A few reviews

[TM2YC]

Ishtar (1987)
I've been curious about this notorious Warren Beatty/Dustin Hoffman box-office bomb (estimated to have lost $40-55 million) since I laughed at the above Gary Larson "Hell's Video Store" joke as a teen. I tracked down the old theatrical cut DVD, rather than the new Director's Cut blu-ray, because I wanted to see the version that took all the flack. I've read about the hilarious production mishaps but even so, how did they manage to spend $51 million on a film this relatively small-scale and lowkey... ESB and RoTJ cost that combined! Were they using $100 bills as napkins in craft service or something? 'Ishtar' has been talked about as one of the worst films of all time, which is ridiculous, it's fine. Hoffman and Beatty as two pathetic and untalented Simon & Garfunkel wannabees are pretty funny. Whenever they are together I was chuckling but the plot involving the CIA, left wing guerillas and middle eastern politics gets in the way. The film is clearly aiming for frenetic farce but just ends up with an over complicated plot that needs to be explained all the time (and I still got confused). The intentionally bad songs by Paul Williams get the best laughs.