Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
nannite
The first 25 minutes consists of Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beaty hamming it up as songwriter wannabes. First we get their backstory, then they spend some time working on some songs. Its entertaining, Hoffman is charismatic, Beatty plays a slower-minded character.The rest of the movie is terrible.
Hal-203
True story: This is the only movie I have ever been to where it was discounted at the box office(This was like shortly after it had been released, I was like 10th or 11th grade). I walked up to pay and it was half the normal price, struck me as odd, but watched it anyway. Wish I had my 107 minutes back. The only redeeming feature was the previews and the Camel. This move lost like 40 million dollars for the production company. The Camel was the best actor in the whole film. The idea as a concept really wasn't that bad, but it jokes were weak at best and it was just dull. I really do believe this to be one of the worst movies ever made. The only movie I have seen worse then this is "Freddy Got Fingered" and even it wasn't discounted...I just couldn't finish it. At least with Ishtar, I only wish I had left, LOL.
SnoopyStyle
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.
smmahan
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.
