Ishtar

I am aware of much of the criticism this movie received. Basically that it was awful and not worth seeing. To all those who have said such words I just have to ask, what movie were you watching? In my opinion Ishtar was a wonderful movie. It's about two grown men, whose only dream is to become great musicians but are so horrible that no one will have them but the tourist industry in Morocco. All the songs that these two, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, sing are written by Elaine May and I found them to be simply hysterical. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman make a great team, with humor vaguely reminiscent of Woody Allen. This is one of the only movies in which you get to see Warren act in such a way. I would defiantly recommend it to anyone despite its poor reviews.

For the most part, films that bomb badly usually deserve to, but Ishtar is a curious exception. For the life of me, I cannot understand the critical drubbing it took upon its initial release. Admittedly, it did go way over budget, and none of that opulence is visible on screen (the film has a murky and washed out look to it, and its sets and locales are not particularly impressive) but this is a comedy after all, and so lives or dies based on the quality of its jokes and situations, not its production design. And on that level Ishtar not only gets by but succeeds wonderfully.

Beatty and Hoffman play two dim bulbs who fancy themselves songwriters and pair up in an attempt to become the next Simon and Garfunkel. The tortured lyrics these guys come up with must be heard to be believed, and the scenes showing them working on their songs or presenting their act to audiences are some of the most screamingly funny ever committed to film. If for no other reason than to see these scenes, you should rent the movie.

Perhaps the film might have been funnier (and better accepted by critics) if it had focused exclusively on the show business dreams of its stars. However, early on the two get a booking to play an extended gig in Morocco (that alone should tell you how bad they are); they get waylaid in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Ishtar where they become inadvertently roped into a shady CIA dominated plot having something to do with rebellions, arm shipments and military coups. It's all rather hokey and confusing - but deliberately so, in the best screwball sense. And through it all Hoffman and Beatty truly shine: the bafflement on their faces and in their gestures as they are shepherded from place to place as dupes in a plot they don't understand is just priceless. Who would have thought that two such intelligent actors could play stupid so convincingly (either one of them, for example, would have made a preferable sidekick to Jim Carrey than Jeff Daniels was in Dumb and Dumber - his performance showed all the strain of a bright guy trying to force himself into a pose of ineptitude). Even more, who would have imagined that two such prima donnas could put their egos aside to work off each other so well and become a truly great comedy TEAM? No matter how crazy the plot may get, Hoffman and Beatty are never less than a delight as they hold down the center of the film.

Oh yeah, and if that weren't enough, there's also the treat of the wonderfully droll and deadpan Charles Grodin as the CIA operative in Ishtar. He's the villain of the piece, but his beautifully underplayed exasperation at the exploits of the two stars makes you like him almost as much as you do them.

So what are you waiting for? If you like a good, well done comedy with sharp performances and a kooky atmosphere, check out Ishtar today. Don't allow all those sourpuss, stone-faced critics to ruin your fun.

OK, Warren was on Dave Letterman. He says to Dave: "I still think Ishtar was funny. I don't get it. Why is this movie considered a bomb?" We liked it! OK, so the sled was "rosebud", but we still give this movie a Siskel-Ebert like thumbs up. Oops, Siskel passed away. Well, you know? Thumbs up to Warren and Dustin. Ishtar is funny. Warren is right. He is a highly intelligent guy, after all. So, we concur that to view Ishtar as a "bomb" represents a serious perception-gap on the part of critics and the general movie public. We call for the production of "Ishtar II"! YEAH!

If ISHTAR had starred Steve Martin and Chevy Chase, been directed by John Landis and shot for $10 million on a Hollywood sound stage, I think people would have enjoyed it for what it is, a sophomoric, silly road movie.

However, it stars Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, and was directed by Elaine May, a trio of actors and filmmakers who were known for comedy classics as HEAVEN CAN WAIT, THE HEARTBREAK KID and TOOTSIE. Therefore, people expecting to see the most brilliant American comedy of all time were shocked and appalled when, instead, they got a glorified Cheech and Chong movie.

Is this fair? Yes and no. ISHTAR definitely falls flat at times. There are some curiously lifeless moments and awkward scenes that reek of last minute re-editing. The movie is far from perfect. But it is often very funny, and features two terrific, underrated performances from Beatty and Hoffman.

Watching Beatty play such a well meaning dim-wit is a real treat. And Hoffman is just as good playing an equally dense, overly self-assured jerk. Elaine May and Paul William's intentionally awful songs are hilarious as well. People who criticize the quality of the songs or Beatty and Hoffman's vocal talent are obviously missing the joke, as both are SUPPOSED to be bad.

A pre-obnoxiously conservative Charles Grodin adds plenty of laughs as a CIA agent, while Isabelle Adjani does well in a deceptively complex role, which requires her to play it totally straight while engaged in completely ludicrous scenes with Beatty and Hoffman.

Beatty and Hoffman's interaction while trapped in the desert is classic. One of the movie's funniest moments involves the wind kicking up after they have been told by Adjani that "there is no wind in the desert". Hoffman asks, "Is the wind blowing?" Beatty answers, "This must be one of those once in a lifetime things, like the glaciers melting." If you don't find that funny, you'll hate this movie.

But if dry, silly humor is your cup of tea, and you can view a movie without being overly distracted by it's star power, then you just might enjoy ISHTAR. It doesn't always work, but I found it to be pretty funny, with a fair amount of really great laughs. Considering the barrage of moronic, unfunny Hollywood comedies that have come and gone in it's wake, ISHTAR should be considered a triumph.

"Ishtar was great," I think defiantly every time by some off chance someone I come in contact with who has actually seen it cites it was the worst movie ever. I suppose it's part of cinematic pop culture to hold that opinion as a safeguard against being called a fool.

The most charming quality of Ishtar is its consistently dry, tongue-and-cheek disposition. It offers brilliant insight to the types of people in the world that, despite the fact that to everyone else their talent is cheesy at best, continue to try and try. Rogers and Clarke are the "Every Men" for that entire segment of the population with their songwriting musical act.

Their third-rate, leisure-suit-wearing manager does his job by getting them a few gigs; the biggest gig of all is in Ishtar, a politically unstable Middle Eastern country. Which, of course, is unbeknownst to Rogers and Clarke, who are just reveling in their love of playing music. Their naivete (and sometimes outright stupidity) is a character unto itself, and plays brilliantly throughout the ridiculous adventure that they experience.

I've seen Hoffman and Beatty in interviews joking about how they knew the movie was so bad that, instead of quitting, they simply got into the spirit by over-acting at parts. But, whether they know it or not, they were very REAL people, and THAT was the best part of all.