Ishtar

Faced with no gigs in New York, two musical duds agree to play the Chez Casablanca, a nightclub in Morocco. On the way, they get caught in a burnoose-and-dagger clash in neighboring Ishtar. The Emir, a CIA stooge, is battling a subversive left-wing group for possession of a sacred map that its a long story could powder-keg the country. Writer-director May knows how to write with characters in mind, not punchlines. There are several scenes that seem to bear her comic stamp: When Hoffman collapses in the desert, an increasingly exasperated Beatty must repeatedly remind impatient vultures that his friend is not quite dead. And when Beatty steals furtively out of his room on a mission, he passes two men wearing fezzes and three desolate beggars. The five, all agents, tail him. Every time Beatty turns around, they leap back into begging position. And May has introduced the klutziest camel ever to schlep the sands. (Desson Howe)