Gigli (2003)

The violent story about how a criminal lesbian, a tough-guy hit-man with a heart of gold, and a retarded man came to be best friends through a hostage.

Director:

Martin Brest

Writer:

Martin Brest

Stars:

Ben Affleck, Terry Camilleri, Justin Bartha

Bottom 100 #88 | 7 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Affleck	...	Larry Gigli
Terry Camilleri	...	Man in Dryer (as Terrence Camilleri)
David Backus	...	Laundry Customer
Lenny Venito	...	Louis
Robert Silver	...	Man in Debt
Luis Alberto Martínez	...	Adult Care Resident
Justin Bartha	...	Brian
Jennifer Lopez	...	Ricki
Christopher Walken	...	Det. Stanley Jacobellis
Todd Giebenhain	...	High School Kid #1
Brian Sites	...	High School Kid #2
Brian Casey	...	High School Kid #3
Les Bradford	...	High School Kid #4
David Bonfadini	...	High School Kid #5
Dwight Ketchum	...	High School Kid #6 (as Dwight P. Ketchum)

Storyline

Gigli, a lowly and inept hitman, is assigned a job by the mob to kidnap a mentally retarded brother of a California district attorney. Gigli abducts the brother from his mental hospital and holds him hostage in his apartment. Ricki, a "lesbian assassin", is sent to oversee Gigli's job and make sure he doesn't screw it up. Comedic high jinks ensue as the two go on the lam and start to fall in love.

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Plot Keywords:

lesbian | mob | gangster | kidnapping | hospital | 

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Taglines:

The movie everyone is talking about. The couple everyone wants to be (Australian DVD cover)

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, pervasive language and brief strong violence

Details

Official Sites:

Columbia Tristar [fr] Sony [de]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 August 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tough Love

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$54,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$50,385 (Brazil) (21 November 2003)

Gross:

$50,385 (Brazil) (21 November 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, City Light Films, Casey Silver Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gigli (pronounced Jee-lyee), is Italian for "lilies" and also denotes a type of short-cut, fluted pasta (also known as Cornetti di bue, or ox-horns).

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Goofs

When Ricky and Larry are leaving to meet Louis, she is wearing an orange-colored shirt under her jacket, but when they're with Louis and Starkman she's wearing a different shirt.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Larry Gigli: You see, after all is said and done, the only thing you can be really sure of, the only thing you can really count on in this world, is that you just never fucking know.

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Crazy Credits

Towards the end of the credits Brian (Justin Bartha) can be heard singing his rendition of "Baby Got Back".

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Connections

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Demagogue"
Written by Silvano Matadin, Michel Schoots, Patrick Tilon and Rene Van Barneveld
Performed by Urban Dance Squad
Courtesy of Lovecat Records
By Arrangement with Ocean Park Music Group

User Reviews

Suffered from Ben and J-Lo backlash and isn't as bad as many say, but is still an ill-formed, poorly judged shambles

Larry Gigli is a hired thug for the mob in LA. When he is put on a job to kidnap the brother of the Federal DA, he takes the mentally handicapped Brian to his flat with the intention of the DA dropping charges against his boss. Later he is joined by another contractor, Ricki, who Louis has put with him to make sure he doesn't f**k the job up. His amorous approaches towards her are rejected when she tells him she is a lesbian, but the two have bigger problems with the job itself.

I rented this film because I had read all the harsh reviews, both professional and on this site, that just ripped into it and seemed to have more personal vendettas against the stars rather than objective points to make about the film. With this in mind I decided that I would have to check it out myself; I have no personal feelings about Lopez and Affleck - their relationship is not something I have had rammed down my throat as I don't read the gossips mags and my paper of choice is the Times, where they get rather limited coverage. Without this fatigue I was able to view the film as it came to me rather than seething with cruel and clever put downs even before the film started (as some critics clearly did).

However, the critics were mostly right, even if they overreacted to the extreme. The film starts reasonably well and you can see the potential, or at least you can see what they were thinking when the film was being put together. Sadly, as the film continues, the thin strands holding it together are slowly unravelling until almost nothing is left of value. Some of it works well; how many times have the audience embraced a comic crime caper with hit men in the lead roles? Here the film does have some of that type of humour (particularly in the jokes about Gigli's masculinity) but the music used to set the tone begins to grate after a while because there is nothing to support it, and everything else is flawed.

The main plot is so very full of holes and stupid plot devices that it is difficult to be involved by it. For a crime comedy, the plot doesn't need to be perfect - but it needs to be good enough so that it doesn't take away from the film, here it is so weak that it damages the film at it's core. The other side of the plot is the romance, and it is absurd! I'm sure if I were a lesbian that I would be offended by the `I'll turn her' approach of the film, but I'm not so I'll leave that for others to debate. However the romance between the two is unrealistic and uninvolving, the lesbian thing just makes it worse.

The characters themselves are poor. Neither Gigli or Ricki ever seem like killers - in fact even a hint of violence and they look terrified and out of their depth. His personality seems to change to whatever the scene requires (one moment impatient, the next sensitive, the next angry) while Ricki is just sweetness and light. Affleck and Lopez must take almost all the blame for this, their performances are as misjudged and lacking as the script. Affleck is actually not that bad - he is willing to send himself up, it is the jumping script that makes him appear to be all over the place. 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. What is surprising is just how little chemistry the two have considering they are a couple now; they just don't do the job at all.

Bartha gives a dumb Rain Man impression to the point where I kept expecting him to say `I'm an excellent driver'. His character is just a joke and I even wished for Lopez to come onto the screen whenever he was on - at least I could just stare at her body and ignore him! The two main cameos are actually very good but unfortunately serve to show up the rest of the film. 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. However that's not to say they are wrong - only overly harsh. The film is poorly judged in almost every aspect and is too hard to enjoy as a result. Has about 3 good moments in it, but it is an overwhelming shambles.