Style: Musical Comedy
Director: Elaine Could
Starring: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin
Working Time: 107 minutes
Synopsis: In New York, Chuck and Lyle (Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty) are a pair of hapless, dimwitted, and talentless songwriters. Their bottom-of-the-barrel agent (Jack Weston) affords them a gig at a lodge in Morocco. The pair land on the adjoining desert kingdom of Ishtar, the place they’re instantly sucked into Chilly Battle intrigue that includes a history-changing map, left-wing revolutionary Shirra (Isabelle Adjani), and CIA Agent Jim Harrison (Charles Grodin).
What Works Nicely: The blind camel and the vultures ship wonderful performances.
What Does Not Work As Nicely: About half the working time is consumed by atrocious track snippets being carried out badly; the opposite half options Hoffman and Beatty misplaced within the desert with a blind camel, repeating the identical dialogue about losing their lives. Each main males are miscast and too outdated for his or her roles, Beatty specifically floating by way of the film with a singular expression of surprised idiocy. Elaine Could’s writing (witless) and directing (flat) infuse each scene with the awkwardness of dangerous improvisation. The political context and plot particulars are sketched-in afterthoughts; not one of the characters supply something resembling depth or evolution; and the comedy moments are both devastatingly unfunny or conspicuously absent.
Key Quote:
Track lyrics co-written by Chuck and Lyle: Telling the reality might be harmful enterprise / Trustworthy and in style don’t go hand in hand / When you admit that you would be able to play the accordion / Nobody will rent you for a rock and roll band.
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