Ishtar

1987 Directed by Elaine May

Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.

Warren Beatty Dustin Hoffman Isabelle Adjani Charles Grodin Jack Weston Tess Harper Carol Kane Aharon Ipalé Cristine Rose Matt Frewer Alex Hyde-White Warren Clarke David Margulies Rose Arrick Julie Garfield Robert V. Girolami Herb Gardner Bill Moor Dylan Baker Arthur Brauss Haluk Bilginer

107 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam Friedland 3

Shoutout to Elaine for losing a studio 60 million dollars
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★½ 14

stupid but also genius
Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½

dear Ishtar,
I love you. I hope one day everyone else does too.
Sincerely,
willow
Review by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim ★★★★½ 4

there are two movies that have been my personal cultural resets during quarantine. the first is My Night at Maud's, which revived my cinephilia when it felt so unfocused and muddled by anxiety. the second is this film, which was just PURE JOY. remember...literally laughing out loud at movies? i had forgotten. elaine may... a genius, period, but here, maybe the best showcase of her comedic genius? (hard to say, all her movies are so good.) so many punchlines have me REELING ("who is shirra assel smap?" / "it takes a lot of nerve to have nothing at your age"); but it's not just in the writing — the comedic reveal via mise en scene is also *chefs kiss.* like when…
Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 5

The last time I tried to watch this movie back in 2002, it took me several nights to get through it and I hated it. Today, I laughed my ass off. It’s tempting to pretend my opinion hasn’t changed; telling the truth can be dangerous business.
Review by Esther Rosenfield

"Why didn't you try to recruit me as a communist? Wasn't I good enough?"
Review by Carol Grant ★★★★ 1

"And now, a song dedicated to a lovely lady of the Left."
For years, my film school professors have warned us that this is the worst movie ever made.
Fuck them is all I'm saying.
Review by cristinanever ★★★★★ 1

Anyone who calls this a bad movie is a smuck.
Review by Scott Tobias ★★★½ 6

A predestined failure that has emerged, 25 years later, as an orphan worth adopting-- awkward at times, with leads that work hard to redeem their miscasting, but winning and sweet and full of inspired silliness. The film handles the far outskirts of show business with a knowing wit that the Moroccan mayhem cannot quite equal (though the blind camel is never not funny), but its overall affability wins the day for me.
Review by theriverjordan ★★★ 11

“Ishtar” is an epic by bad reputation only. As its own entry in Elaine May’s filmography, the movie is a charmingly dumb jaunt that predicted the modern trend of moron comedy.
It’s telling that in a movie with an overly complicated plot involving lounge singers, the CIA, and a civil war — nothing in “Ishtar’s” script is quite so dense as the Wikipedia article on the movie’s creation. Cursed with production woes from standard creative infighting to... a prospective camel actor being eaten.... “Ishtar” is one of those movies that ends a director’s career.
And it did. Not only has its flop notoriety kept May from ever making another feature film, “Ishtar” was such a disaster that it single-handedly caused…
Review by Nate ★★★★½ 3

By now it’s established fact that the CIA had countless newspaper reporters on their payroll, or would use these journalists to pump out fake stories about left wing governments in exchange for scoops. What are the chances that they took a quick walk down the hallway to the arts section and asked the film critics nicely to tank a movie that makes them look this bad?
Review by muriel ★★★★ 3

they didn't understand it

Recent reviews

Review by Mark Cira

Talkhouse was kind enough to let me share my thoughts on Ishtar this month. If you have a chance, check it out! 🤟🏻 💘 🤟🏻
Long live Elaine May!
Review by Cole Duffy ★½

“Let me tell you girls the three most important things I learned about life: Number one, hold fast to your friends; number two, there's no such thing as security; and number three, don't go see Ishtar. Woof.”
- Sophia Petrillo
Review by Judy Neeb

I’m one of the audience members at the end of the film, trying to wrap my head around what I’m watching.
Review by jamesmartincole ★★★★

Really really funny! Kind of the same movie as Inside Llewyn Davis. The songs are hilarious; Beatty and Hoffman are great as doofy losers; the production design and the look of the movie really work. It works well as a take on the Reagan era; the bumbling CIA agents playing games in the Middle East come off as both ruthless and incompetent. I get why people like it now and I don't get why people used to hate it!
Review by benji ★★★★½

Maybe you just need to be intellectual to enjoy Ishtar.
Review by Tim Hilbert ★★★½

The Blind Camel bit is incredible. Thank you Elaine May for nearly bankrupting a studio with this gem.
Review by Katie M ★★★

going to be forever thinking abt the camel bit
Review by arthur joaquín ★★★★

chuck and lyle's songs being wildly underappreciated even though they SLAP... now what does that remind me of
would also like to thank elaine may once again for (rightfully) thinking homoeroticism is the peak of comedy
Review by Wixely ★★★

The songs were very memorable. Has some good comedy in the first half, gets a little incoherent as it progresses.
Review by Adam Bernstein ★★★½

Kind of amazing this was ever regarded as one of the worst films ever made -- I feel like that assessment has to be tied to its status as a financial bomb with a wildly inflated budget. Nowadays, of course, lavishly produced movies driven by star power and not based on existing IP are such a novelty that something like this actually feels quite refreshing.
Beatty and Hoffman have a blast playing against type, Grodin steals every scene he's in, it all looks fantastic (Storaro shot it!), and the Paul Williams songs are a lot of fun. And hey, Elaine May is still a comic genius and this has several A+ gags in it.
The main issue is that May's…
Review by Jimmy the Epic ½

This is the worst movie I've ever seen.
Review by Atlasle ★

I can't believe that anyone thought that making this movie was a good decision.