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Ishtar
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Elaine May
Directed by: Elaine May
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 15, 1987
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13
Starring Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Weston, Tess Harper, Carol Kane, and Aharon Ipalé
Chuck Clarke (Hoffman) and Lyle Rogers (Beatty) are a couple of no-talent New York singer-songwriters who agree to play the only gig they can find at the Chez Casablanca in Morocco. En route, they become embroiled in various international intrigues in the neighboring (fictional) Ishtar.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson
A smart, generous, genuinely funny affair. Sometimes, like the camel who almost ambles away with the picture, it's longish in the tooth, but it is based on an extremely astute vision of life. [15 May 1987]
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The most underestimated commercial movie of 1987 may not be quite as good as Elaine May's three previous features, but it's still a very funny work by one of this country's greatest comic talents.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr
Ishtar is a good movie, but you can't help but wonder if, lurking somewhere in those cans of outtakes, there isn't a great movie, too. [15 May 1987]
Variety David Rooney
Enter Charles Grodin, who upstages all involved via his savagely comical portrayal of a CIA agent.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
Reasonably genial and diverting. [18 May 1987]
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Ishtar is an unabashed vamp for a pair of household names, and as such it works, often hilariously.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott
Is it worth seeing? Yes. The ability to charm in the modern world is rare, and Ishtar does charm. Essentially, it's a teen film for adults, which is to say, it's mindless but not stupid good fun. And there are at least four times when the audience laughs out loud.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Judy Stone
It's worth seeing the movie just to observe [Grodin's] delicious blend of unctuous manipulation and anti-Communist sanctimoniousness. [15 May 1987]
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
The worst of it is painless; the best is funny, sly, cheerful and, here and there, even genuinely inspired. [15 May 1987, p.C3]
Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
Hoffman and Beatty are so tone-deaf they don't even know how to play the songs for deadpan humor. They seem old, white, and without shtick. [14 May 1987, p.26(E)]
TV Guide Angel Cohn
For all the bad press Ishtar received, it does have a certain odd charm... The biggest problem is that any attempted subtlety is swamped by May's bid to turn the film into an epic adventure story.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Brad Laidman
The guys in Ishtar are the boring wallflowers of the world. They probably shouldn't be mocked, disgraced and beaten, but who really wants to spend close to two hours with them.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Pauline Kael
When Beatty and Hoffman doe their (deliberately hopeless) singing numbers, jerking like mechanical men, phrasing unmusically, going off-key, they don't have the slapstick skills for it. That's when you long for Martin and Murray, or some other comics. [1 June 1987, p.102]
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It's piddling -- a hangdog little comedy with not enough laughs...its spirit rattles around inside it like a marble in an oil drum.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Staff (Uncredited)
The funny scenes are as far apart as oases in the Sahara. [22 May 1987]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Sam gave it a2:
Ishtar isn't funny, it isn't clever, and it isn't entertaining, the complete opposite of Young Frankenstein, a true comedy classic. It is however, so damn close to being so bad it's good though.
Jocelyn P. gave it a10:
Totally misunderstood, misjudged, HILARIOUS movie. It's a thrill to see Hoffman and Beatty enjoy their against typecast parts.
Pat C. gave it a 1:
Seems unfair to kick a film that has been so universally panned. But that's never stopped me before.
Patrick N. gave it a 10:
This is one of the funniest, saterically witty films ever made. It is a classic.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 4:
I probably missed much of the humor since I'm not too familiar with the road movies Ishtar is parodying, but what really hurts this movie is its insane scale. Why this threadbare but fun comic material had to be given the Lawrence of Arabia treatment is beyond comprehension. Elaine May, known for her nimble wit, is left straining her meager cinematic muscles in this white elephant of a movie. Hoffman and Beatty seem confused and lost, as though they're stuck with material beneath their dignity.
