Review of Gigli (2003) by Shewan H — 02 Sep 2015

For those who give the film any less than a 2 star rating, one or more of a few things are at work: they didn't watch the entire movie, they allowed the Bennifer backlash to influence their experience, they allowed the critical backlash to influence their experience, they don't like Jennifer or Ben as actors, they wanted to jump on the bandwagon of the film's bashing or some combination of these reasons (none of which are real reasons to dislike the film).

I saw it in theaters, I bought it and have watched it a number of times since. Is it the best movie ever made? Certainly not, but it is so far from the worst ever made and if you actually look at the box office debut and numbers, far worse bombs invaded the box office before and have since.

Jennifer Lopez gives an incredibly believable and nuanced performance as Ricki. She's directed very well and her character is crafted. Nice job! Al Pacino and Christopher Walken are crazily wonderful in their cameos.

And while the story isn't ground breaking, I give it credit for originality. It's not another superhero movie or franchise which Hollywood has been obsessed with churning out for years now. It's entertaining and funny.

Haters are going to find hate because they're too lazy to form their own opinions. Bottom line: the film is overly criticized because of their very public relationship but so far away from the bottom of the barrel that people are so keen to place it in.

Look at the numbers people. As obsessed as the industry is with money, many more films fall well below Gigli.