History YMMV / Gigli

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-look-back-at-gigli-the-infamous-bennifer-starring-film-on-its-10th-anniversary A retrospective]] by ''The Daily Beast'' first published on the movie's tenth anniversary named Larry "one of the most unlikable, absurd protagonists in recent memory." While it's true that he's meant to be a criminal and therefore somewhat morally edgy, he's also [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero misogynistic, homophobic, and ableist]], which causes him to come across mostly as a huge asshole rather than a LoveableRogue.

* WTHCastingAgency: Creator/BenAffleck and Music/JenniferLopez as mob goons, who are completely unconvincing in the part and give some of the most awkward performances of their careers.

* ValuesDissonance: The film came out at a time when gay and mentally disabled people were still very much on the periphery and bordered on AcceptableTargets in a lot of media. Hence, Brian, who has a loosely-defined mental disability, is treated with general contempt, and the entire plot of the film revolves around Larry being able to [[CureYourGays romance the explicitly-lesbian Ricki]], with him treating her lesbianism as worthy of mockery. At the time, this was considered edgy and controversial, but more just for the acknowledgement of those things than for its actual treatment of them, with contemporary reviews barely bringing them up. Nowadays, they would probably get the movie boycotted outright.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Brian, who is always spilling out random curse words, fits of giggles, tells people not to touch him or handle his pumpkin seeds and is always wanting to go to "the Baywatch", as in the actual location of the Baywatch beach.

* IdiotPlot: To the point that Pacino's character's whole role in the story is basically to point out to Louis, Larry, and Ricki how stupid they've all been.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Creator/ChristopherWalken shows up, talks about pie for some reason, leaves. For many viewers, there are no other interesting scenes in the movie.

* HarsherInHindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferLopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experience in this movie played a hand in that, though [[HeartwarmingInHindsight they rekindled their relationship in 2021 and later married the following year]].

* HarsherInHindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferLopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experience in this movie played a hand in that, though [[HeartwarmingInHindsight they rekindled their relationship in 2021 and later married the following year]]. On the other hand, Affleck had also separated from Creator/JenniferGarner around the same time.

* HarsherInHindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferLopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experience in this movie played a hand in that, though [[HeartwarmingInHindsight they rekindled their relationship in 2021]]. On the other hand, Affleck had also separated from Creator/JenniferGarner around the same time.

%%* ValuesDissonance: The film's treatment of the disabled and its use of CureYourGays was seen as merely silly in its time, but would probably get the film boycotted today.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Despite the extremely negative reception, many of the cast still have fond memories of working with Martin Brest and praised his skills and how he created an environment designed to help them do their best work. Despite his well-documented dislike of the film, Ben Affleck even said he learned to direct from observing Brest and even thanked him in his acceptance speech at the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwards when ''Film/{{Argo}}'' won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2012.

* NeverLiveItDown: The film made no secret of its painful attempts to cash in on the Bennifer craze dominating the tabloids at the time of its release, even being explicitly ''rewritten'' against the director's wishes for this purpose. The end result was received about as well as one can imagine.
** Even worse, many speculate that its disastrous performance was in part responsible for the stars deciding to break it off not long after it bombed in theaters.

** An interesting case. Many of the reviews it got at the time it was released ran the gamut from calling it SoOkayItsAverage to garden-variety bad, but the combination of that and the Bennifer-oriented direction the film took caused it to be labeled as one of the worst films ever by the general public and warranted the film six UsefulNotes/{{Golden Raspberry Award}}s at the 24th such ceremony.[[note]]At the next year's ceremony, it also got a special award for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years," beating the likes of ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash'', ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'', and ''Film/LeonardPart6''.[[/note]] Creator/RogerEbert actually took time out of a different review to point out that it wasn't '''that''' bad.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Creator/ChristopherWalken shows up, talks about pie for some reason, leaves. End of the interesting scenes in the movie.

* HarsherInHindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferLopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experience in this movie played a hand in that, though [[HeartwarmingInHindsight they would rekindle their relationship in 2021]].
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Despite the extremely negative reception, many of the cast still have fond memories of working with Martin Brest and praised his skills and how he created an environment designed to help them do their best work. Despite his well-documented dislike of the film, Ben Affleck even said he learned to direct from observing Brest and even thanked him in his acceptance speech when ''Film/Argo'' won Best Picture at the Oscars a decade later.

** Even worse, many speculate that its disastrous performance was in part responsible for Ben and J-Lo deciding to break it off not long after it bombed in theaters.
* OneSceneWonder: Walken and Pacino's respective scenes - the former is his usual weird self, while the latter gives a hammy performance while providing a man with a bloody death.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: A retrospective by ''The Daily Beast'' named Larry "one of the most unlikable, absurd protagonists in recent memory"--while it's true that he's meant to be a criminal and therefore somewhat morally edgy, he's also [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero misogynistic, homophobic, and ableist]], which causes him to mostly come across as a huge asshole rather than a LoveableRogue.

* ValuesDissonance: The film's treatment of the disabled and its use of CureYourGays was seen as merely silly in its time, but would probably get the film boycotted today.

* HarsherInHindsight: Re-written to cash in on the "Bennifer" craze, Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferLopez would end their relationship not so long after this film's release, leading many to speculate if their experience in this movie played a hand in that.

* HeartwarmingMoments: Despite the extremely negative reception, many of the cast still have fond memories of working with Martin Brest and praised his skills and how he created an environment designed to help them do their best work. Despite his well-documented dislike of the film, Ben Affleck even said he learned to direct from observing Brest and even thanked him in his acceptance speech when ''Film/Argo'' won Best Picture at the Oscars a decade later.

* CriticalBacklash: An interesting case. Many of the reviews it got at the time it was released ran the gamut from calling it SoOkayItsAverage to garden-variety bad, but the combination of that and the Bennifer-oriented direction the film took caused it to be labeled as one of the worst films ever by the general public and warranted the film six UsefulNotes/{{Golden Raspberry Award}}s at the 24th such ceremony.[[note]]At the next year's ceremony, it also got a special award for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years," beating the likes of ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash'', ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'', and ''Film/LeonardPart6''.[[/note]] Creator/RogerEbert actually took time out of a different review to point out that it wasn't '''that''' bad.