez) is sent along to keep an eye on him.
This part of the story I won't go into much, since it plays no role in the movie except to have a wispy string of plot along which to string lots of cute scenes with Ben, Jennifer, and, as Gigli charmingly calls him, `the retard.' The criminal plot in this movie is completely meaningless, it bobs it's ugly head above the surface briefly every 20 minutes or so just to remind you that it's there, and then disappears so Ben and Jennifer and argue over the superiorities of their respective genitalia.The reason that I say that the romance is the best part of the movie is because this is a film that follows every standard cliché which should lead up to the typical odd-couple forced together by their work, so completely different that they can hardly stand each other, only to grow on and toward each other and ultimately reach some sweet, happy middle ground so they can kiss at the end with the sunset in the background while the orchestra picks up.
The ability of the characters to forget what they're doing for extended periods of time is remarkable.So like I mentioned earlier, the crime portion of this movie is completely pointless except for three things - lots of cute scenes with the three main characters (I should say the one main character, played by Justin Bartha, and the two supporting characters, Ben and Jen), the cameo from Christopher Walken, and the cameo from Al Pacino, both of which are so good that they diminish the rest of the film beneath the weight of their presence.
You can tell how much thought was put into the film by such things as the fact that Affleck's character has a weird name literally for absolutely no other reason than to provide him a couple of opportunities to explain how to pronounce it (`It rhymes with `really...').
The look on his face is priceless.I firmly believe that it's important to watch the really bad movies in order to truly appreciate the really good ones, and it's no secret that Gigli is definitely one of the bad ones.
Lo and Ben over the past year, they derided it without ever seeing it.I defy all the people rating "Gigli" as the worst movie ever (worse than "Manos"????): come clean.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are simply not believable as 'tough' gangsters.
Looking at the movie, I think he thought and tried to make a "True Romance" like movie but the movie misses all the elements that a movie needs to be a good one.Still the movie was mildly entertaining at times.
I was once again not impressed with Ben Affleck, but the scene with Jennifer Lopez doing yoga and talking about the most wonderful part of the human body was as good as it gets without there being actual sex.
I found Gigli to be funny and, well....a good little movie.
Gigli's problem is that it isn't exceptional in other areas, so there is nothing in the film to offset the terrible dialog.Bad dialog is a real problem in movies.
Gigli, named the worst movie of 2003, understandable in some ways, but I have to say from what I was expecting, this is not the worst film I have ever seen.
First off, this movie was made during the time of the media craze of Bennifer, so it made it kind of annoying to see these two together again, but it's mostly Ben and Jennifer's acting "abilities" that kill the film.
Now somehow this was turned into a ridiculous romantic comedy.Now Gigli like I said is not the worst movie I've seen, but it is a bad one.
Everyone hates this film, even its stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
OK so it's not the worst film ever made its more like the 786th worst ever made, which considering how many movies there are that is saying quite a lot.
I almost did not watch this movie after reading and hearing all of the bad reviews.
I am so happy I went with my instinct to see it knowing I liked Jennifer Lopez movies.
I did not care for Ben Affleck's character, but that is more about him as an actor and a person than the movie.
Jennifer was great as always, but I do think there was just not the right connection with Ben and maybe that is why people disliked the movie.
I'm not much of a Jennifer Lopez fan, but I do like Ben Affleck for starring in Argo, which I really loved.
1. Not only that suicidal people don't do it in a way that is shown in the movie, but also it looks like she just wanted attention.
It takes a truly horrible movie to become a great comedy, while Gigli is just bad enough to be boring without becoming funny.
The first point to highlight in this movie is a question: Why Al Pacino, Christopher Walker, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck accept such a cheesy and corny screenplay?
The characters of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are so ridiculous that spoil any story.
Ben Affleck begins the movie as a tough guy, followed by a spoiled son, a romantic guy and ending like a good man.
A lowly thug named Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is hired to kidnap and watch over a mentally retarded young man named Brian (Justin Bartha).
Who the hell could ever like this movie?This piece of crap has absolutely no positive points, except for the fact that it had Al Pacino in it.