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Daily News
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Brest Goes from Bad to Worse
Director Martin Brest’s stock at Rotten Tomatoes continues to tumble as Gigli lands the web site's Rotten Pick of the Year award for 2003.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
By Richard Horgan
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As Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, Al Pacino’s character in Scent of a Woman might put it, “Who-ah!” Over the past ten years, director Martin Brest has gone from a 91% approval rating on the web site RottenTomatoes.com for that film to 50% for Meet Joe Black in 1998 to a mere 7% for Gigli, thereby meriting the Rotten Pick of the Year for 2003.
“Brest is a good director, but frankly, this experimental romantic comedy blew up in his face,” says Senh Duong, RottenTomatoes.com COO and founder. “The Tomatometer is a double-edged blade, and the recognition is of a dubious nature for those films that were not well-received."
Back in the spring of 2003, the New York Post’s Page Six reported that Gigli star Ben Affleck was forced to intervene when Brest and producer Joe Roth got into an argument after the latter’s mandated new ending fared poorly at a test screening. At the time, a spokesperson for Revolution Studios denied there was any such altercation, adding, “The disagreement was not over scenes that were re-shot, but over suggested cuts for the final feature. Everyone has come up with a cut that both parties are happy with.”
It was a different story a few months later. In August, 2003, Roth told the Wall Street Journal that the failure of Gigli had led to taunts among his poker-playing friends and even criticism from his then 89-year-old father. “I hate humiliation much more than losing money,” explained Roth in the article.
Along with Gigli, there are two other notable high-profile Hollywood films among RottenTomatoes.com’s nine worst rated 2003 theatrical offerings: Brian Grazer’s The Cat in the Hat and Richard and Lauren Schuler Donner’s Timeline. Over the years, a number of films have garnered a 0% positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com. For example, in this still-young decade, some thirty films share that honor on the site, including Mail Order Bride starring Danny Aiello, K-9: P.I. featuring Jim Belushi, American Psycho 2 and Roberto Benigni’s besotted version of Pinocchio.
Here is a complete list of the worst reviewed mainstream release movies of 2003, as ranked by the overall ratio of critics recommending the entry on RottenTomatoes.com, which currently relies on the input of 611 approved critics:
1. Gigli (7%)
2. Gods and Generals (8%)
3. Kangaroo Jack (8%)
4. Darkness Falls (9%)
5. Alex and Emma (9%)
6. A Man Apart (10%)
7. The Cat in the Hat (11%)
8. Timeline (11%)
9. Dumb and Dumberer (11%)
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