Ishtar was one of those passion projects
with a horrible reputation in the press long before it was released in 1987. As
is the case with most massive cinematic flops, it isn’t nearly as bad as you
might imagine. Mostly, Ishtar just
feels like a waste of time, both for the talent involved and anyone unfortunate
enough to sit through it. The director’s cut has no major changes to vastly
improve the blandness of the film, and somehow I can’t imagine many people are
excited to see this homage to classic Bing Crosby road comedies released in
high definition.
Warren Beatty
and Dustin Hoffman are the only things keeping this surprisingly unfunny comedy
afloat and even their performances get lost amidst a convoluted satire of
Reagan-era international politics. The film works best when the jabs are
directed at the entertainment industry instead, and the first act of Ishtar has the potential of being a
Spinal Tap for lounge singers, but it
quickly falls apart when the pair travels to the fictional country.
Beatty and
Hoffman are Rogers and Clarke, two singer/songwriters with little talent and
endless ambition. Upon the advice of their limited agent, the pair goes on a
concert tour in the Middle Eastern republic
of Ishtar
The scenery
looks fine in high definition, but no amount of image and sound clarity can
help make the jokes funny. The highlight of the film are the moments of
intentionally bad song writing, and even that isn’t enough to demand either a
director’s cut or a Blu-ray release.
Entertainment Value:
5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Disc Features: 1/10
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