Gigli (2003)
Directed by Martin Brest
Gigli is ordered to kidnap the psychologically challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor. When plans go awry, Gigli's boss sends in Ricki, a gorgeous free-spirited female gangster who has her own set of orders to assist with the kidnapping. But Gigli begins falling for the decidedly unavailable Ricki, which could be a hazard to his occupation.
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What critics compared Gigli to
Writer-director Martin Brest somehow thought combining the most incongruous elements of "Chasing Amy," "Rain Man" and "Pulp Fiction" was a good idea.
It was probably pitched to studio executives as "Prizzi's Honor" meets "Rain Man," but it has none of the cutting wit of the former and none of the redeeming conviction of the latter.
Having the simple advantage of being a dialogue-dependent film in a summer ocean of monosyllabitis, Gigli would simply be mild potato au gratin if it weren't for the patronizing Rain Man setup and mercenary zeal for jokes made at the expense of the mentally handicapped.
You could think of the film as "Ford Fairlane" meets "Rain Man" meets "Chasing Amy," but that would only scratch the surface.
For the next 40 minutes or so, Gigli and Ricki swap stale banter as the actors feign animosity and Bartha sneaks off with the movie by channeling Dustin Hoffman's "Rain Man" shtick.
Written and directed by Martin Brest, whose last outing was the equally unbearable "Meet Joe Black," the romance revolves around these two opposing personalities being assigned to keep an eye on each other as they kidnap the mentally disabled brother of a district attorney and threaten harm to the kid (Justin Bartha, whose performance is straight out of a community theater rendition of "Rain Man") if charges aren't dropped against their boss's capo.
And Lopez, who made a horrible mistake with Gigli in 2003 and hasn’t looked forward, gives it her all.
But as pop-star vehicles go, "Gigli" isn't as insufferable as, say, last year's Madonna-Guy Ritchie debacle, "Swept Away."
Their blind devotion is so great that had the makers of the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez bomb Gigli been smart enough to release the film under the moniker Star Wars: Episode XXX: The Phantom Gigli, they would still be counting their substantial profits.