 | Ishtar |
Welcome to the unofficial home of the fan club
for the world's most under-rated movie: ISHTAR!!! | | Plot |
In Ishtar, two terrible lounge singers get booked to play the Ishtar Hilton. Somehow they become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime. | | Songs |
This movie contains the most gawd-awful songs ever written:
Telling the truth can be dangerous business
Honest and popular don't go hand in hand
If you admit that you can play the accordion
No one will hire you in a rock and roll band
CHORUS (everybody now)
But we can SING our hearts out, (all night)
And if we're lucky then no neighbours complain
Nobody knows how the beginning part starts out,
But being human we can live with the pain
Because life is the way we audition for God
And we pray that we all get the job
Crying out loud gets you pointed and laughed out
Be like a baby, only babies should cry
Somebody tell me how that rumour got started
Something I know only god knows why
But we can SING our hearts out
| | Hated |
Usually hated by critics; e.g.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times:
"Ishtar" is a truly dreadful film, a lifeless, massive, lumbering exercise in failed comedy. Elaine May, the director, has mounted a multimillion-dollar expedition in search of a plot so thin that it hardly could support a five-minute TV sketch. And Beatty and Hoffman, good soldiers marching along on the trip, look as if they've had all wit and thought beaten out of them.
This movie is a long, dry slog. It's not funny, it's not smart and it's interesting only in the way a traffic accident is interesting.
[more...]
 Gary Larson tells us that Hell's Video store would only stock Ishtar
Hal Hinson Washington Post Staff Writer is no kinder:
A mammoth dud, a catastrophe, a huge floundering stinker of biblical proportions -- that's what all the advance stories on "Ishtar" have prepared us for. In fact, it's not nearly so grand an achievement. "Ishtar" doesn't attempt enough to be considered a magnificent failure. It's something far less substantial; it's piddling -- a hangdog little comedy with not enough laughs.
[more...]
| | Praised |
Desson Howe
Washington Post Staff Writer:
Beatty and Hoffman (or is it Hoffy and Beatman?) -- with their bigtime presence -- don't by any stretch fit into the small shoes of these two down-and-outers. But authenticity isn't what anyone's after here. "Ishtar" is an unabashed vamp for a pair of household names, and as such it works, often hilariously. [more...] | | Fans |
Neil Pollner:
The acting by Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty was excellent
and I found both of their characters to be believable. The plot
was consistent, funny and wonderfully stupid. [more...]
Martin Nohe, Woodbridge, VA
A truly under-rated film.
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.
Bob Helbig, Patton, PA
I wholeheartedly agree with you! I love
this movie! I just can't get enough
of it. I wish more people could enjoy
it as we do. It's really great to find
someone else who feels the same.
Tim, do you know who could sell me
the soundtrack?
Wouldn't it be great to have an Ishtar
Convention? The entire cast could be
invited, memorabilia could be displayed
and sold, people could speak, and we
could have a screening. Who knows,
Dustin and Warren might just show up
for a laugh!
Anyway, enough. If you do, indeed, have
an Ishtar fan-club, I want to join.
Scott Johnson, Kent, OH:
I like this movie also. I think
that people miss the point of this
movie. They don't understand how funny
bad songs really can be. It is not
comic genius but it is not as bad as
some portray it.
Tim Menzies, late of Australia:
I was flying back from Bali with the worse case of Bali belly I've ever heard
off.
As I tried not to think about toilets, the film started: ISHTAR!!
The rest of the plane went to sleep and I was left alone watching
this legendarily bad film.
I was captivated. Amused. Tickled. And I didn't have to break once
for a rest stop.
When it was over, dawn was breaking over the wing and I
was uplifted to a new sense of calm and solid poos. I was so content.
Ishtar had taken me away from the mundane and the runny to a new
plane (:-)) of existence. And such god-awful songs.
Truly,
you must be very good to write stuff so awful.
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