Gigli

Plot

Larry Gigli is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who is not nearly as tough as he pretends. Louis, a higher-ranking member of Gigli's organization, commands him 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 from prison.

Gigli successfully convinces the young man, Brian, to go with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch", apparently a reference to the television show, which seems to be Brian's singular obsession. Louis does not trust Gigli to get the job done correctly, so he hires a woman who calls herself Ricki to take charge.

Gigli is attracted to Ricki, but he resents both Louis's 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 that Ricki is a lesbian.

Events take a dark turn when Gigli and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither wants to do. At a hospital, Gigli sneaks into the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to the prosecutor as Brian's. Gigli and Ricki return to his apartment, where he confesses his love, and they consummate their relationship.

They are summoned to meet with the mob boss. Starkman reveals that he did not approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother nor to cut off Brian's thumb. Nevertheless, he is angry because it did not match Brian's fingerprint. Therefore, it not only failed to increase pressure on the prosecutor, but also undermined their credibility.

Starkman kills Louis in retaliation for the kidnapping and associated scrutiny by law enforcement. He is about to kill Ricki and Gigli, but she talks him out of it. She points out that only they know where Brian is and that only they can silence him and prevent him from revealing Starkman's organization's involvement in the kidnapping.

They leave Starkman's, decide to leave the mob, and discuss returning Brian to where they found him. On the way, they notice a Baywatch-like music video that is being filmed on the beach. Brian begs to be let off there and, after some convincing, they consent. Gigli convinces Ricki to take his car to escape, but at the last minute, she returns to pick him up, and they leave town together.

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
• Missy Crider as Robin
• Christopher Walken as Stanley Jacobellis
• Terrence Camilleri as Man in Dryer

Production

Halle Berry was invited to be the female lead before dropping out due to scheduling conflicts with her film X2. She was replaced with Jennifer Lopez, who signed in late 2001 for a reported $12 million. Adam Brody and Seth Rogen auditioned for the role of Brian.

Gigli began shooting in Los Angeles on December 10, 2001. The original ending featured Gigli being killed, but after negative response to a test screening, the ending was re-shot and edited. In a 2023 interview in Variety, Martin Brest said:

Release and reception

Box office

Gigli was released on August 1, 2003, grossing $3,753,518 during its opening weekend in 2,215 theaters, averaging $1,694 per theater and ranking #8 at the box office. The negative response led the studio to pull the advertisements for the film and replace them with another of their releases, Bad Boys II.

At the time, the film set a record for the biggest second-weekend drop in box-office gross of any film in wide release since the statistic began being recorded. 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.

After its third week, it was withdrawn, one of the shortest circulation times for a big-budget film. In the United Kingdom, the film was dropped by virtually every cinema after critics panned it. Gigli was stated to be a major part in Sony Pictures losing $42 million in the quarter of its release, although the studio had the successful Bad Boys II and S.W.A.T. during the same period. The worldwide gross of $7.7 million against a $75.6 million budget made Gigli one of the most expensive box-office flops of all time.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Gigli holds an approval rating of 6% based on 185 reviews with an average rating of 3.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bizarre and clumsily plotted, Gigli is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 18 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D−" on a scale of A+ to F.

Joel Siegel of Good Morning America awarded the film a "D" rating and stated in his review, "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."

Entertainment Weeklys 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."

On Ebert and Roeper, critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times both gave the film a thumbs down, although Ebert showed some sympathy toward the film, stating that 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 included Gigli on his list of the 100 worst films of the decade, at #7.

Ebert and James Berardinelli were two of the few major critics to not write it off completely. Ebert (in his print review for The Chicago Sun-Times) gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, and made the balanced observation that Brest avoided obvious plot developments and he said Walken, Pacino and Kazan made the best of their small roles. While the conclusion of Gigli was disappointing Ebert wrote "maybe the movie is worth seeing for some scenes that are really very good". He also believed Affleck and Lopez "have chemistry" but were not believable as organized crime operatives. Berardinelli of the Reel Views blog 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."

One of the few positive reviews came from Amy Dawes of Variety, who wrote that the story was ludicrous and also predicted a box-office failure. But she also found it a fun film with several good performances.

Reevaluation

In recent years, Gigli has increasingly been re-evaluated by critics who often had moderately more positive reviews. For example, Jason Bailey, in a piece for The Guardian, notes that "in the 21st century, the mixed review has become an endangered species—most readers look for the Rotten Tomatoes rating and pull-quote, and little beyond that. Everything is the absolute holy-shit best or the godawful worst of all time, and there's nothing in between. Gigli is in between."

Accolades

Legacy

The film's title was named by the Global Language Monitor as one of the top words from Hollywood to have an impact on the English language in 2003. In particular, late-night talk-show hosts 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.

In his song "Virus Alert" from his 2006 album Straight Outta Lynwood, "Weird Al" Yankovic references the film, hyperbolically claiming that a computer virus will "make your TV record Gigli".

Yahoo! Movies ranked Gigli at number one on their Bottom Rated Movies of All Time, with a critics' rating of D−.

In May 2015, The Hollywood Reporter ranked Gigli #25 on its list of "50 Worst Movie Titles of All Time".

In a 2013 sketch on an episode of Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen plays Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad performing as Affleck in a movie criticizing the creation of Argo while Affleck (who directed, produced and starred in Argo) is cast as a member of the filming crew. When his character was asked why he would appear in this film, Affleck responded, "I've long been looking to appear in a movie worse than Gigli." Affleck said that the negative reception of Gigli led to his directing career.

In a 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen revealed that he auditioned for the part of Brian and deeply regretted doing so. "I don't think the script was written in what, by today's standards, would be the most sensitive portrayal of a boy with a cognitive disability", he said, joking that his career would be over if his audition tape were to become public.

References

References

1. (August 13, 2003). "''GIGLI'' (15)".
2. Lang, Brent. (2 September 2011). "'Gigli's' Real Price Tag — Or, How Studios Lie About Budgets".
3. link. (October 10, 2019 at Box Office Mojo)
4. (1 August 2003). "Gigli, {{sic".
5. (2001-10-29). "Lopez is getting 'Gigli'".
6. Malkin, Marc. (2023-08-02). "Adam Brody on 'F—ing Boring' Method Acting and His Failed 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Audition: 'I Wanted That One'".
7. (June 20, 2025). "Seth Rogen Dishes on the Audition Tape That 'Would End My Career Very, Very Quickly' | Video".
8. (Jun 17, 2012). "The Stax Report: Script Review of Gigli". IGN.
9. Meslow, Scott. (August 1, 2018). "15 Years Later, Was Gigli Really That Bad?".
10. Travers, Peter. (August 1, 2003). "Gigli".
11. Gilchrist, Todd. (July 18, 2023). "Director Martin Brest Revisits the Triumphs of 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Midnight Run,' and Reflects On His Post-'Gigli' Hollywood Exile".
12. "Ben-Jen Bomb: Studio Pulls 'Gigli' Ads".
13. [https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/drops.htm Biggest Second Weekend Drops at the Box Office] {{Webarchive. link. (October 17, 2019 at Box Office Mojo)
14. Stern, Marlow. (August 2013). "A Look Back at 'Gigli,' the Infamous Bennifer-Starring Film, on its 10th Anniversary". The Daily Beast.
15. Goldsmith, Jill. (October 23, 2003). "'Gigli' really wracks Sony".
16. Eller, Claudia. (15 January 2014). "The costliest box office flops of all time". Los Angeles Times.
17. "Gigli (2003)". [[Fandango Media.
18. "Gigli Reviews". [[Metacritic]].
19. "CinemaScore".
20. Siegel, Joel. (2003-08-01). "Now in theaters: Gigli and American Wedding". Good Morning America.
21. Gleiberman, Owen. (2003-07-30). "Gigli".
22. Roeper, Richard. (June 9, 2012). "Richard Roeper's Worst Movies of the Decade list".
23. Ebert, Roger. (2003-08-01). "Movie Reviews: Gigli". Chicago Sun-Times.
24. Barardinelli, James. "Gigli Movie Review".
25. Dawes, Amy. (2003-08-02). "Gigli Review". [[Variety (magazine).
26. Bailey, Jason. (January 25, 2021). "Hear me out: why Gigli isn't a bad movie". The Guardian.
27. "2003 26th Hastings Bad Cinema Society Stinker Awards". [[Los Angeles Times]].
28. "Hollywords".
29. ""Weird Al" Yankovic – Virus Alert".
30. "Top Movies".
31. "Gigli (2003) – Movie Info".
32. (May 29, 2015). "50 of the Worst Movie Titles of All Time".
33. "Ben Affleck credits 'Gigli' with his shift to his 'real love' of directing – and meeting JLo".
34. (24 June 2025). "Seth Rogen Auditioned for Controversial 'Gigli' Role: 'I Saw Myself at the Oscars' If I Got It, but the Tape Would 'End My Career' Today". IndieWire.