51
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesSheila BensonLos Angeles TimesSheila BensonA smart, generous, genuinely funny affair. Sometimes, like the camel who almost ambles away with the picture, it's longish in the tooth, but it is based on an extremely astute vision of life. [15 May 1987]
- 75Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneIshtar is a good movie, but you can't help but wonder if, lurking somewhere in those cans of outtakes, there isn't a great movie, too. [15 May 1987]
- 70VarietyVarietyEnter Charles Grodin, who upstages all involved via his savagely comical portrayal of a CIA agent.
- 70TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelReasonably genial and diverting. [18 May 1987]
- 50The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinThe worst of it is painless; the best is funny, sly, cheerful and, here and there, even genuinely inspired.
- 40TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineFor all the bad press Ishtar received, it does have a certain odd charm... The biggest problem is that any attempted subtlety is swamped by May's bid to turn the film into an epic adventure story.
- 40Wall Street JournalJulie SalamonWall Street JournalJulie SalamonHoffman and Beatty are so tone-deaf they don't even know how to play the songs for deadpan humor. They seem old, white, and without shtick. [14 May 1987, p.26(E)]
- 40Film ThreatBrad LaidmanFilm ThreatBrad LaidmanThe guys in Ishtar are the boring wallflowers of the world. They probably shouldn't be mocked, disgraced and beaten, but who really wants to spend close to two hours with them.
- 25Christian Science MonitorChristian Science MonitorThe funny scenes are as far apart as oases in the Sahara. [22 May 1987]
- 12Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA truly dreadful film, a lifeless, massive, lumbering exercise in failed comedy. Elaine May, the director, has mounted a multimillion-dollar expedition in search of a plot so thin that it hardly could support a five-minute TV sketch.