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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The
DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content
Starring
Woody Allen,
Dan Aykroyd,
Elizabeth Berkley,
Helen Hunt,
Brian Markinson,
David Ogden Stiers,
and
Charlize Theron
Woody Allen's latest crime caper stars Allen as crackerjack insurance investigator CW Briggs. Briggs might be forced to relinquish bragging rights to being the best in the business when he falls under the spell of a crook -- and a beautiful colleague -- in his most baffling case to date, and finds that he is the one left clueless. (DreamWorks SKG)
| GENRE(S): |
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Woody Allen
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Woody Allen
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 29, 2002
Video: January 29, 2002
Theatrical: August 24, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
108 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Germany / USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Woody Allen's most purely entertaining film in years.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Seemingly a simple comedy, it actually -- like all Allen's "simple" comedies -- has a lot to say. Will the audience listen or just dismiss it as minor, out-of-date Woody? If they do, it's their loss.

80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
One thing I especially like about it, apart from the flavorsome 40s decor in color, is that it's silly in much the same way that many small 40s comedies were.

80
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's a real charmer from a director who feels that a knockabout romantic farce doesn't have to be mindless -- take that, "America's Sweethearts."

80
Mr. Showbiz
Cody Clark
Allen's good with the material, but Hunt sparkles, repeatedly razoring her diminutive antagonist to shreds.
80
New Times (L.A.)
Bill Gallo
A thoroughly likable, if familiar, Woody Allen comedy -- not the most original or revealing tintype in the director's gallery, perhaps, but blessedly free of the self-conscious hand-wringing and tortured navel-gazing that impede the former Mr. Konigsberg's more sluggish efforts.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Hardly the first of Woody Allen's love letters to the good old days, but it's a high-spirited, entertaining one, falling along the same lines as "Radio Days."

75
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
There's nothing major here, certainly nothing on the order of my favorite among Allen's retro workouts of the past decade, ''Bullets Over Broadway.'' But it's entertaining all the same.
70
Variety
Robert Koehler
Certainly not a piffle, nor an impressive departure into a new filmmaking realm, Allen's second film in a row about crooks ranks in the middle range of his work.

63
USA Today
Susan Wloszczyna
Since a goodly portion of Jade is given over to the barbed banter lobbed by Allen and a solid Helen Hunt (in Stanwyck mode as a peevish efficiency expert who challenges his façade of male superiority), Woody the wordsmith is in full evidence, too.

63
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Never quite lifts off. The elements are here, but not the magic.

60
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
A loose- jointed, not especially memorable comic caper with some lovely moments of humorous invention, many patches of clumsy writing and a few game performances.

60
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
The problem is that Allen is getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing a romancer-rescuer, and since he and Helen Hunt have a rather frigid actorly rapport, we have plenty of time to notice the awkward, and barely acknowledged, disparity in their ages.

60
TV Guide
Staff (Not credited)
This charming and funny film may be one of the last of a rare genre deservedly named after a person -- the Woody Allen movie.

60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
It would be dishonest to deny that Jade Scorpion has amusing moments, but it never gets better than that and often settles for less.

58
Portland Oregonian
Barry Johnson
This one is for Woody fans, and maybe Woody fans only.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
So lame and Woody himself seems so worn down and the humor is such a pale shadow of the former Allen brilliance that -- despite a few chuckles here and there -- it's a considerable disappointment.

50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
This mid-level, pretty-but-not-hugely-funny Allen film slips into the top spot by regretful default. I enjoyed every single second of it, a little bit.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Lightweight, inoffensive fare, as bland as a sleepwalker under a hypnotist's spell.

50
Entertainment Weekly
Staff (Not credited)
It feels wrong; the entire machinery of the movie seems to be rotating around Woody Allen's vanity. He remains a canny (if, in this case, hollow) film craftsman, but by now we know him far too well to be asked to find him adorable.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
It's middling Allen, which means that fans won't be sorry to see it, while everyone else can wait until the next "Bullets Over Broadway."

50
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
Nothing but plot and production values, and there's barely a laugh in it that isn't quashed.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
There are lots of plot twists and romantic angles. What's lacking is laughs.

50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
It's not fresh and irreverent, qualities we admire in Allen. It is recycled and irrelevant.

40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The movie isn't terrible -- a few clever notions snap to life and pay off, at least modestly -- but it's dispirited and eventually dispiriting, a force-fed farce that falls far short of fascination.
40
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Despite an appealing, even ingenious premise, "Scorpion" is another quippy but uninspired comedy.

40
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Scorpion fails to connect on anything but the most basic comic level. Despite Allen's usual excellent direction, it all plays like a TV-movie version of something else, Allen-lite.

40
Slate
David Edelstein
It's evidently important to Allen to work, work, work, but he's starting to make his movies by rote instead of passion. Could he handle -- psychologically -- a year or two off? Could he afford -- creatively -- to keep grinding them out?

30
Village Voice
Amy Taubin
Although there's no evidence of sexual chemistry on the screen, the stars share a certain physical defensiveness that occasionally makes them seem simpatico; most of the time, however, they just look bored to death.

25
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The problem with Allen's latest, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is "Not enough Double Indemnity."

20
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
Achieves a generic period look, but there's nothing lived-in about its rooms, nothing persuasive or necessary about its time and place -- there's no longer even a movie fan's nostalgia to give it some spark, or a reason for being.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
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