Product Details

• Actors: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Weston
• Directors: Elaine May
• Writers: Elaine May
• Producers: Warren Beatty, David Leigh MacLeod, Nigel Wooll
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 24, 1994
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302814146
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,641 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At the time of its release in 1987, this Elaine May production was bandied about as one of the worst films of the decade. It was nominated for three Razzie Awards that year--Worst Picture, Screenplay, Direction--but it still was not the nadir detractors claimed it to be. (Remember, that was the year Norman Mailer's self-indulgence spilled all over the screen in Tough Guys Don't Dance.) If this comedy had been made by unknowns, it would have simply faded into the obscurity it deserves. The fuss came about because May squandered much talent and a ridiculously large budget, rumored to exceed $40 million, returning less than half of that in ticket sales. Two artistically challenged lounge musicians (Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman) are jettisoned out of the States by their agent, who finds them a gig in Morocco. En route, they become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the mythical emir of Ishtar, and upstarts hoping to overthrow the emir's regime. There are some humorous bits, such as when Hoffman and Beatty so badly perform their horrible ditties that audiences are left appalled. Most of the time however, we are the ones lulled into a near daze by a hokey script and boorish jokes about blind camels. If Abbott and Costello had made this flick, it might have worked. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the truth can be dangerous business, December 19, 2005

By 

T. LeGrand "luvisagoodthing" (arizona mountains) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ishtar [Region 2] (DVD)

Too often, people jump on the bandwagon and say a movie sucks...when they haven't even seen it. I truly suspect that was the case with this, one of my all time favorite movies. When it comes up in conversation, and people moan or say "that was awful," I ask, "Did you actually see it?" And often the answer is "No, but I heard..." Please. This is a brilliant, hilarious movie. It was also one of the first comedies ever to have such a large budget and it came along at a time when the media was first even talking a lot about how big a budget was, in reference to movies. I've always been mystified as to why this movie was so reviled when it's endearing and oh so funny. Not being a particular fan of either Beatty or Hoffman, you just have to give them big mad props for the incredible portrayals in this movie. PLEASE, we need a DVD release for U.S. players...with the goodies and the long, lost musical video included! I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Elaine May a few years after Ishtar came out and she seemed to still be besieged by the naysayers. What a shame...what a bewildering shame. The funniest thing about this movie are the song lyrics and their deadpan, oh-so-serious delivery:

Telling the truth can be dangerous business
honest and popular don't go hand and hand
If you admit you can play the accordian,
no one will hire you for a rock and roll band...
and we'll sing our hearts out...

Indeed. A wonderful movie

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gutbusting, clever comedy got a bad rap., January 12, 2001

By 

Nathan Johnson (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ishtar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ishtar is the most wrongfully maligned movie of all time. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman are hilarious in this buddy farce about the fantastic misadventures of two passionate, sincere songwriters who can niether sing nor write, but who truly think they're great, think they're Simon and Garfunkel. The deluded duo can't get a gig anywhere but Morocco, where they become entangled in a revolutionary espionage and ride around the desert on a blind camel. Ishtar was the movie which made me decide to like Warren Beatty. He and Hoffman have dynamic charisma together, each playing their characters with endearing sincerity, which adds to the hilarity. Every scene crackles with memorable dialogue and slapstick gags. One of my personal favorite lines comes when Hoffman is threatening to kill himself because he has nothing. Beatty tells him that that's what's great about him. "You're the kind of guy who'd rather have nothing than settle for less." Ishtar was a financial failure because it went way over budget and was poorly marketed. It was doomed to "bomb" before it ever came out. But what does that matter to us, now? The fact is that this classic comedy is in league with all of your favorites, and you're only depriving yourself of a lot of good belly laughs if you don't give Ishtar a look.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't tell anyone, but I LOVE Ishtar, January 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ishtar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ok, so MOST of my friends either refuse to watch the video with me or fall asleep ten minutes into it. A very few of my friends agree that this movie is so far beyond bad that it's terrific. I've seen Ishtar more times than I can remember, and every time I laugh. If you're a little quirky, and if you're willing to take the movie as a song and character showcase (forget the plot!), then you may have found a new favorite movie to torture your loved ones with.

I'm not kidding.

Imagine if you will Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty singing (badly) these super lines:

"I said come look there's a wardrobe of love in my eyes/ Come on in, take a look and see if there's something your size."

"Telling the truth is a dangerous business/ Honest and popular don't go hand in hand./ If you admit that you can play the accordion/ No one will hire you in a rock-n-roll band."

You live your life and I'll live mine, and mine will always include a copy of Ishtar.