# Resolved: Gigli is not that bad (it's bad, just not that bad)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 8, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694 "2014-12-08T20:52:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/1 "2014-12-08T20:52:01Z")
I recently saw a rerun of SNL that Ben Affleck hosted where they were slamming the movie _Gigli_. It was an infamously bad movie that I had never seen, so I thought I would finally check it out just to see what a mess it was. To my surprise, I found the film to not be nearly as crappy as it is made out to be.
Looking over some reviews of the movie, I found one by James Berardinelli at [Reelviews](http://reelviews.net/movies/g/gigli.html) that captured my impressions in its opening paragraph:
> [@](#):
>
> I saw Gigli for much the same reason that a good portion of the movie’s eventual audience will see it. Jen and Ben? No. Morbid curiosity? Yes. After all, it had become fashionable to rip Gigli. The advance word on this film was so vicious that I had to see for myself if it’s as bad as its early reputation suggested. The verdict: Gigli doesn’t live up to (or should that be down to?) its hype. The worst film of all time? Give me a break. Gigli isn’t even the worst film of the summer, and won’t come close to the year’s Bottom 10 list. I’m not going to defend the movie. I don’t recommend it and, for the most part, it’s an example of inept filmmaking, but it is watchable. I have to wonder if those who are coming down so hard on the motion picture have a secondary agenda. Are they reviewing Gigli, or are they making a comment on the tabloid supersaturation associated with the Jen & Ben show?
The oddest thing is that there are two other threads at the SDMB about this movie, one from [2005](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302174), and the other from [2007](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434934), that basically came to the same conclusion.
How is this film one of the 100 lowest rated films on IMDB? There is no way this movie deserves to be in the same category as _Ishtar_, _Alone in the Dark_, or _Battlefield Earth_. I feel odd defending the film because, in the end, it is still a bad movie. It is not actively bad, though, just passively bad. Its greatest sins are being boring and overly long.
It is hard to find fault the plot because it barely has one, and even at that it does not seem to care much about it. It is just a mechanism to get the two leads together. Sure, the acting may be lacking–Jennifer Lopez plays Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck plays Ben Affleck, Christopher Walken plays Christopher Walken, and Al Pacino plays Al Pacino–but, it is not like they are trying something and failing, they are not even trying.
I am disappointed. I guess when you hear about this real stinker of a movie for so many years, it sets your expectations so unbelievably low that they could never be satisfied. With that amount of build-up the reality is bound to better than the reputation. Maybe if I had set my expectations higher, I would have liked it less.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/2 "2014-12-08T21:03:29Z")
If MST3K has never screened it, then it can’t be that bad.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/3 "2014-12-09T01:21:40Z")
It reminded me a lot of Chasing Amy.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/4 "2014-12-09T01:32:25Z")
> [@JKilez](#):
>
> How is this film one of the 100 lowest rated films on IMDB? There is no way this movie deserves to be in the same category as _Ishtar_, _Alone in the Dark_, or _Battlefield Earth_.
Interesting. I personally would say that Ishtar, while not a good movie, isn’t nearly so bad that it deserves to be categorized with shit like Battlefield Earth or Gigli.
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/5 "2014-12-09T01:49:17Z")
I think your view is pretty much the consensus: lousy, but not the lousiest. It’s infamy was extremely heightened by the obnoxious oversaturation of the leads in the media, but the fact that it also uses a mentally challenged character for comedic effect _and_ has a “lesbians are just waiting for the right guy” theme really doesn’t do it any favors, reputation-wise.
The imdb bottom 200 isn’t really a list of what movies are the worst. if they were, a lot more student films would be there. It’s a list of movies people hate, and there’s plenty of reasons to hate Gigli, even if the movie’s overall quality isn’t necessarily the greatest one.
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### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/6 "2014-12-09T03:46:32Z")
> [@wolfman](#):
>
> Interesting. I personally would say that Ishtar, while not a good movie, isn’t nearly so bad that it deserves to be categorized with shit like Battlefield Earth or Gigli.
Well it is not in the bottom 100, so it is not quite with the basement dwellers. I put _Ishtar_ on that list as my own editorial comment, noting that in a recent thread, [Name an unjustly derided movie](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=740707), it came up as example of a movie better than its reputation.
With that film, I decidedly side with the majority in believing it deserves its rap. The first 30 minutes of _Ishtar_ were just excruciatingly bad. I felt embarrassed for everyone involved. As it moved on it got less painful to watch, but the movie never got better. I did not think the leads had any chemistry. I did not think the jokes or situational humor were funny. I thought the story was hackneyed. The production just felt clumsy. At best, the whole thing rose to the level of hokey. _Ishtar_ is a movie that tried and failed.
Apparently, some people find it hilarious. So, good for them! 🙂
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/7 "2014-12-09T04:26:54Z")
> [@typoink](#):
>
> It’s infamy was extremely heightened by the obnoxious oversaturation of the leads in the media, but the fact that it also uses a mentally challenged character for comedic effect _and_ has a “lesbians are just waiting for the right guy” theme really doesn’t do it any favors, reputation-wise.
I would have lumped it into the category of “unfunny comedies”, but I thought the mentally handicapped character was in exceptionally poor taste. That’s what made it stick out in my mind.
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### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/8 "2014-12-09T05:03:37Z")
> [@typoink](#):
>
> It’s infamy was extremely heightened by the obnoxious oversaturation of the leads in the media, but the fact that it also uses a mentally challenged character for comedic effect _and_ has a “lesbians are just waiting for the right guy” theme really doesn’t do it any favors, reputation-wise.
That is true. Both those things caused me to groan, yet neither of them bothered me too much, because the movie did not have enough confidence to commit to anything.
Unless I missed something, the brother’s disability is never specified. He has some hodge-podge of autism, Tourette’s, and brain damage that allows him to be as functional or dysfunctional as needed for a particular scene. The character is a cartoon of a mentally challenged person, so it was not too upsetting when his lines attempted to add spunky comic relief. He could have been Jim Carrey in _Dumb and Dumber_, or Jason Mewes in anything.
The lesbian thing also would be more offensive if it appeared for one moment that Jennifer Lopez was portraying an actual lesbian. As it comes up later, she is a “movie” lesbian, the kind that sleeps with guys, but only self-actualized ones. It is apparent from the get-go that that angle is just a contrivance to explain why she and Ben are not boning on the first night. For Christ’s sake, it is a rom-com. It needs a hurdle for the leads to overcome by the end of the movie.
If I actually believed in the characters, those things probably would have bothered me more. At no time, however, did it ever feel like they were going for authentic in their portrayals.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-gigli-is-not-that-bad-its-bad-just-not-that-bad/706694/9 "2014-12-09T05:07:50Z")
I don’t care if Kate Upton said “it’s turkey time. Gobble gobble.”
That is the number one boner killer line of all time.