This Is Jennifer Lopez’s Worst Movie, According to Rotten Tomatoes
Even Jennifer Lopez’s worst movies haven’t slowed down a career that spans decades. Yes, J. Lo’s filmography isn’t solely made up of critically acclaimed box office hits and award winners. Like many other actors, she’s starred in a few flops. According to Rotten Tomatoes, one stands out among the rest as Lopez’s worst movie. The answer, perhaps no surprise to anyone who lived through the early aughts, is Gigli.
Rotten Tomatoes has ‘Gigli’ as Jennifer Lopez’s worst movie
The list of Jennifer Lopez’s worst movies starts with none other than 2003’s Gigli, per Rotten Tomatoes. The comedy, which she starred in alongside her now-husband Ben Affleck, marked the end of the original Bennifer era.
After getting to know each other during filming, romance blossomed between Affleck and Lopez, culminating in an engagement (Remember J.Lo’s pink ring?) and, eventually, a canceled wedding.
Directed by Martin Brest, Gigli earned a measly 6% on the Tomatometer. The audience score wasn’t much better, clocking in at 13%. As for the film’s premise, it centered around Larry (Affleck) reluctantly teaming up — and falling in love — with Ricki (Lopez) after a kidnapping goes awry.
Reviewers called Jennifer Lopez’s worst movie a ‘mess’ when it premiered in 2003
Let’s just say Gigli’s critical reception was bad. Like, really bad. When it opened in theaters in August 2003, co-stars Lopez and Affleck had already split. Meaning the now-husband and wife, who rekindled their romance 20 years later before marrying in 2022, didn’t get some good news in what was presumably a difficult time for them personally.
Here are just a few quotes from reviews at the time. One reviewer called Gigli “an exquisitely bad movie.” Another said it fell “somewhere between horrible and laughably awful.” Other descriptions included “thoroughly joyless and inept,” “catastrophic miscalculation of tone,” and “comatose comedy.”
Ironically, seeing as sparks flew between J.Lo and Affleck on the set, Rotten Tomatoes’ summary of the film’s reception claimed the pair didn’t have “chemistry.”
Jennifer Lopez wants to make a ‘Gigli’ sequel
Vogue’s “73 Questions” series has unearthed some pretty surprising celebrity moments — Gwyneth Paltrow jokingly used her Oscar as a doorstop — and J.Lo’s is no exception.
In her November 2022 “73 Questions” video, the now-54-year-old revealed she’d like to revisit Gigli. That’s right, return to the film widely regarded as one of the worst ever made.
While Lopez didn’t explain why exactly she felt that way, she did open up about connecting with her now-husband on the set, where they famously met before getting engaged and later breaking up in the early 2000s.
“I think what happened is, as we worked together, we became such good friends,” Lopez told Zane Lowe in an Apple Music interview promoting her album about Affleck. “We realized that we were crazy about each other. I found myself kind of thinking about him after the movie was over. And having to take care of my own business because I was coming out of a relationship at that time.
“But it’s like you just knew it,” she continued. It’s just like, ‘This is the person I want to be with.’ And that happened over a period of months. It wasn’t an instant thing because we weren’t allowed to do that. Yeah, it kind of grew over time.”
For those who want to watch Jennifer Lopez’s worst movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, Gigli is available on Amazon Prime Video until Nov. 1, 2023.
