No, not Warren Beatty/Dustin Hoffman's debacle. But it makes sense that the Egyptian god revived by cannibalized body parts in Blood Feast was named Ishtar long before the movie Ishtar became cinematic road kill.
This is the day I've been waiting for, as have the smartest of you. Tonight we unleash the groundbreaking gore film Blood Feast at the second annual Gasparilla Film Festival. They even named the
event GASParilla for the evening in honor of our esteemed guests, director Herschell Gordon Lewis
and producer David F. Friedman. These two ballyhoo legends will accompanying the 45th anniversary screening at 9 p.m., and take questions from yours truly after the show.
This is going to be one for the scrapbooks, folks.
Before that extravaganza, though, the festival has plenty of films slated including an assortment of short films at 5:30 p.m. in honor of National Womens Month. I had a chance to preview one titled Loose Ends, directed by Rachel Gordon, and it's a delightful story of a woman who is the victim of identity theft -- both financially and personally -- who gets one of those problems straightened out in briskly humorous fashion.
Check out today's events at Channelside, or one of three showings of the shark documentary Requiem at Florida Aquarium just down the street. The Gasparilla Film Festival wraps up Sunday with a full day of films and the closing night gala at the Big Fish Tank.
Before the fun, though, Princess Di and I will join hundreds of others at the celebration of life for our dear, departed friend, WTSP-TV weatherman Dick Fletcher. Godspeed, bud.
Steve Persall is the movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times. He was conceived behind a drive-in movie theater his father operated and raised in projection booths and concession stands. He doesn't care how you did it up north.
Aside from the blind camel and the buzzards wondering how Dustin Hoffman has a larger beak, there isn't much to recommend Ishtar. Good luck with your project, though. I can't wait to hear "Wardrobe in Your Eyes" again.
And I probably have as many people reading this as Ishtar sold tickets.
Posted by: Steve Persall | March 02, 2008 at 09:16 AM
Far from a debacle, the Beatty/Hoffman film Ishtar is an excellent movie. If anybody's actually reading this, I advise you to ignore this guys ill-considered comment and check out Ishtar. Ishtar's time is coming - there is a documentary film about Ishtar fandom in the works, the manager of the Ishtar fan website (http://www.ishtarthemovie.com/) is putting together a tribute CD featuring cover versions of songs from the movie, and possibly a US release on DVD (something the heathen in Europe have been enjoying for years). So shake off that square world, get with the countdown, and blast off to Ishtar!
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/ILoveIshtar/
http://www.waitingforishtar.com/
http://www.ishtarthemovie.com/
Posted by: Matt Love | March 02, 2008 at 01:30 AM