Hailed by hundreds of critics as the worst movie ever made, Gigli, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, isnt all that bad. The problem with Gigli is that the main plot simply doesnt work. The idea and set up are too vague for us to even begin to comprehend what is really going on Gigli is the very definition of a C movie. A C movie is worse than an F movie because its not bad enough to be funny and its not good enough to be liked thus making Gigli worse than say, Underworld or The Order. It merely exists for little or no reason.

            The story begins with Larry Gigli (his name rhymes with really), who works for some sort of mob boss thing. He is hired to take care of a retarded teen named Brian who apparently has some sort of connection with some guy who can get other mob bosses arrested or something like that. Anyway, Gigli picks the kid up, and goes home, only to find that his boss has hired another hit person-thingy to assist. This is where J. Lo comes into the picture. She plays Ricki, the other mob person hired to take care of Rain Mans cousin.

            The movie fails at drawing us into its opening scheme, making the remaining hour and a half very difficult to watch because we simply dont care about these people. Gigli is more or less a character piece surrounded by a horrible mob story. Its as though writer/director Martin Brest (Beverly Hill Cop, Scent of a Woman) wanted to tell a story about a guy and a lesbian who happen to fall in love with one another, but he was too afraid to do it, so instead he concocted an atrocious plot to surround his subtext. The film might have been interesting had he kept with the subplot and left out everything that was disjointed. Then hed have a true character piece.

Thankfully the action is sparse and the dialogue is also pretty good. There are also a few genuinely great moments. Affleck reading to Brian before bed is priceless. So is Jennifer Lopezs monologue about how wonderful the vagina is (note: she gives this monologue while doing mind and body bending Yoga). Afflecks speech about the bull and the cow is very amusing. Lopez threatening gangsters with eye gouging is fun and Afflecks confession of his love for Ricki is sad and touching. Christopher Walkens cameo is also great as are Al Pacino and Lainie Kazans (the mother from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) small roles.

Why do critics hate this film so much? Its hard to figure that out really. There are far worse movies out there. Perhaps they just hate the fact that the talents of Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and Martin Brest, not to mention the cameo stars, went to waste in such a muddled film. The casting isnt perfect however, rendering that complaint mute. Affleck is horrendous; his Andrew Dice Clay accent comes and goes. Lopez isnt convincing as a lesbian or as a killer mainly because we, the audience, are too familiar with her. Justin Barthas performance as Brian is one of the most notable failures in cinema history. Somewhere Forrest Gump is spinning in his grave. The whole lesbian love story subplot is killed by Afflecks presence, as he has already starred in another film (Chasing Amy) about a guy who falls for a lesbian. Had Gigli been played by someone else, Nick Stahl perhaps, that subplot would have worked a lot better.

Even with all that, the film is still not the worst movie ever made. Not by a long shot. Not surprising, Gigli will be coming to video rather soon (mark you calendars for December 9^th). Its honestly worth a look. It may not be high art, but its certainly an odd piece of cinema legend thats sure to become a cult hit if nothing else.