How can anyone think this movie is 'misunderstood?'
If you have any sense of what makes a good comedy film you can't possibly think this ticks any of those boxes. Having just watched this film again last night I have to say it isn't nearly as bad as I remember it in that I recall a much more BORING film.... But it's just as much a black hole of comedy as it always was.
-Hoffman and Beatty singing badly is embarrassing for REAL cause they aren't comedians. Performing badly on purpose for comedic effect is VERY hard and takes a specific type of talent that Hoffman and Beatty (talented as they are as actors) can't pull off. The result is an embarrassing try hard ironic train wreck.... That we have to watch again and again and again and again.
-the film is full of stilted, contrived yammering between the two leads that's supposed to be "charming banter" but just lies there asking to be found amusing. The "smuck schmuck" scene for instance is a particularly asinine example of bad hacky banter.
-why do we care how two hopeless morons who end up running afoul of international intrigue in morocco first meet? This is supposed to be Hope and Crosby NOT When Harry Met Sally. Why are we watching a thirty minute flashback setting up how these two came to be these desperate losers? It's a screwball comedy, this type of overly extended backstory is so PAINFULLY unnecessary I can't even believe it.
-the amount of set up and no pay off is plentiful. The blind camel buying scene is one of the biggest missed opportunities in the picture. The set up is funny. He wants to buy a blind camel. Why the hell would he want a blind camel? He thinks he's talking in spy code but naturally they don't understand him. This is a great sketch that completely bails on itself in the first beat. The idea isn't just funny in and of itself... The absurdity of it needs to be heightened so it builds on the initial joke getting funnier. Didn't Elaine May help CREATE modern improvisational comedy?
-the sluggish, cumbersome, leaden nature of the film weighs is it down to a degree that is actually quite amazing to watch, if not tiresome. If you squint hard enough when watching Ishtar you can actually see a ball and chain tied to the ankles of the comedic energy in this film just dragging it to a halt every few minutes. It's exhausting to watch.
Look I LOVE the kind of film they were trying to make and therefore wanted so badly to be one of THOSE people that actually love Ishtar. Silly, screwball comedy adventure is my favourite kind of movie. But I can't give Ishtar a pass. Some people think I'm nuts for liking Hudson Hawk and I can't fault them. So to those of you that genuinely love this film.... God speed but you're nuts.