Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The

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 Will the audience listen or just dismiss it as minor, out-of-date Woody?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