Movies So Bad They Were Pulled From Theaters

Had Gigli it not starred two of the biggest celebrities of the era — engaged in a high-profile, tabloid-worthy relationship at the time — it would have been a weird and forgettable movie, not a legendary flop. Ben Affleck plays a stereotypical movie gangster goon with an unpronounceable name (Gigli, or rather "JEE-lee"), assigned by his crime lord bosses to kidnap the Baywatch-obsessed developmentally-disabled brother (Justin Bartha) of a federal prosecutor. Things go awry, of course, so the bosses send in a more capable operative, Ricki (Jennifer Lopez). Oh, and they fall in love, even though Ricki is gay and Gigli is a raging misogynist.

That plot, and the off-screen "Bennifer" antics that overshadowed Gigli, launched an unofficial competition among critics over who could say the meanest things in their reviews. The Wall Street Journal called it "the worst movie — all right, the worst allegedly major movie — of our admittedly young century," while the Washington Post said it was "torpid, slack, dreary, and, oh yes, nasty, brutish, and long." Somehow, this movie that consists mostly of Affleck and Lopez's characters talking in an apartment cost $54 million to make, and unsurprisingly bombed, bringing in just $6 million. After three weeks in theaters, Gigli moved on to its final resting place in grocery store DVD bargain bins.