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Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The
DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.


6.5

based on 31 reviews
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based on 8 votes
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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...

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Woody Allen's most purely entertaining film in years.

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 Will the audience listen or just dismiss it as minor, out-of-date Woody?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.

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.

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."

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

Allen's good with the material, but Hunt sparkles, repeatedly razoring her diminutive antagonist to shreds.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Never quite lifts off. The elements are here, but not the magic.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Portland Oregonian Barry Johnson

This one is for Woody fans, and maybe Woody fans only.

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.

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Lightweight, inoffensive fare, as bland as a sleepwalker under a hypnotist's spell.

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.

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."

Salon.com Charles Taylor

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

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

There are lots of plot twists and romantic angles. What's lacking is laughs.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

It's not fresh and irreverent, qualities we admire in Allen. It is recycled and irrelevant.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Despite an appealing, even ingenious premise, "Scorpion" is another quippy but uninspired comedy.

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.

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?

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

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

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
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brawny Lad gave it an 8:
A fun spin on Bob Hope films of the 40s. Interesting to see how widely the professional critics ranged on this! Often directly contradicting each other on the particulars. Such as whether or not there was on-screen chemistry between Allen and Hunt. I think that she wasn't, by nature, zany enough for the part.

Yoon C. gave it a 7:
Woody Allen sleepwalks both as character and director in this movie. It's Allen directing by the numbers; more an exercise than art. But, the formula works, the actors seem to having fun, and if you like Allen's persona, it's just endearing enough to recommend.

Gman The Cultural Barbarian gave it a 0:
Awful. just plain awful.

Bob S. gave it a 7:
I laughed (woody always makes me laugh). My wife stayed awake. Can't ask for much more.

Andy S. gave it a 5:
For many years, every time Bob Dylan released a new album, fans and critics would repeat a familiar lament: "It's no Blood on the Tracks." And it was true; Dylan went more than two decades between great albums, and it seemed like his talent was mostly tapped out. But in recent years, he's had something a renaissance, writing and recording music which, if not quite up to his old standards of depth and consistency, will stand the test of time. Since "Hannah and Her Sisters" in 1986, Woody Allen has not made a great comedy. He's made a few good ones, (e.g., "Bullets Over Broadway," his critical "Blood on the Tracks," the recent "Sweet and Low Down," etc.), some not good ones, and many very slight, very medicre ones, such as "Jade Scorpion." The problem as I see it is three-fold: (1) he hasn't been able to write consistently for voices other than his own; (2) he's too old to play that character anymore; (3) he doesn't want to play/write that character anymore; the jokes are getting stale and the performance becoming pure shtick. The tiredness of Jade Scorpion is epitomized by the only specific criticism I'll bother to make: Dan Akyroyd's character gets zero funny lines. Nada. When was the last time Woody Allen wrote a main character in a farce with no funny lines? Never. So the burning question is: Will Woody Allen ever enjoy a Bob Dylanesque renaissance? I hope so, but I doubt it. Relatively speaking, music is easy; comedy is hard.

Buffy N. gave it a 7:
Compared to other first-run shlock out there, this one's a frequently amusing comedy that hangs together, for the most part, and is fun to watch for the art direction alone.

Seamus O. gave it a 9:
A fun and entertaining film. Not his greatest but still heads and shoulders above the rest of the drivel coming out of Hollywood these days.

Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.

Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The
DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.