Waiting for Ishtarpalooza: The 20th Anniversary of the Unfairly Maligned Comedy Ishtar May Produce a Fan Festival and a Documentary

One of my articles here at Associated Content urged you to take a chance on the infamous Hollywood bomb Ishtar. I believe this movie has been unfairly maligned by those who have seen it and, even more so, by those who haven't. Ishtar was a 1987 movie that apparently committed the crime of costing 40 to 50 million dollars to make. Where is the outcry against Evan Almighty which purportedly cost four times that? I haven't seen Even Almighty, so I can't comment on its quality, but apparently its entertainment value is viewed on roughly the same level that many critics viewed Ishtar. These are the same critics who couldn't think of enough superlatives for the extraordinarily overrated and now mostly forgotten "comedy" Prizzi's Honor, a film so mind-bogglingly unfunny that I almost gave up on it. Ishtar is a funny movie; far funnier than such 80s megahits as Crocodile Dundee and Home Alone. In the years since its release Ishtar has become something of a cult hit, inspiring devoted fans and even a Yahoo Group.

2007 represents the 20^th anniversary of Ishtar's release and there is quite a bit of buzz. The folks at Yahoo's IloveIshtar group-whose average movie IQ is roughly 50 points higher than Roger Ebert's-are intent on putting together what they have deemed Ishtarpalooza, complete with a fan-created cover version compilation of the absolutely hysterically funny songs that Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty sing in the movie. Thus far the idea remains in the planning stage and will probably be nothing more than another fabulous idea that never comes to fruition-like the Democrats ending the war in Iraq-but at least the buzz that Ishtarpalooza is generating might result in the ultimate goal of all Ishtar fans: seeing the movie released on DVD and a soundtrack CD finally issued. (After all, if they can release the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, why can't they release Ishtar? Ishtar's songs are only slightly less amusing than the songs from The Bodyguard.)

Of course, what is really getting Ishtar fans excited is the possibility of seeing the documentary Waiting for Ishtar. Independent filmmakers John Mitchell and Jonathan Crumbie have been working on this film for some time. The idea for the film began when Mitchell tried to secure a VHS copy of Ishtar from his local library only to find that there were an astounding 33 library patrons ahead of him on the waiting list. As he began to wonder who the 46 other people who made up the Ishtar waiting the list were and why they wanted to see a movie considered so bad by critics he began to dream up the idea of his documentary. Gradually, as these things often do, the concept began to grow. At this time, Mitchell and Crumbie have interviewed not only people who were on the list and members of the library staff, but even Ishtar co-star Charles Grodin. In addition the director of Ishtar, the extraordinarily talented and criminally abused Elaine May, has shown interest in the project. Waiting for Ishtar has grown from a home movie about one man's inability to quickly borrow a movie from his library to a thesis about library bureaucracy and an analysis of why such a funny and unassuming movie was attacked so viciously that it became the standard for Hollywood excess and box office bombs. In reality, such movies as Waterworld and The Postman cost far more, made far less and were infinitely less watchable. The only way to enjoy Kevin Costner at his most excessive and narcissistic is ironically. In contrast, Ishtar is enjoyable on any level.

One can only hope, of course, that the budget for Waiting for Ishtar isn't so much that the documentary will be judged based on its cost rather than its content.