name	Gigli
director	Martin Brest
producer	Martin BrestCasey Silver
writer	Martin Brest
starring	Ben AffleckJennifer LopezJustin BarthaLainie KazanChristopher WalkenLenny VenitoMissy CriderAl Pacino
music	John Powell
cinematography	Robert Elswit
editing	Julie MonroeBilly Weber
studio	Revolution Studios
distributor	Columbia Pictures
released
runtime	121 minutes
country
language	English
budget	$54 million
gross	$7,266,209 }}

''Gigli'' () is a 2003 romantic comedy film written and directed by Martin Brest and starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Lainie Kazan.

After a protracted battle between studio and director, a radically revised version of the original film was released. There was significant media attention and popular interest prior to its release, primarily because Affleck and Lopez, the film's stars, were romantically involved at the time. However, critical reception was extremely poor, and in the years since its release ''Gigli'' has frequently been cited as among the worst movies ever made.

Plot

Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-ranking mobster in Los Angeles who is not nearly as tough as he likes to act. He is commanded to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to save New York-based mob boss Starkman (Al Pacino) from prison.

Gigli successfully convinces the young man, Brian (Justin Bartha), to go off with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch," which seems to be Brian's singular obsession. The man who ordered the kidnapping, Louis (Lenny Venito), does not trust Gigli to get the job done right, so he hires a woman calling herself Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) to take charge.

Gigli is attracted to Ricki, but he resents the fact that Louis does not have faith in him and that he has to take orders from a woman. He is also frustrated by Brian's insistence on going to "the Baywatch" and by Ricki's lesbianism. The events take a darker turn when Larry and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither wants to do.

Ricki's girlfriend, Robin (Missy Crider), shows up at Gigli's apartment, accusing him of cheating. She slits her wrists and has to be rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, Gigli goes to the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to his boss as Brian's thumb. Gigli and Ricki go back to his apartment where Gigli confesses his love, and the two sleep together.

They are summoned to meet with the mob's boss. Starkman reveals that he didn't approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother and scolds them because the thumb they sent won't match Brian's fingerprint; he then kills Louis. Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Gigli as well, but Ricki talks him out of it.

They decide to take Brian back to where they found him. On the way, they discover ''Baywatch'' (or a similarly themed show or film) shooting an episode on the beach. They leave a happy Brian there, and at the last minute, Ricki decides to leave town with Gigli.

Cast

Ben Affleck as Larry Gigli

Jennifer Lopez as Ricki

Justin Bartha as Brian

Lainie Kazan as Mrs. Gigli

Al Pacino as Starkman

Lenny Venito as Louis

Christopher Walken as Detective Stanley Jacobellis

Missy Crider as Robin

Reception

''Gigli'' was considered a bomb, often called the worst movie of 2003, grossing less than $4 million in its opening weekend after costing $54 million to produce. The majority of the reviews have been negative. ''Gigli'' scored 6% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 157 reviews, with the overall consensus being: "Bizarre and clumsily plotted, ''Gigli'' is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry." It scored an 18% on Metacritic based on 37 reviews, meaning "extreme dislike".

''Gigli'' also scored only an 7% on Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop" section, a three among notable critics at Rotten Tomatoes and a 2.3 among Metacritic's users. ''Gigli'' also set a record for the biggest second-weekend drop in box office gross of any film in wide release since that statistic was kept; it dropped by almost 82 percent in its second weekend compared to its first. By its third weekend in release, only 73 U.S. theaters were showing it, down from 2,215 during its first weekend, a drop of 97 percent.

On ''Ebert and Roeper'', critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper both gave the film thumbs down, although Ebert showed some sympathy towards the film, stating it had "clever dialogue", but was "... too disorganized for me to recommend it." Roeper called the film "a disaster" and "one of the worst movies I've ever seen". He then included ''Gigli'' on his 100 worst movies of the decade at #7.

Its title was named by the Global Language Monitor as one of the top words from Hollywood having an impact on the English language in 2003. Late night talk show hosts in particular lampooned the film in their monologues; Conan O'Brien said "The Mets are doing so badly that they will be renamed 'The New York Gigli.'" The film was withdrawn from U.S. theatres after only three weeks (one of the shortest circulation times for a big-budget movie), earning a total of only $6 million domestically and $1 million abroad. In the UK, the film was dropped by virtually every cinema after critics panned it.

The film received six Razzies in the 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards – Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple. For a film to win the "Academy Awards grand slam", it must win the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing, Screenplay. Conversely, winning those awards' Razzie counterparts makes ''Gigli'' the only film ever to perform the "Razzie grand slam". A year later, the film won a seventh Razzie for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years."

Currently, Yahoo! Movies rates ''Gigli'' number one on their ''Bottom Rated Movies of All Time'', with a critics rating of D−. ''The Onion'', a satirical newspaper, ran an article about the film, titled "''Gigli'' focus groups demand new ending in which Affleck and Lopez die." Roger Ebert and James Berardinelli, while panning the film, were two of the very few critics to not write it off completely. Ebert ranked the film with two and a half stars, saying, "They didn't quite get to where they wanted to be, but the film is worth seeing for some very good scenes." Berardinelli ranked the film with two stars, saying, "This isn't a good film, but, when set alongside the likes of ''Dumb and Dumberer'' and ''Legally Blonde 2'', Jen & Ben offer less pain."

A rare positive, as opposed to less negative, review came from Amy Dawes of ''Variety''. She wrote that the story was ludicrous and that the film would tank, but that on balance she found it a fun film with several good performances. Her review was the only positive one out of 37 reviews from notable critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Although hers was the only positive one on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert's was the highest rated on Metacritic.

Perhaps the only element of the film that received any noticeable positive attention was Justin Bartha's performance as the mentally handicapped younger brother. Even some of the critics who were completely panning the film gave a sliver of positivity when mentioning Bartha's performance, although others (particularly Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper) found the character manipulative and derivative of Dustin Hoffman in ''Rain Man''. Nonetheless, his performance did nothing to overshadow the film's nearly unanimous bad reviews.

See also

List of films considered the worst

References

External links

Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension

Category:2003 films Category:2000s romantic comedy films Category:American films Category:American LGBT-related films Category:American romantic comedy films Category:American comedy-drama films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Martin Brest Category:Mafia comedies Category:Worst Picture Golden Raspberry Award winners Category:Revolution Studios films Category:Columbia Pictures films

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Beniamino Gigli () (March 20, 1890 – November 30, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his interpretations. Nevertheless, such was Gigli's talent, he is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music.

Biography

Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoemaker who loved opera. His brother Lorenzo became a famous Italian painter.

In 1914, he won first prize in an international singing competition in Parma. His operatic debut came on October 15, 1914, when he played Enzo in Amilcare Ponchielli's ''La Gioconda'' in Rovigo, following which he was in great demand.

Gigli made many important debuts in quick succession, and always in ''Mefistofele'': Teatro Massimo in Palermo (March 31, 1915), Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (December 26, 1915), Teatro Costanzi di Roma (December 26, 1916), La Scala (November 19, 1918), and finally the Metropolitan Opera (November 26, 1920). Two other great Italian tenors present on the roster of Met singers during the 1920s also happened to be Gigli's chief contemporary rivals for tenor supremacy in the Italian repertory—namely, Giovanni Martinelli and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi.

Some of the roles with which Gigli became particularly associated during this period included Edgardo in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's ''La Bohème'' and the title role in Umberto Giordano's ''Andrea Chénier'', both of which he would later record in full.

Gigli rose to true international prominence after the death of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1921. Such was his popularity with audiences he was often called "Caruso Secondo", though he much preferred to be known as "Gigli Primo." In fact, the comparison was not valid as Caruso had a bigger, darker, more heroic voice than Gigli's honey-toned lyric instrument.

Gigli left the Met in 1932, ostensibly after refusing to take a pay cut. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met's then general manager, was furious at his company's most popular male singer; he told the press that Gigli was the only singer not to accept the pay cut. There were in fact several others, Lily Pons and Rosa Ponselle among them; and it is well documented that Gatti-Casazza gave himself a large pay increase in 1931, so that after the pay cut in 1932 his salary remained the same as it had been originally. Furthermore, Gatti was careful to hide Gigli's counter offer from the press, in which the singer offered to sing five or six concerts gratis, which in dollars saved was worth more than Gatti's imposed pay cut.

After leaving the Met, Gigli returned again to Italy, and sang in houses there, elsewhere in Europe, and in South America. He was criticized for being a favorite singer of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and toward the end of World War II was able to give few performances. However, he immediately returned to the stage when the war ended in 1945, and the audience acclaim was greater and more clamorous than ever.

In addition to his stage performances, Gigli appeared as an actor in over twenty films from 1935 to 1953. Some notable appearances include 1936's Johannes Riemann-directed musical drama ''Ave Maria'' opposite actress Käthe von Nagy and Giuseppe Fatigati's 1943 drama ''I Pagliacci'' (English release title: ''Laugh Pagliacci''), opposite Italian actress Alida Valli.

In the last few years of his life, Gigli gave concert performances more often than he appeared on stage. Before his retirement in 1955, Gigli undertook an exhausting world tour of farewell concerts. This impaired his health in the two years that remained to him, during which time he helped prepare his memoirs (based primarily on an earlier memoir, fleshed out by a series of interviews). Gigli died in Rome in 1957.

Personal life

Like many artists, Gigli was a man of contradictions. On the one hand, he gave more fund-raising concerts and raised more money than any other singer in history, with close to one thousand benefit concerts. He was deeply devoted to Padre Pio, his confessor, to whom he donated a large amount of money. Also, Gigli sang an unusual amount of sacred music (especially in the 1950s), atypical of a leading operatic tenor. Additionally, he was throughout his life deeply devoted to the sacred music of Don Lorenzo Perosi.

On the other hand, Gigli's relationships with women were often tainted by scandal. He lied in his memoirs, saying that he was married six months earlier than he really was. This was to conceal that his wife Costanza was pregnant before reaching the altar. Gigli had two children with Costanza: Enzo and Rina. (The latter was a well-known soprano in her own right.) Later, Gigli is well-known to have had a second family with Lucia Vigarani, producing three children. Gigli is rumored to have had at least three other children with as many different women. Gigli's exact number of offspring is unknown.

Gigli's musical legacy

Such is Gigli's popularity that most of his recordings including complete operas normally with Toti dal Monte have been converted to CD and are freely available. His disc legacy dates back to recordings in the 1920s, which provide a good insight into the beauty of his voice due to EMI's digital enhancement of the recordings quality using the CEDAR process. He was liked by many composers and was the first to sing the title role in Andrea Chénier. Listen to his rendition of the complete opera Cavalleria Rusticana and you will hear Pietro Mascagni's voice welcoming you.

However, if you want to hear his recordings from his Italian years in the early thirties until just after the war including his rendition of the "Giovinezza" you will have to go to Italy. His leaving the Met following a pay cut meant he fell into the arms of Mussolini and allegedly became his favorite. This would have been fatal to most singers and for a while after the war he had to sing with his daughter Rina as many sopranos would not sing with him. This ended with a concert in Covent Garden when the world and the critics saw what they had been missing. He described himself as a simple man with a gift from God. He was a generous man and would always end every concert by remaining on stage with the offer he would sing any song the audience wanted for a fee with the money going to charity.

Gigli was the principal tenor of Metropolitan Opera for good reason and his version of Nessun Dorma will amaze many by its similarity to that made famous by Luciano Pavarotti many years later. He has what all great singers have, which is a voice easily recognisable and the ability to put a stamp on a song and make it his own. Like Jussi Björling, he sings in an apparently effortless way. There are examples on YouTube which clearly show how easy and marvelous his voice production was.

In addition to his opera skills he is considered by many to be the greatest exponent of Neapolitan singing, he has a sound which is so definitively Italian and he sings convincingly in all Italian dialects. The double CD from EMI called ''O Sole Mio'' ranks as one of the best collections of this style of music, his version of ''Mamma'' still stands the test of time and no one sings ''Santa Lucia'' like he does with all the power of a true opera tenor coupled to a rapier-like sweet falsetto. Unlike many opera stars today who sing ''can belto'' not ''bel canto'', Gigli had the power of a truly great tenor coupled to a melting falsetto and tingling pianissimo. His emotional renditions complete with sobs which caused the critics so much concern were loved by the masses. Like Plácido Domingo, Roberto Alagna, and Juan Diego Flórez do now, he could sell a song and he knew the way an audience liked it.

Described as foxy by his accompanist his recordings reflect this in some of the unusual songs in his repertoire. He also was prone to including unusual twists and endings to the standards. For example he sings Chopin and English songs and his version of ''In the depths of the temple'' from Les pêcheurs de perles by Georges Bizet sung with Giuseppe De Luca contains such a unique ending. At the end of his career his voice may have lost its power, but it retained its beauty till the end; listen to the ''Dream'' from Manon in the live recording of a concert he gave in Rio just prior to his death.

Biographies

References

External links

International Jose Guillermo Carrillo Foundation

Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)

History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration

Category:1890 births Category:1957 deaths Category:People from the Province of Macerata Category:Italian opera singers Category:Italian tenors Category:Operatic tenors Category:Italian film actors

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