NEW YORK (Reuters) - Call it one of the biggest turkeys of all time.


The romance between Ben Affleck (news) and Jennifer Lopez (news) has captivated the American public, but their first movie together is already being called a low point of cinema history.


If early reviews are anything to go by, the pairing of the real-life love birds in the movie "Gigli" looks set to bomb when it opens at the U.S. box office Friday.


Among its biggest problems is a love scene in which Lopez spreads her legs and tells a smoldering Affleck, "It's turkey time. Gobble, gobble."


Humphrey Bogart (news) and Lauren Bacall (news) it ain't.


"Witless, coarse, and vulgar, 'Gigli' is worse than its advance buzz could have indicated," wrote Fox News critic Roger Friedman. "The film -- if you can call it that -- is a total, mindless disaster."


The New York Post on Wednesday ran a full-page splash blasting the movie. "The 'Gigli' is Up," the paper wrote, adding, "Ben-Jen bomb was made for walking."


Much of the movie features Affleck's efforts to change Lopez' character from being a lesbian into a straight woman. Needless to say, by the time she's saying, "Gobble, gobble," she's changed sides.


The romantic gangster film pairs a couple who have been almost omnipresent in U.S. tabloids for months and who have been touted as among the sexiest people in the world.


While their romance was said to have been originally sparked with the shooting of "Gigli," critics see little of that spark in the movie. Critics have compared the film to such box office flops as Madonna (news - web sites)'s "Swept Away," Mariah Carey (news)'s "Glitter" and Britney Spears (news) vehicle "Crossroads."


"From 'Gigli's' first test screenings, where writer-director Martin Brest clashed with Revolution studio chief Joe Roth over the film's final act and pace, to the film's poster, which allegedly featured a retouched version of Lopez's famous derriere (which the studio denies), nearly every step of the film's path to the screen has been chronicled by the Internet, the tabloids and, eventually, the mainstream media," the Los Angeles Times wrote.


"Taken together, 'Gigli' has single-handedly disproved the maxim that there's no such thing as bad publicity."

Like 'Shanghai Suprise' all over again, huh?

(that was the movie that Madonna and then hubby Sean Penn made waaay back in the day)

Wow I didn't see this coming

no, say it ain't so

Jen could carry a movie,

But I think Ben Affleck is one of the worst actors in Hollywood working today. I can't give him any credit except for Chasing Amy, and then he wasn't even the best actor there.

jthad1129 said:

I can't stand either one!

Ben sucks and Jlo was only good in one movie, Selena!

As they trash it, everyone keeps comparing this movie to Madonna's "Swept Away" and Brittney's "Crossroads" and Mariah's "Glitter"...

Is it a good thing that no comparison was made to "Under The Cherry Moon"?

PurpleJedi said:

yup

a lesbian chick turning straight bcause of Ben's irresistible charm, ain't that Chasing Amy all over?

I heard on the radio this morning that Ben was at a strip club in Canada with Tara Reid and Christian Slater...he went into the VIP room, did some coke and then went down on a stripper. J Lo called into her sister's radio show and said he's a real good tipper but she'll have to ask him what really happened. Now Ben is very pissed off and is trying to sue the Inquirer. The National Inquirer said there were cameras everywhere in the VIP room and they always have 2 sources so Ben can't sue...and the other strippers said his oral sex was an award winning performance! HAHAHAHAHAA!! Why couldn't I have been that stripper? Geezus!

This review does not surprise me at all. Neither Ben nor Jen can act. They are both lousy at it and I can't stand to watch movies with either of them in it. I did like Good Will Hunting, but Ben hasn't done anything since that that is worth watching. JLo is just plain awful at acting. She should just stick to dancing because she can't sing either.

SpcMs said:

but this time they are GANGSTERS, not comic book geeks
[This message was edited Thu Jul 31 9:00:29 PDT 2003 by Sweeny79]