Ishtar

Ishtar (1987) is an adventure comedy from Elaine May you can watch online on iFILM. Two hopeless lounge singers, Lyle and Chuck (Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman), dream of stardom but land a gig at a dingy hotel in Morocco.

In North Africa the tone-deaf duo stumbles into a spy farce around the made-up country of Ishtar. The CIA, the local emir and a band of rebels all try to use them. Soon there is an arms deal, a desert chase, and a blind camel wandering the Sahara — and the two friends still care about one thing only: getting to sing their dreadful songs. Isabelle Adjani and Charles Grodin round out the cast.

The film became legendary for the wrong reasons — a runaway budget, savage reviews, and a title that turned into shorthand for box-office disaster. Years later plenty of critics circled back and found a goofy, oddly charming comedy with May's unmistakable touch. The songs, by the way, were written to be hilariously bad on purpose. A real curio for anyone who loves Hollywood's famous misfires. Stream Ishtar (1987) online on iFILM.