On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Martin Jukovsky wrote:

 

> To satisfy my curiosity, I rented ISHTAR about a year ago, and watched it

> -- for half an hour, which was all I could take.  I think it dodges the

> issue to blame the industry and the critics for predestining this film for

> a great fall.  Let's not make excuses for this turkey -- it simply wasn't

> funny.  I sat there with my jaw hanging, watching Hoffman and Beatty

> deperately trying to be funny with a screenplay by Elaine May that was

> trying desperately to be funny.

 

I think you are making a serious error here.  You seem to be supporting

a view that Ishtar is a "bad film" based on your conception of what is

and what isn't funny.  Surely, there is no standard when it comes to humor;

one person's Woody Allenish meat is another's Monty Pythonish poison.

 

I found the film to be VERY funny indeed.  But that is because I was open

to the film's STYLE of humor.  The statement you make above about "Hoffman

and Beatty deperately trying to be funny with a screenplay by Elaine May that

was trying desperately to be funny" misses the point in my view.  I don't

think that Hoffman and Beatty WERE desperately trying to be funny.  Quite

the opposite, in fact.  They seem to me to be playing two self-deluded

singer songwriters who write appalling songs that they BELIEVE IN.  That

is the source of the film's humor.  For me, that is.

 

I'm sure that many people would argue that the PORKIES movies, the POLICE

ACADEMY movies, and most of Jim Carrey's movies are "bad" films, but not

simply on the basis of the style of humor they adopt, I would hope.

 

Bill Elliott

 

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