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Ishtar (1987)
Telling the truth can be a dangerous business
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.