"J. Lo and Affleck Finally Get Some Privacy," is the headline the NYTimes uses in an illustrated business (media) section article today.
The story of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, glamorous movie stars whose love affair blossomed on a Hollywood set, has turned into the summer's most watched romance. The movie they made, however, has had no such luck.The film is a disaster. The Times piece speculates on the overexposure factor. The couple have been splashed across magazine covers and television screens until even their fans may have had enough, but such a take would be too generous to all involved, and it would leave the film itself off the hook.
The problems with "Gigli" (pronounced JEE-lee, although not by many) did not start with the reviews, but the reviews were scathing. The Washington Post called the movie "enervated, torpid, slack, dreary and, oh yes, nasty, brutish and long."Now if we could only believe Ms. Lopez's and Mr. Affleck's new privacy signaled a trend.The Los Angeles Times told readers, "Forget the hype this movie would stink even without its big-ticket stars."
The New York Times said the movie, though it draws on various other movies, "has a special badness all its own."
The Wall Street Journal called it "the worst movie all right, the worst allegedly major movie of our admittedly young century."