ISHTAR (1987) **1/2 It was a daring cinematic experiment: pairing the greatest actor of a generation alongside the most over-rated. To read the critics tell it they both played down to the level of typecast CIA agent Charles Grodin but those reviews, my friends, were plants from mysterious and malevolent members of the federal payroll. The truth of the matter is that Dustin Hoffman, armed with all the good lines and as the only character capable of pulling a chick, turns in one of his better performances; while Warren Beatty, as an idiotic unworthy of being given any good lines, offers several moments of physical comedic genius of the rarefied levels of Chaplin and Jerry Lewis. Sure the plot is very light, invoking Hope and Crosby, but the superficiality offers a tremendous analysis of the effect of U.S. efforts on the Middle Eastern political dynamic (it gives 'em someone else to play off each other). The film also offers the only possible explanation for the crappiest music of the era. You know that Warren Beatty is a great actor when you realize that you feel bad for his character, and hope he can get laid. Hoffman turns into a CIA agent after seeing Isabelle Adjani's left breast, Beatty turns commie after touching the right one: good God, girl, will you please put those things away!