Ishtar (1987)

Ishtar has gone down in history as being synonymous with 'box office bomb' and somewhere along the way acquired the reputation of being a contender for the worst movie ever made. If we judge movies solely on their production this claim might hold water, but on purely artistic merits this is simply not true. There are far, far worse movies than Ishtar. That being said, a lot of people have gone a little too far in trying to rehabilitate it over the years. This is not the worst movie of all time, but it's still pretty bad. Judging comedies can be difficult just because humor is so subjective. While others may find Ishtar funny, I largely felt that the jokes simply didn't land. While there were occasional funny spots - usually involving the CIA - most of the humor in the movie just falls flat and it times borders on offensive. While I'm hardly Mr. Political Correct, the scene with the arms dealers where Dustin Hoffman spouts gibberish in an attempt to convince the arms dealers that he can speak Arabic is downright offensive. The worst part is the joke goes on for almost ten minutes. Now, since the movie's premise is following two mediocre song writers, it makes sense that the music would be bad. So-called 'stylistic awfulness' however is hard to pull off. The songs that Hoffman and Beatty sing are bad, but not really in a funny way. And since their singing act is featured prominently in the movie, it ends up being a pretty big liability.There's also the matter of the plot which is confusing and disjointed to say the least. It's hard to keep up with the various twists and turns when the duo get themselves involved in a CIA operation in North Africa and I couldn't help but feel like I was watching an abbreviated version of the movie where key scenes had been cut out. There's something involving a map that's never really developed properly, characters appear and disappear at random, and key developments seem to happen off-screen. The troubled production and post-production history is largely to blame for this I imagine. Beatty and director Elaine May were fighting for control throughout and the two of them, in addition to Hoffman, each had their own editors assemble different cuts of the movie.The three main leads also fare poorly for the most part. Beatty's character is from Texas, and he adopts this weird attempt at accent that he uses in some scenes and then drops in others. Hoffman is all right but embarrasses himself in the more comedic scenes due to the weakness of the material he's given and Isabelle Adjani is rather meek and forgettable. The fact that she's apparently going undercover as a boy and fools both Hoffman and Beatty is rather stupid given that she looks and sounds nothing like a boy.Overall, this is not the worst movie of all time. But it's pretty bad and not in a fun sort of way like Plan 9 from Outer Space or Birdemic, so you're really just better off not wasting your time on it. It's just another failed buddy comedy with a gimmick that would have faded into obscurity long ago if it wasn't for it's colossal budget.

Lyle Rogers (Warren Beatty) and Chuck Clarke (Dustin Hoffman) are two bumbling struggling song writers. Lyle is a hopeless idiot. Chuck is a ladies' man. They get booked to do a low-paying sad tour of north Africa. When they land in Ishtar, they get entangled in an international plot to overthrow the government. They meet CIA agent Jim Harrison (Charles Grodin) and a revolutionary Shirra Assel (Isabelle Adjani) who's looking for an ancient map.First, the horrible singing really sinks the movie before it gets going. The sad attempt at comedy does more harm than good. And setting the two actors against type is really confusing. It doesn't work. Warren Beatty is OK as the clueless idiot, but Dustin Hoffman is completely unconvincing.When they get to Ishtar, the whole confused revolution really shines a bad light on the duo's relationship. They're willing to believe the worst of each other. And they are angry at each other for a bunch of lies. They aren't good friends because friends don't do that.And how blind are they that they can't see Isabelle Adjani is a girl? The only funny thing is the blind camel. For the camel, I raise the rating from 2 to a 3. For the camel.

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!

*Spoiler/plot- 1987, Hoffman and Beatty are untalented songwriters and singers on their last dollar that get the US government to ship them to a Northern African country were they get involved with CIA and questionable comedy.*Special Stars- Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Charles Grodin, Carol Kane, Jack Weston- Dir: Elaine May *Theme- Volunteers working for the US government is always a bad idea.*Based on- Hope and Crosby 'road' films *Trivia/location/goofs-Not interesting enough to matter *Emotion- Not as bad as widely reported. But, a somewhat forgettable satire of the 'Hope and Crosby' road films. The film's producers try a chance with real life pals, Hoffman and Beatty. A blind camel and flock of vultures are funnier that the male leads here. The boring cliché spy intrigues get worse and worse with musical accompaniment.