Liebe mit Risiko – Gigli (2003)

Liebe mit Risiko – Gigli: Directed by Martin Brest. With Ben Affleck, Terry Camilleri, David Backus, Lenny Venito. Larry Gigli is assigned by a crime boss to kidnap the brother of a prominent district attorney. A beautiful woman known only as Ricki is sent to stay with him to make sure he doesn’t mess up the job.

“Larry Gigli is a hired thug for the mob in LA. When he is put on a job to kidnap the brother of the Federal DA, he takes the mentally handicapped Brian to his flat with the intention of the DA dropping charges against his boss. Later he is joined by another contractor, Ricki, who Louis has put with him to make sure he doesnu0026#39;t f**k the job up. His amorous approaches towards her are rejected when she tells him she is a lesbian, but the two have bigger problems with the job itself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI rented this film because I had read all the harsh reviews, both professional and on this site, that just ripped into it and seemed to have more personal vendettas against the stars rather than objective points to make about the film. With this in mind I decided that I would have to check it out myself; I have no personal feelings about Lopez and Affleck – their relationship is not something I have had rammed down my throat as I donu0026#39;t read the gossips mags and my paper of choice is the Times, where they get rather limited coverage. Without this fatigue I was able to view the film as it came to me rather than seething with cruel and clever put downs even before the film started (as some critics clearly did).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, the critics were mostly right, even if they overreacted to the extreme. The film starts reasonably well and you can see the potential, or at least you can see what they were thinking when the film was being put together. Sadly, as the film continues, the thin strands holding it together are slowly unravelling until almost nothing is left of value. Some of it works well; how many times have the audience embraced a comic crime caper with hit men in the lead roles? Here the film does have some of that type of humour (particularly in the jokes about Gigliu0026#39;s masculinity) but the music used to set the tone begins to grate after a while because there is nothing to support it, and everything else is flawed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe main plot is so very full of holes and stupid plot devices that it is difficult to be involved by it. For a crime comedy, the plot doesnu0026#39;t need to be perfect – but it needs to be good enough so that it doesnu0026#39;t take away from the film, here it is so weak that it damages the film at itu0026#39;s core. The other side of the plot is the romance, and it is absurd! Iu0026#39;m sure if I were a lesbian that I would be offended by the `Iu0026#39;ll turn heru0026#39; approach of the film, but Iu0026#39;m not so Iu0026#39;ll leave that for others to debate. However the romance between the two is unrealistic and uninvolving, the lesbian thing just makes it worse.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe characters themselves are poor. Neither Gigli or Ricki ever seem like killers – in fact even a hint of violence and they look terrified and out of their depth. His personality seems to change to whatever the scene requires (one moment impatient, the next sensitive, the next angry) while Ricki is just sweetness and light. Affleck and Lopez must take almost all the blame for this, their performances are as misjudged and lacking as the script. Affleck is actually not that bad – he is willing to send himself up, it is the jumping script that makes him appear to be all over the place. Lopez is awful; someone who has done this crime comedy style movie before should have been much better but she acts like she is in a simpering rom-com. What is surprising is just how little chemistry the two have considering they are a couple now; they just donu0026#39;t do the job at all.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBartha gives a dumb Rain Man impression to the point where I kept expecting him to say `Iu0026#39;m an excellent driveru0026#39;. His character is just a joke and I even wished for Lopez to come onto the screen whenever he was on – at least I could just stare at her body and ignore him! The two main cameos are actually very good but unfortunately serve to show up the rest of the film. Walken is good but his character appears and disappears without reason, Pacino is much better simply because he does his menacing `woo-hau0026#39; thing and is very effective.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall this is not the `worst film ever madeu0026#39;, those who tell you that have clearly have a limited viewing experience; many of the reviews were made harsher by the back lash against the whole Bennifer thing. However thatu0026#39;s not to say they are wrong – only overly harsh. The film is poorly judged in almost every aspect and is too hard to enjoy as a result. Has about 3 good moments in it, but it is an overwhelming shambles.”