Ishtar

Same cannot be said for me, apparently.

Today we're here to talk about a movie called Ishtar.

And Ishtar and the Two Dudes Talk Movies podcast go back a long ways and have had a longstanding history.

Greg, if you'd like to fill us in on said history.

Yeah, since the inception of Two Dudes, I have been planting in the ear of previous hosts for this podcast, suggesting that Ishtar finally get his due in this memorable time, solely because it is, without a doubt, the worst movie ever made in Hollywood.

So I think I started as a joke, and it just carried over from host to host, and eventually, you know, you two took the bait.

Yeah.

We've got Warren Beatty here as Lyle and Dustin Hoffman as Chuck, who are two more well-known actors and good at what they do.

... and all.

And also, it's interesting that I had the kind of career that I did in the '70s when I wa- hadn't crossed the line from abuse to, use to abuse to addiction, but you go jump into the '80s, and I did Ishtar.

I mean, it's like-

[laughs]

[laughs]

... you know, the '70s was, you know, it was-

Hey, I like Ishtar

... nominated for six Academy Awards.

So it wasn't like an all-time disaster.

When it came out, I remember and I found in my research some funny things that two other films that are almost completely forgotten, the Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman comedy Ishtar, which famously cost a huge amount of money.

So this was called Fishtar.

I thought that was a pretty clever little jape there.

the

same things that you did.

Heaven's Gate, Ishtar, One from the Heart, which Coppola mortgaged Zoetrope against and lost the studio because of.

And then the other one that also comes to mind is Sorcerer, the Friedkin film, where it was...

And they say, "I love Big Flopparama.

Waterworld, John Carter, Battlefield Earth, Timeline, Monkeybone, Ishtar." And I just wanted to add onto that, I think the reason I l- love the idea of Big Flopparama is one-

Oh, Big Flopparama.

Yeah

[laughs]

I think the interesting thing about it is there's probably good films that were box office flops

Well, Ishtar, Ishtar is one I've, I've presented a screen about.

So are we, are we basing this off movies that bombed?

By the way, on the subject of Beatty, I wrote a note down to myself here because you mentioned going to lunch with him, you know, and on the subject of films and work that's getting a second look over the years.

Ishtar's showing.

Oh, sure.

Well, people always knew the first

Peter Bogdanovich,

you know, it was some female screenwriters, it was production designers, it was producers who were female, but But then, of course, there's the great Elaine May, Heartbreak Kid, Ishtar.

We just did a whole series about Elaine May and her work.

And I think she really...