User reviews

There is so much talent involved in this movie, what happened? The cast and crew have a combined lifetime 61 Oscar nominations and 16 wins. How could this not be a better movie? It is well produced, the cinematography and costumes are fine and well done. The main flaws are the poorly written screenplay, the paper thin plot and the lack of spark from the main stars. It's not without some funny moments, but they are too scarce. The humor wears thin in less than an hour and it becomes a challenge to stay interested in the plot. The lovely Isabelle Adjani is wasted. Charles Grodin does score in a supporting role and outshines the rest of the cast.

"Ishtar is an amazing movie phenomena. It is universally known as one of the worst movies ever, almost exclusively by people that haven't seen it. Was it a flop? Yes. It could never have hoped to make back the $40 million it cost to make. Was it bad? That isn't as easy to answer. The first 15-20 minutes, as well as the last ten are simply movie gold. In 1987, audiences weren't ready for two main characters that were that pathetic. It's possible that the movie was so successful at making them look bad, that it was hard to watch. Warren Beatty had never played such a loser before, but was absolutely brilliant. The songs are hilarious, written by Paul Williams, and I wish I had the soundtrack on CD. The problem is really in the middle. Sadly, while the characters are great, and the beginning is wonderful, there just wasn't enough for a feature-length film. The middle has some great moments, but not enough to carry it off in the big picture. Still, Everybody should see this movie at least once before passing judgment. There are enough moments to come away with to make it well worth while

Ishtar suffers from an inability to live up to expectations. The movie casts Oscar winners in a film that is basically a "remake" of the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope road films. Unfortunately, the actors are cast in a story that is not as brilliant as the performers, and when the film was released, it failed to live up to its hype. It became "easy fodder" for the critics, who seemed to revel in trashing the film in their reviews. At the time of its release, it became fun to make fun of Ishtar, which has become it's undeserved legacy.

Actually, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty are brilliant actors, and their performance as bungling and untalented show business performers really carries this film. The two characters are complete buffoons, and Hoffman and Beatty are quite believable as idiots.

Unfortunately, the film suffers from its writing. The story is basically a remake of the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "road movies," and the stories in these films is now a cliché. The use of cliché is worsened by the use of Arab stereotypes and stereotypes of CIA agents, which litter the film. As a result, it is a little on the "long" side.

But is it a bad film? No. It is quite watchable, and actually very funny. I give it a "6" out of 10. It's in the upper half of comedy films - but just barely.

This is actually a brilliant comedy that utilizes the subtle jab to the funny bone rather than the thundering blow. Unfortunately, this type of humor died out sometime in the middle of the television show NEWHART's run. Why? Read The Wasteland! I don't know! Ishtar works in the same vein as Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. No, the jokes do not come out and slap you in the face... You have to look for them to find them. Needless to say, do not rent this if you want a cathartic, mindless jolt. However, do not slam this movie just because it isn't slaptick or screwball. (Which are the only kind of comedies made anymore!) Elaine May comes from the comedy team of Nichols and May (Yes, Mike Nichols! [In fact one could argue that the comedy in The Graduate is bad for the same reasons as the comedy in Ishtar is supposedly bad.]). This duo practically perfected the witty, acerbic brand of humor which is now completely missed and misunderstood but was used masterfully in this film. In the age of Saturday Night Live and Ace Ventura, a comedy of this sort most assuredly would bomb and continue bombing. Nevertheless, if you are sick and tired of being force-fed ridiculously bad, hackneyed comedy then I suggest renting Ishtar (then buying some Nichols and May albums and watching the Bob Newhart reruns on Nick at Nite). Oh... Carter was President when I was born by the way... This is not nostalgia!

I'm sorry, but there is virtually no terrible film in history that doesn't have these insane "If you don't love this, you're stupid or don't get it" kinds of really ridiculous adulatory praise. I saw Ishtar on its opening night. The theater was full. There was, listen to me VERY carefully, not one laugh ever. The full theater was half-full by the thirty minute mark. By the end it was a third full.

So to come here and read these "reviews" where people actually say that it's a brilliant comedy (well, how many people are actually saying it?) like they are somehow so clued in to what comedy is and anyone who doesn't like it is somehow an idiot - well, no, we're not the idiots. I have, in fact, just finished watching it again twenty-three years later. Some movies do age well and I hoped that I'd reassess my original thoughts. But alas, from scene one on it's a mess, it isn't ever funny, and it lumbers along with some of the worst pacing ever put on the screen. The only one who escapes unscathed is Isabelle Adjani. Everyone else is embarrassing, the most embarrassing being Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Beatty. There is such smugness behind this film and it reeks of it. This film didn't bomb because it had a huge budget. This film bombed because - wait for it - it was bad. Not funny. That's a problem for a purported comedy.

So, to those who say things like, "what movie did you see?" I have to say, I saw the movie these people made. I don't sit home in some fantasy-laden hazy state thinking a movie like this is the same as a movie by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. I don't laugh because I know the film was a bomb and that most people with a brain hated it then and hate it now, as if I'm better than them because I "get it."

It's a little shocking actually, until you look at the film's overall all rating here - which is a lot more accurate than these silly love letters to mediocrity.

It has been a long long time since I watched this movie and one might say that it is somewhat unfair that I post a review of it without having seen it recently. Then again, I do not need to have a lobotomy to know it is a bad idea and I do not wish to lose any more time to this abysmal movie.

I was only motivated to post after reading the inordinate number of glowing reviews about this drek. This film has no redeeming qualities at all. I cannot even ascribe to the view that it is so bad that it is funny.

A comedy should provoke laughter or at least a small giggle: the best I could manage was a groan.

This was a movie actually that I really wanted to like, but I gave it a chance and I disliked it intensely. It isn't completely laughter-free though, thank goodness, the business with the vultures and Charles Grodin's bungling CIA agent have their moments, but everything else is just sorry and redundant and that is including poor Isabelle Adjani.

Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman are both fine actors, but as the tone-deaf songwriters, they can't do anything with their characters or dialogue and their chemistry together is oddball and not in a good way. For me, there wasn't a single likable character, the direction was sluggish, the film feels overlong and dull in the pace and the story is unfocused and never comes alive.

I didn't think much of the production values and music either. The production values are okay but did little for me, while the music is forgettable. But the worst offender is the script which is just the epitome of crass, it isn't just that, it is also trite and racially-insensitive.

Overall, a mess. 1/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Directed by Elaine May. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Charles Grodin, Isabelle Adjani, Jack Weston, Aharon Ipalé, Fuad Hageb, Carol Kane, Tess Harper. (PG-13)

Beatty and Hoffman ape Hope and Crosby from the "Road to..." pictures, playing a pair of awful New York songwriters/entertainers that head off to perform in Morocco and get tangled up in a complicated but thinly-drawn conflict between American operatives and Arab rebels. The most notorious bomb of its time (in the same year as such stinkers as "Leonard Part 6" and "Superman IV," so that's saying something) starts out as a perfectly dreadful comedy and then transitions into a perfectly tiresome espionage adventure that may or may not still be trying to be funny (hard to say). As if their critical involvement in a CIA/Middle East crossfire wasn't stretching credibility enough, the filmmakers also expect the audience to believe that the sensuous Isabelle Adjani could be constantly mistaken for a Moroccan boy. Hoffman and Beatty, typically very good actors, are completely mismatched here, achieving a tedious rapport that begs for a mediator to separate them; they have one mildly amusing bit on stage in NYC that is then repeated to deadening results a half-dozen more times. The most likable character--and one that comes closest to actually getting a laugh--is a blind camel; it's that kind of movie, folks. Later reappraised in some circles as being an unfairly-maligned gem; their blackmailers must be truly intimidating.

20/100

I know it's not the best. Arsenic and Old Lace is the top comedy of all time. Citizen Kane the greatest film. Gone with the Wind the greatest epic.

Wizard of Oz the finest fantasy. And L.O.T.R. 1,2,3 trilogy is the ultimate film legend.

But for me, Ishtar is pure fun. I saw it when it came out. Bought the video. Watch it twice a year and have my daughter hooked on it too.

It's the Vinyl Cafe /Dave and Morley type of humour that gets me. I can't hold a tune with a forklift and I find the singing style and lyrics of Rogers and Clark inspirational.

I feel for these guys. The Warren Beatty line to Dustin Hoffman " You'd rather have nothing, than settle for less. " reminds me of my own ( self-deprecating ) personal credo, 'Lower your standards and achieve! "

These innocents are taken on a journey of discovery through Ishtar and back home to the struggle against 'lives of quiet desperation.'

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.

I saw Ishtar in the theater when it first came out, and I had never heard an audience laugh so hard before. Everyone there (I recall the theater was pretty much packed) loved it. When it came out on video I was working in a small video store. The negative reviews had been out for some time, and everyone decided it was a lame movie without even seeing it. But every time I played this movie in the store, someone would ALWAYS end up asking me to take it out of the VCR so they could rent it. And as far as I remember, no one who rented it ever said they hated it! I'm glad to see so many positive comments posted here. It really is a very clever and funny movie, and I would recommend it to anyone. I still suggest it to people who are looking for a fun movie. This definitely is one of the most underrated movies I've seen. Go ahead and watch it!

I have a 15-minute rule that is nearly foolproof in figuring out whether a movie is worth watching. I'm not even sure it was 15 seconds into that insipid, unfunny and yes, painful opening song before it was obvious what a pile of Ishtar this movie is.

It's unbelievable that this mess even got into production, never mind had truckloads of money repeteadly thrown at it. Everything about it is so backlot and cheap that any second-rate hack could have punched it out for the price of a sitcom episode. Even in "Morocco" (which I assume was Palm Springs), there are no Lawrence of Arabia panoramas here. A couple quick pans of some sand and very tight shots inside fake decrepit buildings and what looks like the municipal airport in Lawrence, Kansas, maybe.

I get that it basically buried Elaine May at the bottom of a lake. How did Dustin Hoffman or Warren Beatty's careers survive. They were already a couple decades too old to be playing these characters. They're both lucky the old studio system wasn't in place bc they would have been relegated to Playhouse 90 on the Dumont Television Network.

This easily ranks alongside Cleopatra, Heaven's Gate and Waterworld as the most ill-conceived, big-budget vanity projects in Hollywood history. I've cringed less watching the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.

I am just old enough to remember the two movies of the same approximate era (1980s, anyway) that became synonymous with big-budget box office bombs: "Ishtar" and "Heaven's Gate."

At the time, "Ishtar" was considered so bad as to be unwatchable. It was skewered and vilified so strongly that the critics rapidly drove it out of the theaters. Few--including me--ever had the nerve to rent the movie.

It wasn't until roughly 10 years after its release that my in-laws introduced me to the comedic greatness that is "Ishtar." To this day when I tell friends and family that I love Ishtar, it is somewhat like saying, enthusiastically, "Hey, I just contracted leprosy!" Such is the stigma that still lingers with this film.

To the credit of critics, this is by no means a work of pure comedic genius.

The movie has essentially one theme that works--the effortless cluelessness of Lyle and Chuck as the world's worst songwriters--and this is exhausted almost completely within the first 30 minutes. Still, it is a totally knee-slapping hilarious 30 minutes. The meandering remaining plot that takes them to Morocco for a singing gig and leads them to become CIA "agents" is what cemented the bad taste in the mouth of critics for time immemorial. This theme by the end of the movie is rather re-treaded and worn-out. We kind of want Warren and Dustin to just shut up by then.

This second act suffers from a kind of Hope-Crosby wannabee syndrome, and the writing isn't up to the slapstick pedigree the movie had begun revealing quite hilariously in the first act. Considering this film came from the pen of Elaine May--of "Nichols and May" comedy duet fame--I would have expected more, but perhaps this movie spiraled out of her hands because of the oft-misunderstood first act. I could easily see studio test audiences handily rejecting it and thus twisting the movie's priorities out of whack.

Still, "Ishtar" shouldn't be brushed aside as a mere footnote in movie history. It is worth watching for its true hilarity and the performances of both Hoffman and Beatty.

Two middle-aged(?) amateur songwriters, who are terrible songwriters and even worse musicians, are mistaken for revolutionary Arabic leaders foretold in a mystical map, when they accept the only gig they're offered, in Morocco.

That's sort of it: Bing Crosby and Bob Hope did much the same thing in the forties, except they had disciplined writers and directors, funny jokes, and star leading ladies. Elaine May was the writer and director here - she had been the partner in a 50's impro comedy duo with Mike (The Graduate) Nicols. After Ishtar, she didn't direct for 29 years, and here's why.

Was much of Ishtar improvised? I don't care enough to find out, but it certainly feels like it. Then only jokes are the awful songs they write and perform. Warren Beatty acts completely stupid - well he doesn't act, he just appears to be completely stupid. Dustin Hoffman almost gets his deluded narcissistic would-be playboy off the ground, but you can see he's struggling, not least with Beatty's complete inability to make his character remotely funny, and a script that has less tension than an episode of Power Rangers.

The absence of chemistry between Hoffman and Beatty is the least of Ishtar's problems. If Ishtar was backslang it would be Ishtay.

I remember the reviews of this movie when it came out, they were awful. If they were lesser actors than Hoffman and Beatty, it would have destroyed their careers. With the exception of the final 15 minutes, this comedy was painful to watch. Think of 'Spies are us', but without any humour and you get the picture. Do bot waste your time watching this rubbish.

I urge you to see it with an open mind. There's something for everyone here, though the two male leads were overcast. Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime. I thought this film was fantastic in some ways and terrible in others. Great performances help to enhance this story of friendship. No matter what anyone says, this is utterly fantastic, an eye-popping cinematic treat. I will never understand the hate for this movie. I found it to be sensational!

I can't think of a single film that Beatty has ever starred in that doesn't pop the question into one's mind 'how does this guy get any acting jobs?'He;s good at playing gigolos and clowns - Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Dick Tracy, Splendor In The Grass

People who downgrade this movie probably never really saw it. It wasn't horrible, it was just goofy. Dustin Hoffman is really good in this movie, and probably more believable than Warren Beatty. The scene with Dustin Hoffman acting as a translator is an all-time classic! Perhaps the theme is too much like "Spies Like Us", but it's still one of my absolute favorites. I'm surprised this movie doesn't have a cult following. My friend Kyle and I used to rent this movie all of the time, and it was convenient that nobody else wanted it--it was always available for rental! The songs that these guys came up with in the movie are just priceless. Watch it--if you can find it--you'll like it.

I remember back in late 1987 I was watching an episode of my favorite TV show "The Golden Girls". In this particular episode the four girls (Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia) were sitting in the kitchen talking about the meaning of life. Then Sophia steps into the conversation and delivers a truly hilarious speech. Here is exactly what she said: "Let me tell you girls the three most important things I learned about life. Number one: hold fast to your friends. Number two: there's no such thing as security. And number three: don't go see "Ishtar". Whoof!" Sophia had the right idea. That series of dialogue is 10 times funnier than anything you'll see in "Ishtar", which is not only one of the worst movies ever made, but one of the biggest box office bombs in movie history. What Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty were doing in a movie as bad as this is anybody's guess.

1/2* (out of four)

I have never understood the seemingly universal disapproval of this fine film. Is it "Reds"?...No. Is it "Rain Man"?...No. Was it intended to be?...Of course not.

Ishtar is a comedy of the first measure. Start with two struggling musicians trying to make it big, who find themselves trapped in a circle of espionage and intrigue in a far away land. Include some of the funniest text ever written for the big screen. Add two of the greatest actors of our day, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty, (both of whom are playing characters that could not be farther from the traditional roles that these actors have played, which was, I'm sure, a challenge in and of itself) and throw in a blind camel for good measure, and you have the recipe for a cinema classic. If this film had managed to avoid the negative press that it received early on, it would have gone done in history as one of the great comedies of the 1980's. Now, everyone wants to be on the "I hate Ishtar" bandwagon. It is truly unfortunate that this film has not received the credit that it deserves.

"Ishtar" is not the most under-rated film ever, but it may be close.

IMDb really needs to have a zero rating and this all-time stink-o-ramma-dome of a film is a perfect case in point ... why Beatty and Hoffman ever signed on is beyond most anyone's imagination and how their careers survived might be understandable but lord almighty they should have been made to clean every star on Hollywood blvd with a toothbrush as penance for this piece of celluloid smegma ...

I'm not even going into the plot which is basically some latter-day tainted-mescaline freak-out of a Hope-Crosby road movie and there is little enough plot not to even bother ... one pointless scene moves into another barely held together by the cheapest of generic scotch-tape-premise ...

at least Elaine May was punished for this hot-steaming-load of a film and never allowed to direct again ... she managed to produce some passable screenplays after Ishtar, 'Primary Colors' based on the bestselling novel (and nothing new in the political arena except they could point a finger at a current candidate) and 'Birdcage', but frankly they are just passable, not even approaching great in any way, and are a cookie-cutter selection from the Hollywood EZ-Bake script-idea oven (substitute a gay couple for an awful new in-laws meeting in 'Birdcage' and let Robin Williams do his VERY tiresome prancing gay 'send-up' which, also frankly, after 40 years of his doing this in every 'improv' or 'stand-up' routine we see of his, it has become more like trying to say 'it's OK to do black-face, minstrel send-ups as long as it's in the name of comedy' than it is any kind of comedic routine ... seriously, he needs to stop this ... it's offensive and as tiresome as the old comics from the "Bortsch-Belt" era sitting around in the 60s and 70s and doing their offensive ethnic or even racist routines and saying it's still more clever that those guys working 'blue' such as Lenny Bruce, etc ... sorry, going off on a tangent but Williams ALWAYS falls back on the 'flaming gay' routine, watch any of his appearances on 'whose line it is anyway', and he CANNOT do an improv scene WITHOUT using this hackneyed crap ... it is sad, offensive, and please, retire if this is all that can be passed off as inspiration) OK went off on a tangent there but golly gosh darn it, someone had to say it ...

OK back to Elaine May .. even her best movie i think we'd all consider to be 'Tootsie' and yeah it was OK tho an uncredited writing credit so it's hard to tell what she did on it ... Bill Murray was the best part of the movie anyway ... had a big crush on Teri Garr at the time but by this time she was only playing the 'woman who is the patient every therapist/psychologist is waiting for and all they see while treating the patient is a big neon sign on the patient's forehead flashing 'BOAT' or 'LAKESIDE SUMMER HOME' and her routine was getting real old ... sorry Teri, but it's the truth ...

'Heaven Can Wait' was OK ... cute and a good 'date movie' i suppose but anyone who believes that some out of shape middle-aged rich guy who never played a sport in his life can turn his physical body into an NFL top-caliber quarterback body just because the 'spirit' of an NFL top-caliber quarterback body just happens to be IN his body, is dosed on the same tainted-mescaline that inspired 'Ishtar' ... yes, it's a 'fantasy' movie ... but a bit of a basis in reality is necessary for us to swallow some of the fantasy ... 'Cinderella' is a fantasy movie too but it takes a fairy godmother to turn mice into horses to pull the carriage, not just put the spirit of a horse into a mouse and suddenly the mouse is as strong as a horse because they have the spirit of a horse ... you need to have a little cornerstone of reality to work with to build the fantasy house, OK? well, I've spent far too much time bitching about all this lol ... but once i get going it's a bit of a torrent during the rainy season on a mattress not conjured by a fairy godmother into a boat and the whole tainted-etc etc etc ..

by the way, it's probably been pointed out but if you switch the letters around in the title of Ishtar you get the correct title

and btw, if you want to get a couple of stars trying to redo an old Hope-Crosby road movie in the last quarter of the 20th century, try the very underrated "Harry and Walter go to New York" with Elliott Gould, James Caan, Michael Cain, Diane Keaton, and lots of other faces you'll recognize ... the studio slashed this movie to hell before release and it was STILL a world away better than Ishtar ...

hopefully, this will get a restoration tho it is doubtful ... they finally gave Peckinpah's 'Billy the Kid' it's due by restoring it but I'm afraid director Mark Rydell isn't gonna get the same and overdue re-issue Peckinpah got ... but rent the movie anyway ... i don't think it'd be inappropriate for kids over 11 or 12 these days ... tho they might not get some of the subtler jokes and it's a period piece which sometimes doesn't work well for younger ones ,... but hey, you and the wife can watch and enjoy :)