CommentsXp Best movie ever!

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

owenwilliam This movie is boring and forgettable however it's not the worst movie in the world

Samiam3 I've seen worse movies, but it is easy enough to see why Ishar is worthy of being called the worst Hollywood movie of all time.A story of two hapless New Yorkers trying to make it as a Simon and Garfunkel-type pop duo, but after they get booked to a gig in Morocco, they become involved in the Federal Bureau and a massive Civil War.The opening scenes are about emphasizing how terrible Hoffman and Beatty are as musicians. The lyrics are funny but when they perform, they are so deliberately void of talent that the gimmick is less funny than it is depressing. Even bad music needs to palatable and even entertaining (like Steve Martin's early SNL work), otherwise the audience will disown the characters. The biggest problem with Ishtar is that Hoffman and Beatty take themselves too seriously for a movie that is doing everything in the world to ridicule them. It makes you yearn for the delicious double takes of Bob Hope in the "Road to" movies that inspired this fiasco.Not even veteran DP Vilmos Szigmund (Close Encounters, Heaven's Gate) can bring anything to the movie. There are a few nice wide shots in the Sahara, but the overall picture is visually bland, with static camera work, under lit interiors, and no sense of depth or scope. As far as humour goes, most of it fall flat, but there are a couple of good laughs to be had. Hoffman pretends to be a weapons dealer at one point and his fake Arabic is a scream (if you don't mind the political offence). The story line is shapeless to the point of feeling improvised, and the ending feels rushed, although ironically that becomes a positive when considering how hard Ishtar is to sit through.

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.

JasparLamarCrabb Certainly not as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe, but it's no real surprise that this Elaine May film is not hysterically funny. The basic premise (two bad singer/songwriters get booked to perform in war torn Middle East country) is simply not the stuff of laughs. The film is not fun and there's nary an acid-tinged line of dialog as in May's previous A NEW LEAF & THE HEARTBREAK KID and later THE BIRDCAGE. As the hapless duo, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty seem to be holding back their energy. They're lifeless, especially Beatty. Nevertheless, there are a few assets. May and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro capture a lot of desert beauty and Charles Grodin (as a deadpan government man) gets all the laughs there are. He steals the movie, but that's tantamount to stealing from a corpse. The large supporting cast includes Isabelle Adjani, Jack Weston (as the duo's seedy agent), Carol Kane & Tess Harper. It's a trifle to be sure.