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Ishtar
1987
Two totally untalented song-writers are advised by their agent to get away as far away as possible. Upon their arrival in Morocco, they are separately recruited as spies for opposing sides of a planned revolution, while simultaneously vying for the attentions of an attractive left-wing revolutionary. Based on an idea by Elaine May. Read more
| Starring | Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Weston, Isabelle Adjani |
|---|---|
| Director | Elaine May |
| Genres | Comedy |
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Ishtar
Two totally untalented song-writers are advised by their agent to get away as far away as possible. Upon their arrival in Morocco, they are separately recruited as spies for opposing sides of a planned revolution, while simultaneously vying for the attentions of an attractive left-wing revolutionary. Based on an idea by Elaine May.
| Starring | Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Weston, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin |
|---|---|
| Director | Elaine May |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 43 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 13 Sep 2004 Production year: 1987 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (2)
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Intended as a tribute to the Hope/Crosby Road movies, this has gone down in movie history as one of the grossest miscalculations of the blockbuster era. Even if you find it in yourself to accept the oddball casting of Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as a couple of tone deaf songwriters, it's impossible to forgive the triteness and racial insensitivity of writer/director Elaine May's crass script. It's not quite the laugh-free zone of legend, as the business with the vultures and Charles Grodin's bungling CIA agent have their moments, but the rest of this sorry mess is as redundant as poor old third-billed Isabelle Adjani.
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So bad it could almost have been deliberate. The faults are many, but the casting of Hoffman and Beatty as a talentless... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
awfull
dustin hoffman's worst movie despite a good idea ,very bad dialogues ,bad directing,bad acting from adjani .I couldn't bear more than 30 mn you have to see it to believe it
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Most recent members' review
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Yes, it really is THAT bad
This film really does deserve its reputation as a disastrous failure. It tries to be clever-clever, showing you two guys with talent (Beatty and Hoffman) pretending to have no talent; but all you actually see is... Two guys who have no talent. If you have anything approaching a sense of pitch, you'll find Beatty especially to be just torturous to listen to.
I've tried to watch this movie twice. The first time, at age 15 when I was young and forgiving, I lasted 30 minutes or so - just long enough to give Isabelle Adjani a chance at saving it (she didn't). The second time I lasted half as long. And, despite the painfully slow exposition, I still have no idea what it's about.
The only reason for giving Ishtar one star was that the sets and lighting, and constuming perhaps, are very good. I actually like watching turkeys most of the time, but this one just did me in. I even tried turning the sound down and enjoying the visuals: no joy. It's the only rental picture I've ever in my life actually started and then sent back without watching all the way through. -
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