{"id":1213,"date":"2024-07-18T21:49:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T21:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1213"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:54:57","slug":"ishtar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/18\/ishtar\/","title":{"rendered":"Ishtar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ishtar <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, some violent content, brief nudity\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Elaine May\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Elaine May \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Dave Grusin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 15, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Weston, Tess Harper, Carol Kane, Aharon Ipale, Fuad Hageb, David Margulies, Rose Arrick.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $14.3 million (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong>\u00a0*<\/p>\n

\u00a0May 15, 1987, a day that will live in cinematic infamy. It\u2019s the day a bomb was dropped on theaters across the country. Yes, I’m talking about Ishtar<\/strong>, the notorious $51M boondoggle starring two Oscar winners and directed by a well-regarded comedy writer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Warren Beatty (Reds) and Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) play Lyle Rogers and Chuck Clarke, two extraordinarily untalented singer-songwriters who work tirelessly to compose awful songs nobody wants to hear. Their agent Marty Freed (Weston, Dirty Dancing) gets them a gig in Morocco where they unwittingly become involved in a plot to overthrow the Emir of the neighboring fictional country of Ishtar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ishtar <\/strong>might have sounded good on paper, but it got lost on the way to theater screens. It became an expensive train wreck instead of the hit action-comedy the makers intended. There is a lot wrong with Ishtar<\/strong>. Actually, there is nothing right about it. Let\u2019s begin with its biggest and most obvious problem. It’s NOT funny. It’s not even mildly amusing. The word “excruciating” comes to mind when describing the experience of watching it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The opening of Ishtar<\/strong> is especially painful to watch. We get a series of scenes showing Lyle and Chuck\u2019s first meeting and their pitiful attempts to become the next Simon & Garfunkel. That writer-director Elaine May (Heaven Can Wait) would even compare these idiots to one of the greatest singing duos of the 20th<\/sup> century is an insult to S&G and their fans. We watch in utter misery as their respective romantic partners, Tess Harper (Tender Mercies) and Carol Kane (The Princess Bride), leave them. It leads to an embarrassingly unfunny scene of a despondent Chuck standing on the ledge of a building while various people (Lyle, his parents, cops and a rabbi) try to talk him down. Whoever edited these scenes either didn’t know what they were doing or the studio did it to make it shorter. Either way, it’s enough to make you want to jump off the roof of the theater.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Immediately upon arrival in Morocco, Chuck is approached by Shirra (Adjani, Possession) at the airport. She asks him to lend her his passport and suitcase which he generously and stupidly does. What follows is a series of events too complicated to go into. I\u2019m not entirely sure I understand it myself. What I can say is that almost every government agency conceivable seems to be involved- the CIA, the KGB, the FBI and probably even the ASPCA, who knows? Moreover, who cares? There\u2019s some business about a map that could remove the Emir from power, a blind camel and a journey through the desert where they find themselves in a middle of an illegal arms deal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s disheartening to see a movie like Ishtar<\/strong> go down in flames as spectacularly as it does. May had plenty of talent to work with including her own. Her credits include A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid and Mikey and Nicky. The idea of an update of the Road to comedies starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby is one that could have worked if not for May\u2019s heavy-handed direction. Ishtar <\/strong>is one of the clunkiest comedies I\u2019ve ever seen. Every gag hits the ground with a thud loud enough to be heard around the world. I didn\u2019t laugh once, not once. I did, however, smile a little at the deliberately terrible songs (\u201cLove in My Will\u201d, \u201cThat a Lawnmower Can Do All That\u201d, \u201cHow Big Am I?\u201d) by Paul Williams. It\u2019s the only time Ishtar<\/strong> isn\u2019t completely painful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s weird seeing the two leads play against type. It\u2019s not believable either. Hoffman\u2019s character is a womanizer while Beatty\u2019s is shy and insecure. Who\u2019s going to believe either thing? They try their best, but the material underserves them in a big way by reducing them to idiots. They\u2019re required to do some embarrassing things here. I\u2019m surprised they agreed to any of it given the gargantuan size of their egos. Do they even talk about Ishtar<\/strong>? I\u2019d be surprised if they did.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s bad enough Beatty and Hoffman squandered their talent on this turkey. What\u2019s worse is how Ishtar<\/strong> wastes the talent of its supporting cast, especially the reliable Charles Grodin (Seems Like Old Times) as a CIA agent who recruits Chuck to work for them. And poor Isabelle Adjani, she\u2019s better than this. She\u2019s proven that in films like The Story of Adele H, Possession and Camille Claudel. She isn\u2019t given a lot to do other than flash her breast to prove to Chuck she\u2019s not a man. In the actress\u2019 defense, she was seeing Beatty at the time. Still, it\u2019s sad to see her flounder in substandard material.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ishtar<\/strong> put an end to May\u2019s directorial career. She hasn\u2019t directed another movie since. She redeemed herself somewhat with her screenplays for The Birdcage and Primary Colors. To be fair, the failure of Ishtar<\/strong> isn\u2019t entirely on her. Columbia had a hand in it too. Many other factors came together to form a perfect sandstorm of disaster.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Everybody knows Ishtar<\/strong> is one of the biggest flops of all time. It made only $14.3M against its mammoth $51M budget. I saw it opening night and despite a fairly sizable crowd of mostly looky-loos, nobody was laughing. But is it really that bad? YES, IT IS! Unlike Howard the Duck, it does live up to its bad reputation. And it hasn\u2019t improved with age either. It\u2019s still a colossal stinker. Oh, you don\u2019t believe me? I dare you to see for yourself. I double dare you. Don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t try to warn you.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Ishtar (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, some violent content, brief nudity\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Elaine May\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Elaine May \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Dave Grusin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 15, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Weston, Tess Harper, Carol Kane, Aharon Ipale, Fuad Hageb, David Margulies, Rose Arrick.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ishtar-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1859,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions\/1859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}