zc6596
I've heard a lot about Ishtar and I was eager to see if it was as bad as I had heard. There's good news and bad news for the film. The good news is that it isn't as bad as critics and the IMDb reviews would have you believe. However, let there be no mistake, it is not good. I grade films like it's school(10-A+, 9-A, 8-B, 7-C, 6-D, 5-F) so by giving it a 7 it may appear that I am giving it a rather good review for claiming it to be a waste of film. It's a D+ film that I rounded up to a C(7). The stars (especially Beatty with a dick van dyke level impression of a Texas accent that comes and (mostly) goes much like the humour in this film) are terrible and the singing and songwriting are so bad they're bad. It's skips past funny to be headache-inducingly annoying. Isabelle Adjani is pointless, the macguffin of the movie comes to nothing and the passionate freedom fighter seems to die in her when she meets and trusts the capitalist American government for inexplicable reasons. The only saving grace is Charles grodin, who delivers the only legitimate laughs in the film. Fortunately he's in a couple of scenes so there's about 10-15 minutes of actual humour. The biggest problem however is the editing of the film which is nonsensical and leaves the audience confused and wondering what the hell was going. The writing's not much better either but one feels that with improved directing, it could've been a lot better. So to reiterate, it's not the worst thing I've ever seen but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has the full use of their ears. I expect it's much better with the sound off
Eric Stevenson
I found out that both Siskel and Ebert voted this as the worst movie of 1987. It was on a list of movies considered the worst ever. I have in fact seen worse, but this is still quite bad. This movie features two bad singers who go to Morocco to try to become successful. What really sinks this movie is how dull it is. It just shows these two going around everywhere and nothing happening. Everything just seems so pointless. There's this one woman who is actually treated pretty badly in this movie. The subplot with her and the pointless romance is never even resolved! I had a hard time even believing that this was supposed to be a comedy. The jokes were so dull and lifeless. Dustin Hoffman's a good actor, but this isn't his best work. *1/2
FlashCallahan
Lyle Rogers, a dimwitted songwriter befriends and partners with Chuck Clarke, who is only slightly more intelligent but every bit as untalented. Together the duo dreams of becoming a big-time lounge act, but their songs, with titles like "That a Lawnmower Can Do All That," are unintentionally hilarious. Chuck becomes suicidal, but just when it seems they'll never strike it rich, the boys are offered a shady gig at a North African hotel, entertaining U.S. troops stationed in the tiny nation of Ishtar. On their way to accept the job, Lyle, Chuck, and their blind camel are sidetracked by a mysterious woman, and a scheming CIA agent, who are involved in a rebellion against the country's emir.....With it being one of the most notorious turkeys of all time, and almost ruining a few careers, Ishtar is one of those film you just have to watch, no matter how many bad reviews there are, you watch it so you've experienced it, not for story or narrative.Story wise, it's pretty sound, two wannabe crooners get caught up in a middle eastern conflict, it should have harked back to the old Crosby and Hope movies, but there's something really, really wrong about the whole film.The switching of the Beatty and Hoffman personalities just doesn't work, especially seeing Beatty as a shy loner. Absolutely not. And when you can't familiarise with the two main characters, you begin to lose interest in the rest of the film, and this is only after ten minutes.Once in the titular place, it becomes too incoherent, so many characters with different goals can make and interesting movie, but make the script a little fresh.I admittedly laughed once during the film, and it wasn't to do with the blond camel, it was the compère announcing the act when Beatty was on his own.But all in all, it does deserve its notoriety, it makes no sense, it's too dark to be a caper, and too boring to be an action adventure.Next time Warren, don't do anybody any favours.
evan_harvey
Hell is a video store full of copies of Ishtar, so they say. And yes, it's true! It's a terrible film. It's typical 80s: badly written, ludicrous plot, bad acting, you name it, Ishtar has it in spades. And yet so much fun.The plot is: two struggling songwriters take a trip to North Africa, one of them gets recruited by the CIA, the other by some local freedom fighters, hilarity ensues and then they release an album. Seriously, could a movie plot be any better than that? There's camels, bizarre songs and zany comedy.To be serious for a moment though, Ishtar represents a dying breed of movie. These days, 'bad' movies are either just dull and poorly written, or 'gross-out' comedies. No one makes truly bad movies any more like they used to. Ishtar is the perfect storm of wacky humour, outrageous plot and great acting by Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty.I'm giving it 7 out of 10 because I haven't seen it in years, and thus have nostalgic memories that I'm sure do not reflect how bad it actually is!
AD
