Gigli / YMMV - TV Tropes

Angst? What Angst?: Ricki thinks that Larry starts fights with people as a means to avoid dealing with his emotional issues such as sadness.
Awesome Music: The score, by John Powell, is one of the few things about the movie many people will admit they like. It's a great easy-listening album and nice to break out at Valentine's Day. Here's a nice sample.
- "Demagogue" by Urban Dance Squad appears in the restaurant scene.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Many Christopher Walken cameos can come off this way, but this takes the cake (er, pie … whatever). His scene begins unassumingly enough with him playing a detective there to ask Gigli some questions, but then he starts talking about pie for no apparent reason, leaves, and is never alluded to again.
- Another strange bit is when Robin, Ricki's ex-girlfriend, shows up at the apartment. She gets upset when she thinks that Ricki and Larry are now a thing, she slits her wrists, gets taken to the hospital, and is never mentioned again.
Bile Fascination: Its reputation definitely garners this. Although by the following decade, reviews noted that while badly made, it was not as bad as when the film was preceded by the romance between its stars suffering media overexposure to paint the critical reaction, as detailed in the next entry.
Critical Backlash:
- An interesting case. Many of the reviews it got at the time it was released ran the gamut from calling it So Okay, It's Average to garden-variety bad, but the combination of that and the Bennifer-oriented direction the film took caused it to be labeled as one of the worst films ever by the general public and warranted the film six Golden Raspberry Awards at the 24th such ceremony.^note Roger Ebert actually took time out of a different review to argue that it wasn't that bad.
- Affleck and Lopez's rekindling their relationship in 2021 motivated more people into checking out the film, with many finding it to be more boring and aimlessly-plotted than outright bad, with the most common criticisms — the insensitive depiction of Brian's disability, and the film's usage of Cure Your Gays — being things that generally weren't picked up on so much when it was originally released.
Ending Fatigue: Among other things, this movie misses multiple logical endpoints in its last half-hour, beginning with the protagonists leaving Starkman's home.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Christopher Walken shows up, talks about pie for some reason, and leaves. For many viewers, there are no other interesting scenes in the movie.
Fetish Retardant: The scene where Ricki lies seductively on Larry's bed is supposed to be erotic, but her infamous "turkey time" line completely kills the mood.
Ham and Cheese: Al Pacino's scene runs on this. Given that Gigli was directed by Martin Brest, who kickstarted Pacino's overacting phase with Scent of a Woman, totally justified.
Harsher in Hindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experiences with this movie played a hand in that, though they rekindled their relationship in 2021 and later married the following year.
Heartwarming Moments: Despite the extremely negative reception, many of the cast still have fond memories of working with Martin Brest and praised his skills and how he created an environment designed to help them do their best work. Despite his well-documented dislike of the film, Ben Affleck even said he learned to direct from observing Brest and even thanked him in his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards when Argo won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2012.
Narm: Ricki laying seductively on Larry's bed and whispering, "It's turkey time. Gobble-gobble." Not only does it completely fail to be romantic or arousing in any way, but it's such a strange and nonsensical line that it crops up on many a list of the worst movie quotes ever.
Never Live It Down: The film made no secret of its painful attempts to cash in on the Bennifer craze dominating the tabloids at the time of its release, even being explicitly rewritten against the director's wishes for this purpose. The end result was received about as well as one can imagine. Even worse, many speculate that its disastrous performance was in part responsible for the stars deciding to break it off not long after it bombed in theaters.
One-Scene Wonder: Walken's and Pacino's respective scenes — the former is his usual weird self, while the latter gives a hammy performance while providing a man with a bloody death.
Questionable Casting: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as mob goons, who are completely unconvincing in the part and give some of the most awkward performances of their careers.
Retroactive Recognition: That's Justin Bartha giving such a terrible performance as Brian in his film debut. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Romantic Plot Tumor: In the eyes of many people, the film would have been a lot more bearable as a straight-up mobster movie instead of a cheesy Ben & J.Lo romance. You can blame executives wanting to cash in on the "Bennifer" story for that one.
So Bad, It's Good: There was one premium movie channel that got stuck with this film's broadcasting rights and tried to bill it as this. Their ad campaign literally included the phrase, "See what's so bad about what people called the worst movie ever!"
Squick: Louis getting his head blown off into a fish tank and the fish eating pieces of his brains.
Uncertain Audience: The film can't decide if it wants to be a romantic comedy or a serious crime film.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: A retrospective by The Daily Beast first published on the movie's tenth anniversary named Larry "one of the most unlikable, absurd protagonists in recent memory." While it's true that he's meant to be a criminal and therefore somewhat morally edgy, he's also misogynistic, homophobic, and ableist, which causes him to come across mostly as a huge asshole rather than a Lovable Rogue.

YMMV / Gigli

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