I'm sorry, but there is virtually no terrible film in history that doesn't have these insane "If you don't love this, you're stupid or don't get it" kinds of really ridiculous adulatory praise. I saw Ishtar on its opening night. The theater was full. There was, listen to me VERY carefully, not one laugh ever. The full theater was half-full by the thirty minute mark. By the end it was a third full.
So to come here and read these "reviews" where people actually say that it's a brilliant comedy (well, how many people are actually saying it?) like they are somehow so clued in to what comedy is and anyone who doesn't like it is somehow an idiot - well, no, we're not the idiots. I have, in fact, just finished watching it again twenty-three years later. Some movies do age well and I hoped that I'd reassess my original thoughts. But alas, from scene one on it's a mess, it isn't ever funny, and it lumbers along with some of the worst pacing ever put on the screen. The only one who escapes unscathed is Isabelle Adjani. Everyone else is embarrassing, the most embarrassing being Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Beatty. There is such smugness behind this film and it reeks of it. This film didn't bomb because it had a huge budget. This film bombed because - wait for it - it was bad. Not funny. That's a problem for a purported comedy.
So, to those who say things like, "what movie did you see?" I have to say, I saw the movie these people made. I don't sit home in some fantasy-laden hazy state thinking a movie like this is the same as a movie by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. I don't laugh because I know the film was a bomb and that most people with a brain hated it then and hate it now, as if I'm better than them because I "get it."
It's a little shocking actually, until you look at the film's overall all rating here - which is a lot more accurate than these silly love letters to mediocrity.
So to come here and read these "reviews" where people actually say that it's a brilliant comedy (well, how many people are actually saying it?) like they are somehow so clued in to what comedy is and anyone who doesn't like it is somehow an idiot - well, no, we're not the idiots. I have, in fact, just finished watching it again twenty-three years later. Some movies do age well and I hoped that I'd reassess my original thoughts. But alas, from scene one on it's a mess, it isn't ever funny, and it lumbers along with some of the worst pacing ever put on the screen. The only one who escapes unscathed is Isabelle Adjani. Everyone else is embarrassing, the most embarrassing being Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Beatty. There is such smugness behind this film and it reeks of it. This film didn't bomb because it had a huge budget. This film bombed because - wait for it - it was bad. Not funny. That's a problem for a purported comedy.
So, to those who say things like, "what movie did you see?" I have to say, I saw the movie these people made. I don't sit home in some fantasy-laden hazy state thinking a movie like this is the same as a movie by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. I don't laugh because I know the film was a bomb and that most people with a brain hated it then and hate it now, as if I'm better than them because I "get it."
It's a little shocking actually, until you look at the film's overall all rating here - which is a lot more accurate than these silly love letters to mediocrity.