Ishtar

First of all, the characters in the film are two big losers. And I mean, BIIIIIIG losers! They can’t sing or write songs for their lives, and spend the first twenty minutes of the movie proving this fact to us. YES, I know that this part was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t crack one smile the whole time. I just felt embarassed for the two actors.

Then, the film switches gears and suddenly moves to Morroco, where the two morons get swept up into a political espionage thang, that actually gets serious at some point. Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!? Of course, the whole “bad singers” thing takes a bad seat while the movie focuses on some inane plot-line about a historical map and how the communists want it as well as others, who may want the bobo twosome dead, etc, etc… Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details, but needless to say, it’s complicated, stupid and unentertaining.

The one saving grace of the whole film, besides a couple of “decent” one-liners, is the straight-man attitude of Charles Grodin. I LOVE THIS DUDE! I loved it when he used to go on Letterman and act all assholish with him and I loved him in this film. There’s just something about the guy…

Anyway, that’s basically it with this movie. Little to no laughs, an idiotic and preposterous story-line, two annoying leads and oh yeah, did I mention Warren Beatty’s disappearing and bad Southern accent?!? Oy vey! Stay away!

PS: If you do think that the stupid songs and dumb lyrics that the two leads in this film engage in from time to time are humorous, you may actually enjoy the film. I personally didn’t think that they were ONE BIT FUNNY!!