History Film / Ishtar

* HateSink: While the main antagonists are LaughablyEvil {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s, Chuck's and Lyle's exes, Carol and Willa, are both treated as absolute shallow snobs who both cruelly dumped our leads for being losers and want nothing to do with them, showing no remorse for Chuck's and Lyle's plights.

* HiddenDisdainReveal: Carol initially seemed to be supportive of Chuck, however, when she breaks up with him after losing patience with him, she vents out her true feelings of hatred of him for being a complete loser.

* {{Jerkass}}: Willa and [[BitchInSheepsClothing Carol]].

* TookALevelInJerkass: Carol, from a supportive girlfriend of Chuck who then drops him like a rock out of IrrationalHatred of him being a complete loser.

* HateSink: While the main antagonists are LaughablyEvil {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s, Chuck's and Lyle's exes, Carol and Willa, are both treated as absolute snobs who both cruelly dumped our leads for being losers and want nothing to do with them, showing no remorse for Chuck's and Lyle's plights.

* HateSink: While the main antagonists are LaughablyEvil {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s, Chuck's and Lyle's exes, Carol and Willa, are both treated as absolute snobs who both dumped our leads for being losers and want nothing to do with them, showing no remorse for Chuck's and Lyle's plights.

* LongTitle: One of the songs is called "That a Lawnmower Can Do All That".

* [[CIAEvilFBIGood CIA Evil]]: As represented by Jim Harrison who seems friendly at first but turns out to be a BitchInSheepsClothing.

The film ''was'' completed, and it was ActuallyPrettyFunny. ''New York Times'' film critic Vincent Canby listed it as one of the best films of the year, and multiple film directors have cited it as one of their favorite movies, including Creator/MartinScorsese, Creator/QuentinTarantino and Creator/EdgarWright. Beatty and Hoffman were also happy with the final film.

The production of ''Ishtar'' was set into motion by way of the fact that writer/director Creator/ElaineMay had cowritten one Creator/WarrenBeatty hit (''Heaven Can Wait'') and did a major rewrite on another Beatty hit (''Film/{{Reds}}''), and Beatty wanted to work with her on something that she wrote ''and'' directed. May came up with an idea inspired by the Creator/BobHope and Creator/BingCrosby ''Film/RoadTo'' series and got another bankable, respected actor, Creator/DustinHoffman, to costar. A big studio, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, put a lot of money into this movie. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

There were production problems right from the start-- firstly, the Coca-Cola Company, which owned Columbia at the time, insisted that due to other business deals Coca-Cola was involved with, the movie had to be shot in the real Sahara Desert, even though it would have been cheaper to shoot it in the Southwest United States. There were high political tensions in North Africa that made the movie dangerous to shoot (there were worries that Palestinian terrorists might try to kidnap Hoffman), and ExecutiveMeddling, combined with a conflict between producer/star Beatty and May (both strong perfectionists with differing ideas on how the film should have been shot), brought the costs up further.

* DiagonalBilling: Beatty and Hoffman in the opening credits, with Isabelle Adjani's name in the middle.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ishtar_5237.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:If you think this looks rough, you should see the box office receipts.]]

->''"The best that can be said about ''Ishtar'' is that Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, two of the most intelligent actors of their generation, [[DamnedByFaintPraise play dumb so successfully]] that on the basis of this film there's no evidence for why they've made it in the movies."''

1987's ''Ishtar'' was a comedy movie about a pair of [[HollywoodToneDeaf talentless]] and [[TooDumbToLive incredibly stupid]] lounge singers, Lyle Rogers (Creator/WarrenBeatty) and Chuck Clarke (Creator/DustinHoffman), who can only get booked in the Middle East, where war rages and religious fanatics claim of a prophecy involving two men who will bring down the country's brutal leader. Since the CIA has major fundings in this country's current government, they first train Chuck as a spy, while Lyle falls in line with the rebels. Then when the government of Ishtar learns that these two "smucks" might be confused with the prophets, the CIA sends the two of them out into the desert to get lost, and then try to kill Rogers and Clarke when they accidentally manage to navigate through the desert and not die. Due to all the various political conflicts brought up by these events, the United States makes a deal with the lounge singers, which involves giving the people of Ishtar more freedom and Rogers and Clarke a recording contract.

''Ishtar'' was a comedy movie about a pair of [[HollywoodToneDeaf talentless]] and [[TooDumbToLive incredibly stupid]] lounge singers, Lyle Rogers (Creator/WarrenBeatty) and Chuck Clarke (Creator/DustinHoffman), who can only get booked in the Middle East, where war rages and religious fanatics claim of a prophecy involving two men who will bring down the country's brutal leader. Since the CIA has major fundings in this country's current government, they first train Chuck as a spy, while Lyle falls in line with the rebels. Then when the government of Ishtar learns that these two "smucks" might be confused with the prophets, the CIA sends the two of them out into the desert to get lost, and then try to kill Rogers and Clarke when they accidentally manage to navigate through the desert and not die. Due to all the various political conflicts brought up by these events, the United States makes a deal with the lounge singers, which involves giving the people of Ishtar more freedom and Rogers and Clarke a recording contract.

Despite the poor reception it received at the time, ''Ishtar'' is not received nearly as badly as it once was, and even though it is one of a handful of films that are synonymous with the phrase "BoxOfficeBomb", most viewers find it relatively entertaining. In fact, Gary Larson apologized for a ''[[ComicStrip/TheFarSide Far Side]]'' cartoon he did in which this film was the only one in Hell's Video Store, because he had only done the comic on the basis of its reputation and had not actually seen the film until it was played on an airplane, and he found himself enjoying it. It's basically a good movie beset by production and financial issues that marked it unfairly in the eyes of the public.

The production of ''Ishtar'' was set into motion by way of the fact that writer/director Creator/ElaineMay had cowritten one Creator/WarrenBeatty hit (''Heaven Can Wait'') and did a major rewrite on another Beatty hit (''Film/{{Reds}}''), and Beatty wanted to work with her on something that she wrote ''and'' directed. May came up with an idea inspired by the Creator/BobHope and Creator/BingCrosby ''Film/RoadTo'' series and got another bankable, respected actor, Creator/DustinHoffman, to costar. A big studio, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, put a lot of money into this movie. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?

The production of ''Ishtar'' was set into motion by way of the fact that writer/director Creator/ElaineMay had cowritten one Creator/WarrenBeatty hit (''Heaven Can Wait'') and did a major rewrite on another Beatty hit (''Film/{{Reds}}''), and Beatty wanted to work with her on something that she wrote ''and'' directed. May came up with an idea inspired by the Creator/BobHope and Creator/BingCrosby ''Film/RoadTo'' series and got another bankable, respected actor, Creator/DustinHoffman, to costar. A big studio, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, put a lot of money into this movie. What could possibly go wrong?

This movie had a lot of production problems. Firstly, the Coca-Cola Company, which owned Columbia at the time, insisted that due to other business deals Coca-Cola was involved with, the movie had to be shot in the real Sahara Desert, even though it would have been cheaper to shoot it in the Southwest United States. There were high political tensions in North Africa that made the movie dangerous to shoot (there were worries that Palestinian terrorists might try to kidnap Hoffman), and ExecutiveMeddling, combined with a conflict between producer/star Beatty and May (both strong perfectionists with differing ideas on how the film should have been shot), brought the costs up further.

Despite the poor reception it received at the time, ''Ishtar'' is not received nearly as badly as it once was, and even though it is one of a handful of films that are synonymous with the phrase "BoxOfficeBomb", most viewers find it relatively entertaining. In fact, Gary Larson apologized for a ''[[ComicStrip/TheFarSide Far Side]]'' cartoon he did in which this film was the only one in Hell's Video Store, because he had only done the comic on the basis of its reputation and had not actually seen the film until it was played on an airplane, and he found himself enjoying it.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Lyle's drawl goes from slight in the opening New York scenes to thick once they're in Morocco. Most likely explained by the New York sequence being the last thing filmed; Warren Beatty was probably worn out by that point and [[TheyJustDidntCare just wanted to get the shoot finished]].

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Lyle's drawl goes from slight in the opening New York scenes to thick once they're in Morocco. Most likely explained by the New York sequence being the last thing filmed; Warren Beatty was probably worn out by that point and just wanted to get the shoot finished.

* LongTitle: One of the songs is called "That a Lawnmower Can Do All That.

* LongTitle: One of the songs is called "That a Lawnmower Can Do All That:.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Shirra, when we see her out of headscarf in the final scene.