I have a 15-minute rule that is nearly foolproof in figuring out whether a movie is worth watching. I'm not even sure it was 15 seconds into that insipid, unfunny and yes, painful opening song before it was obvious what a pile of Ishtar this movie is.
It's unbelievable that this mess even got into production, never mind had truckloads of money repeteadly thrown at it. Everything about it is so backlot and cheap that any second-rate hack could have punched it out for the price of a sitcom episode. Even in "Morocco" (which I assume was Palm Springs), there are no Lawrence of Arabia panoramas here. A couple quick pans of some sand and very tight shots inside fake decrepit buildings and what looks like the municipal airport in Lawrence, Kansas, maybe.
I get that it basically buried Elaine May at the bottom of a lake. How did Dustin Hoffman or Warren Beatty's careers survive. They were already a couple decades too old to be playing these characters. They're both lucky the old studio system wasn't in place bc they would have been relegated to Playhouse 90 on the Dumont Television Network.
This easily ranks alongside Cleopatra, Heaven's Gate and Waterworld as the most ill-conceived, big-budget vanity projects in Hollywood history. I've cringed less watching the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.
It's unbelievable that this mess even got into production, never mind had truckloads of money repeteadly thrown at it. Everything about it is so backlot and cheap that any second-rate hack could have punched it out for the price of a sitcom episode. Even in "Morocco" (which I assume was Palm Springs), there are no Lawrence of Arabia panoramas here. A couple quick pans of some sand and very tight shots inside fake decrepit buildings and what looks like the municipal airport in Lawrence, Kansas, maybe.
I get that it basically buried Elaine May at the bottom of a lake. How did Dustin Hoffman or Warren Beatty's careers survive. They were already a couple decades too old to be playing these characters. They're both lucky the old studio system wasn't in place bc they would have been relegated to Playhouse 90 on the Dumont Television Network.
This easily ranks alongside Cleopatra, Heaven's Gate and Waterworld as the most ill-conceived, big-budget vanity projects in Hollywood history. I've cringed less watching the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.