FAQ

In this Brian is very similar to Raymond in Rain Man. Brest had been the original director of Rain Main, but left that project due to the usual "creative differences" with Dustin Hoffman. Was there anything written about the similarities between these two movies?

Answer:

At the time of its release it was slammed by critics, stand-up comedians and even the stars of the film. It also swept most of the Razzie Awards that it was nominated for; however, there are far worse films out there. All you have to do is look for them. This is only #88 on IMDb's Bottom 100.

"Worst film" claims are always subjective, and this film is far from the worst thing ever made. However Gigli might legitimately be regarded as the worst "A-list" film ever made (along with Battlefield Earth (2000)).

Films made by a fertilizer salesman in Texas (Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)) are not expected to be good, nor are Paris Hilton movies or cheap horror films with no-name casts.

But Gigli was pure "A-list" down the line. It had Oscar nominee Martin Brest directing Oscar winner Ben Affleck and "IT" girl of the time Jennifer Lopez (who had already demonstrated she was--at least--a competent actress) with a $54 million budget. The technical team also had multiple Oscar noms and films like Top Gun, Magnolia, and Erin Brockovich behind them.

So how and why this film went so horribly wrong is a mystery. How none of these highly skilled people failed to recognize what a dire mess they were creating is also unknown. (Perhaps director Brest has the time to answer this, as he hasn't worked since.)

So while Gigli may not be the absolute worst film ever made, it does deserve the enormous scorn that was heaped upon it.

It should be noted that the released version was *not* Martin Brest's version. According to various sources numerous scenes were truncated or deleted which dramatically affected the end product. This is not uncommon in Hollywood, where studios try to "save" a movie and usually end up making it worse. It's unclear if the original vision of this movie will ever be released in a Director's Cut.