Gigli

“Gigli, it sounds like really,” Ben Affleck’s character tells everyone. Really? OK. Anyways, I watched “Scent of a Woman” last night and “Gigli” today. What connects the two? Martin Brest, the director of both. Brest is a director that I have noticed since he directed one of my all time favourite films, “Midnight Run.”

I must say that the people who complained that Gigli is really, really bad and maybe the worst movie of 2003 are exaggerating a bit. Gigli really is not that bad and though some of the dialogue is stilted and awkward, there are some speeches in there that are frank and quite good. Ben and Jen’s verbal fencing match about men, women, a penis and a vagina is actually kinda witty and cool (you’ll have to see the movie to hear what I am talking about). Gigli is better than Bad Boys II, which already makes it not the worst movie of 2003.

Affleck and Lopez put in decent performances. Are they convincing as contract killers? Not really. The characters themselves are written in a way that I did not think that they were actually killers. Al Pacino makes a late appearance in the film and does the “Pacino thing.” He really did scare me in his scenes.

The script is by Brest himself and is OK. I can see a lot of pieces that he took from characters and events in his previous films. Like the character of Louis is a bit of Joe Pantoliano’s Eddie character. There are lines out of the film that ring of other films. Brest is best at mixing comedy in with a serious storyline and Gigli is no different, there are moments when the characters do things that are not out of the ordinary but are just laugh-out-loud funny. One that comes to mind is when Louis calls Gigli, but a mentally challenged character picks up the phone.

Overall, Gigli is not a bad film at all. It’s well worth a rental and is entertaining throughout its running time.