Gigli to be pulled from cinemas! Could this be the shortest cinema to DVD window yet? (1 Viewer)

[John KB]

Both stars are here in the city I live in. Lopez is filming a movie here with Richard Gere. Ben Affleck and J-Lo were supposedly seen smooching in front of her rented house here in Winnipeg. Ok, so that's it for gossip!

 

[Aaron Garman]

Hello all. In it's second week, Gigli has been moved to one of our smallest houses, but runs only one show per day. It is split with Finding Nemo, which runs four shows. I have yet to see Gigli, but I am curious to because of all the bad press. I just cannot imagine it being as bad as everyone says. It received 2.5 stars from Roger Ebert, which doesn't translate to worst movie ever. Of course, this is coming from a man that gave The Life of David Gale 0 stars.

AJG

 

[MatthewA]

If the DVD has a commentary, I will rent the damn thing just to see what the perpetrators have to say.

I wish they still had a dollar theatre in Chapel Hill or Durham. Then I'd try to get a discount on this film when it got there.

 

[Eric F]

It will probably go something like Kevin Costner's The Postman commentary on the Simpsons:

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

 

[Joe6pack99]

I'm glad the masses for once realized what i knew when i saw the preview for this garbage and decided not to see this movie. Usually its the opposite a horrible movie comes out and makes a killing at the box office but for once this is getting what it deserves.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I snuck into this last night, after watching a scratched print of T3 on a small screen. Not awful, but pretty darn bad- the best part of the movie was the retarded kid.
Better than Meet Joe Black, but that ain't saying much.

 

[Jeff D Han]

IMO I never could see the infatuation the
audience has for J-Lo. She is at best a
limited actress and I don't think she is
gorgeous. She will be the target for the
Razzies for a while, like Madonna was.

If Gigli is worse than Swept Away, heads
should roll at Sony.

 

[Nick Sievers]

hell half of em probably never saw the film...

And no I don't think most film critics are assholes, just a bunch of film junkies giving their honest opinions on the medium that some of us love.

 

[Dave H]

This has Superbit all over it: terrible movie, reference quality transfer.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Gobble ... Gobble

 

[Bill Burns]

I haven't seen Gigli, though I'm tempted, as I seem to be one of the few who believe Martin Brest's last film, Meet Joe Black, to be one of the most moving and beautiful films ever made. Or maybe I'm the only one.

Speaking of being the only one, Seymour, I can't resist flying in the face of the tomatoes (or visa versa, or something): I greatly admire Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. How on Earth is this possible, one asks? Because I ask of it only what it offers: beautifully shot fights and chases, fast paced, with minimal dialogue that never intrudes on that beauty (intrusive, often obnoxious dialogue is a fatal poison in Bad Boys II, by comparison -- this is strictly my opinion, naturally ... but hey, I'm the guy posting, whose else would it be? ). The plot of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is thin and direct, creating no obvious holes (one or two minor ones crop up and quickly disappear) by exploring little of its subject matter -- the film is about the (much overdone of late -- I think the trend kicked into high gear with Gibson's Payback) undersaturated, cool (versus hot, not versus uncool) blue motion of its images, and the fundamental danse macabre (to borrow from King) that underlies the films of ... oh, many directors, but let's say Tsui Hark or John Woo, John McTiernan ... action filmmakers. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever has the polished, sharp entertainment value of a good dance number, or even a documentary-like exercise in visual and actor manipulation in the service of action. It's what I fondly call a "pure action picture" (nearly perfect as such, the opposite pole, again, to Bad Boys II with its sloppy, joke-centric filmmaking style, something which manifests in the often thoughtless camera work as well, and not merely in the script). I love it, and its short running time (many, I'm sure, thank the heavens it's short, but what can one do? ) makes it easy to revisit.

The DVD's great, if you like the picture itself. Here are a couple of tidbits for owners (or renters) of the DVD: HBO's First Look originally offered a bit of behind the scenes info excised from the version included on the DVD, but which I find fascinating (why they've edited it from the version seen on the disc, I don't know; perhaps HBO did more than one behind the scenes on the film? Or perhaps the filmmakers rethought the decision to reveal this bit of trivia?): during the "train explosions" sequence, a squib designed to shoot cool (again, versus hot ) sparks at the actors went off too early, and hit Antonio Banderas in the face. This wasn't intended, but the director said he was very happy they'd gone to so much effort to ensure these explosions wouldn't (or at least hopefully wouldn't) actually hurt an actor if mistimed. Banderas came to him after the take and said the director had to keep that shot in the picture, and so he did -- you can see the sparks hit Banderas in the scene.

The other tidbit: this is the only feature film I've seen in memory where unintentional grammatical errors occur in the credits (versus the intentional prankster material found in the Naked Gun films and their ilk). It's actually only one error repeated several times; I noticed it in the theatre, and it's on the DVD as well: Lucy Liu, who co-stars in the picture, has her own credit, of course, but the people who specifically served her (her assistant, her trainer, folks like that) are credited as Ms. Liu's assistant, Ms. Liu's trainer, and so forth. Well, each time (without exception) such a credit comes up, the credits record it as "Ms. Lius' assistant," which would be okay if there were two Lucy Lius on set, but there weren't. If five Donalds have a car, it's the Donalds' car, but if one Donald has a car, it's Donald's car. I love little quirky mistakes like this, though I realize I may well be the only one who does. Still, they always say "Ms. Lius' assistant" and so forth to credit folks associated with her, and it should be "Ms. Liu's."

No, I don't teach remedial English. But yes, I do love noticing these things.

As to Gigli ... well, as Aaron pointed out, one reviewer sorta kinda almost liked it (warning: this review discusses film content, and mentions material in this R-rated film that parents may not wish children to read):

Roger Ebert's review of Gigli

It'll be interesting to see how the major on-line DVD reviewers respond to the disc when it's released. In the meantime, I may wander into a showing before it disappears, but I haven't decided yet.

 

[Seymour Uranowitz]

The thing I found fascinating about Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever was the unanimity of the response from critics. 100% agreement on anything is pretty rare...especially among 100 film critics. Bill, you've spoiled the magic!

 

[Nicholas Vargo]

Bill, don't worry, you're not the only one who liked "Meet Joe Black." My sister loves that film, and I believe my mom does as well. I, myself, have never seen it, and probably won't, just because it is a very long film.

Anyway, about "Gigli"...

If the Camp Pendleton base movie theater over in Oceanside, California booked to show this film, maybe I might go see it. After all, all the movies they show there are free, so why would they pull that booking.

BTW, the producer who was not happy with this movie was none other than Joe Roth himself, the founder of Revolution Studios. He said he wanted to shoot himself after he saw the "rough-cut" version of the film and fought with Martin Brest over the film to cut it down. He has vowed never to give final cut to any other director again. That means Paul Thomas Anderson must return to New Line to make sure he has final cut on every one of his films from now on, since "Punch-Drunk Love" was made primarily at Revolution, where he actually had final cut. Thanks to Ben Affleck and J-Lo, who should really be called by her actual name, which is "Jennifer Lopez" because "J-Lo" makes her sound like a cross between a soft drink and "JELLO", and primarily Martin Brest, P.T. Anderson will most likely never make another film for Revolution Studios.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Poor Martin Brest. He's made a couple really great movies, it saddens me to see his name attached to this.

 

[Julian Lalor]

I'm another fan of Meet Joe Black, although I caught that on DVD and ít did take two sittings to finish it. I have seen Gigli at a (thankfully) free preview. It is obnoxious, offensive and, worst of all, poorly written, directed and acted by all and sundry. Ben Affleck must be the poster boy for the Ex-Gay movement. This is the second film where he "turns" a lesbian. Dire.

Ben Affleck and J-Lo were supposedly seen smooching in front of her rented house here in Winnipeg.

You sure that wasn't a stripper he was doing?

 

[Joshua_Y]

as I seem to be one of the few who believe Martin Brest's last film, Meet Joe Black, to be one of the most moving and beautiful films ever made. Or maybe I'm the only one.

I absolutely adore Meet Joe Black too...its just one of those movies that I can get sucked into...and I just love to sit around and watch it...wonderful film!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Disagreeing with a film critic's opinion is one thing, but making such a blanket indictment as above kind of dilutes your point of contention to me and probably to some other members.



Crawdaddy

 

[alan halvorson]

Now if J.Lo had pulled a Halle Berry in Swordfish and gotten at least topless - I might have gone to see that. I might even buy the dvd. If she did go topless, well ......

 

[Scott Wong]

Man, is it *that* bad? I might go see it just to see what all the hype is about!

Scott.

 

[Seymour Uranowitz]

Man, is it *that* bad? I might go see it just to see what all the hype is about!

"Wow, that food looks really disgusting. Does it taste as bad as it looks?"

"Worse."

"Okay, I'll have a large order."