Opiniones de usuarios

Here's an entertaining crime story set in 1939 with nice atmosphere and colors and the normal Woody Allen wacky humor.

If you enjoy man-versus-woman insult exchanges, you'll love this as Allen and Helen Hunt trade clever barbs back and forth at a rate that reminded of an old Marx Brothers film. Many of the lines are funny with Allen, since it's his film, delivering most of them.

The story goes on a bit too long but overall keeps your interest. The women in here, from Hunt to the office girl (Elizabeth Berkely) to Charlize Theron playing a Veroncia Lake-lookalike are all glamorous.

Dan Akroyd, David Ogden-Stiers, Wallace Shawn and John Schuck are all veteran comedians who know their trade so the movie offers a lot of quality yuks. I'm surprised this movie isn't better known. I really enjoyed it the first time but laughed even more on the second viewing. Silly, but fun.

"The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is a romantic comedy/crime/mystery set in New York City of the 1940s which involves a love-hate relationship between veteran insurance investigator CW Briggs (Woody Allen) and his new boss Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt). One night, while watching the Magician's show with the rest of the employees, they are both hypnotized by a sinister hypnotist with a jade scorpion who later uses them into unknowingly stealing jewels for him. Had this comedy been written and directed by someone else, it would've been a disaster but Allen with his magic touch, had produced a funny and charming delight. That's what my husband called it after we enjoyed it together and I can't agree more. I love Ellington's music, the whole 40-th setting, and Woody's one-liners. His face in the scene where he and Helen Hunt were both hypnotized was simply hilarious - the guy knows how to do a physical comedy to perfection. I don't care if this picture has been called "a lesser Allen's movie" - it is still much better than majority of the comedies that come out every year. Even "lesser Allen" is enjoyable and memorable.

So, Woody Allen is now old and it is hard to believe that a rich and attractive girl played by Charlize Theron could be attracted to him... If you were truly thinking about that while watching The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, then you should reconsider the way you watch a movie. Sure, Allen is now really old, but who can play his role as well as he does. He sometimes casts other actors in that role, such as John Cusack in Bullet Over Broadway, but even though they do the job very well, they can't be better than the old man with the big glasses himself. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is not a serious Woody Allen movie. It is not one of his most important movies that is clear. But its aim is to entertain and entertain it does. Jade Scorpion shares a lot with Woody's recent light comedies such as Small Time Crooks and Manathan Murder Mystery. And like these two, it is certainly not a new Annie Hall. But it does not try to. It is just a lot of fun to watch. The script is funny, the acting is charming, the plot is just hilarious, and on the whole, this movie puts a smile on your face from the beginning to the end. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is another very nostalgic movie, like Radio Days, Sweet and Lowdown, Everyone Says I Love You and Bullets Over Broadway, but once again, Allen makes us forget for 103 minutes that he is basically doing nothing he hasn't done before. But the man once again shows his gift to entertain. And what more can you ask from an aging genius?

77%

Most people seem to consider "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" a failure, either because of casting or the joke-a-minute script. But I think they're wrong about that. It's just that it was made about sixty years too late. It's really an homage to the sort of comedy/mysteries that were produced in the early forties -- the same time period in which the movie is set. Seems to me most people didn't get that. Maybe people these days don't watch enough old movies.

Everyone was correct, of course, when they said Woody Allen was miscast (and since Woody Allen did the casting, he deserves the blame). But it's not that great a sin. Basically, this is a movie that should have been a vehicle for Bob Hope, but since Bob Hope wasn't exactly available in the year 2001, someone had to stand in for him. I daresay there isn't an actor in Hollywood these days who can do a good Bob Hope, and since there isn't, I have to say Woody Allen isn't such a bad substitute.

Actually, I remember reading somewhere that Bob Hope was a major inspiration for the young Woody Allen, and he was stung in the late sixties when Hope told a few mean-spirited jokes about him. Maybe, all these years later, Woody Allen decided that all was forgiven.

Anyway, don't let yourself be bothered by the fact that the lead actor is about 30 years too old for the part. Also, try to forget that nasty business with Soon-Yi. Just relax and let yourself laugh at the one-liners. Better yet, try and imagine that the lines are being delivered by someone with a ski-jump nose. You may see this movie for what it is -- a screamingly funny comedy, and the best movie Bob Hope never made.

You know, someday Hollywood might find another actor who can play a role the way Bob Hope did, back in his heyday. And when that happens, this movie would be an excellent candidate for a remake.

It was a take on a bunch of film noirs from the 1940's (one that most likely influenced this one was The Big Sleep). The rest of the leading cast was Dan Aykroyd, the manager of an insurance firm in which Allen works, and Helen Hunt, Aykroyd's secretary who always has time to insult Allen (if you know anything about old films, you'll probably realize just how close these two are, and I don't mean just in the office).

The film follows this insurance firm as they all try to search for a bunch of lost jewels, not realizing that someone in the office is borderline guilty. The group goes to a nightclub to celebrate Wallace Shawn's 50th birthday, and the entertainment is a "magician" who ends up putting both Allen and Hunt under hypnosis and convinces them to do his will and also that they're in love with each other, with only the utterance of two words: "Madagascar" and "Constantinople" (gee, it'd be a shame if these two words were uttered later in the movie to advance the plot).

I watched this on network TV last year on a Woody Allen special. It was a very funny comedy with a lot of references to classical noir movies of the thirties and forties. A typical Woody Allen love story comedy which I enjoyed a lot.

The style reminded me a bit of Hollywood Ending. Helen Hunt was also very good.

Comedy set in 1940 about an insurance investigator (Woody Allen) locking horns with an efficiency expert (Helen Hunt) while a string of suspicious jewel robberies are going on. Only average Allen comedy...but that's still 70% better than the typical Hollywood film.

It's fairly well-acted...Allen is, frankly, way too old for this (he's 65 and he's getting women in their 20s and 30s??? PLEASE!) but he gives a good performance; Hunt is simply wonderful...she looks great in the 40s outfits and her verbal sparring with Allen was hilarious; Charlize Theron looks fantastic but is shamefully wasted and (in a huge surprise) Elizabeth Berkeley actually gives a halfway decent performance!

The script is OK if a tad unbelievable. And the movie looks fantastic...the costumes and the sets really evoke the 1940s. So, it's OK, but no great shakes.

Of all things, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a smart piece of unadulterated nostalgia. Replete with false bottoms, this endearing and highly subjective homage to pre-War screwball comedy is a treat for anyone who thinks that cinema has something to say about collective representations and the substantial role it has played therein, and continues to do. Claiming that 60-year-old Allen is an unconvincing womanizer comically misses the point, just like the oft-repeated criticism of the pervasive anachronisms (as, most notably, in the lingo). For Allen surely never intended to come up with a "historic" movie that had an "authentic" feel. After all, and thank God or Allen's mother, Allen is not Spielberg. How could any of these dim-witted critics have missed the point that the plot revolves around a magician, an epitome of the fake? Allen's 1940s setting is nothing less than a compendium of the collective (conscious and unconscious) imagery associated with that time, shaped by the emerging medium of that time and its subsequent self-representations. By an irreverent reversal of proof, you could say that the film ultimately reflects the bitter-sweet view of an aging filmmaker on the goings of his trade, which is all the more worthy considering the current state of mainstream American cinema. Grant you that the dialogues are in part redundant, as are some of Allen's and Hunt's antics, and that the "message" (love strikes blind) is of no groundbreaking consequence, but if you are interested in the history and workings of film (and actually TV series), this Jade is a gem.

First of all, since I am such a loyal fan of Woody's films, this may not be the most objective critique in the world. I have since my 18th year thoroughly enjoyed his witty dialogue, his comedic and sometimes darker explorations into life, love, and death. In addition, I adore the variety of early jazz scores that he uses for his films. That being said, Woody at 66 years of age has showed no signs of slowing down in his flm career, delivering by far the brightest and wittiest comedy I've viewed this year, in "Curse of the Jade Scorpion". The film is a homage to the Pulp films of yesteryear. It's set in 1940, Woody plays the role of an aging detective in an insurance company. He has cracked many huge cases, receiving information from street contacts, and relying heavily on gut instinct and dumb luck. He can't stand the new efficiency expert (Helen Hunt) who is smarter than he is, younger than he is, poses a threat to his job, and can't stand him either. During a dinner party for a fellow detective's birthday, they are both hypnotized by the magician Zolton, who uses the powers of the 'Jade Scorpion' to make them fall deeply in love with one another. He snaps them out of it just as they are about to kiss, but Zolton never releases them from the key word that can at anytime send them deep into suggestive hypnosis. Later on, Zolton calls CW Briggs, hypnotizes him with the keyword, and uses him as a pawn to rob jewelry from rich estates.

The casting in the film was excellent. There are supposed film "experts" out there who believe that Woody is too old for the lead in this film, and that it is unbelievable how Charlize Theron or Helen Hunt would ever fall for him. I wholeheartedly disagree. Throughout the film, Woody's character is not displayed as a handsome or romantic gent, in fact quite the opposite. In it he is called grubby, an inchworm, and a cockroach, just to name a few. Theron only wants to have sex with him as an experiment, since she is used to handsome and muscular men, not shrimpy and ugly ones. Helen Hunt is hypnotized into loving him, and vice versa, but when they're not under Jade's spell then they absolutely loathe each other ( I won't go any further into this so I don't spoil the film's ending.) Although Woody is ageing, his performance was outstanding, not losing a step as he delivers wise cracks and witty comments, one after the other. Helen Hunt also performs flawlessly and was actually a treat to watch her. As for the rest of the cast, Dan Aykroyd is decent in a small yet significant role, as well as Charlize Theron and Elizabeth Berkeley.

The cinematography and the visual setting for the film in jazzy 1940 is absolutely exquisite, it is much more polished then his earlier works. The writing is excellent, as I've said before, Woody hasn't lost one step in his writing or his performance. The jazz soundtrack is, as usual, very pleasant and fits very well with the scenery. Overall, "Curse of the Jade Scorpion" ranks as one of my favorite Woody films. If you are a fan of his previous light comedies then you will definitely enjoy this little film. So what are you waiting for? Head up to the theatre and see it on the big screen.

Set in the 1940s. C. W. Briggs (Woody Allen at 67) is considered the best investigator at a NY insurance company, but he gets along badly with a new girl and they develop an immediate mutual dislike. She's the company efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), a relentless executive who has come to optimize the company's resources and who is involved with the company's owner, Chris Magruder (Dan Aykroyd). Chris and Betty Ann are secretly having an affair, he promising to leave his wife to marry her. One day, most of the company's workers, at a birhday party, attend a magic show, there the magician (David Ogden Stiers) performs a spell before Briggs and Betty, following a hypnosis, then things go wrong. Thence, the various romantic and investigative lines get progressively and irritatingly cross-wired as in a screwball conceit. The neurotic Briggs is professionally threatened when his intuitive style is challenged by the modern methods used by the cherishably, brick-like agency.

Lighter and shallower than most of Woody Allen's work, it's still mostly fun to see. The film open full of frantic ¨His Girl Friday¨ office bustle, with Allen's enervated variant of on his usual hyperactive motormouth engaged in a verbal sex war with a seemingly self-assured efficiency expert. Woody as a sixteen year investigator tries to solve the mystery of the scorpion in which an insurance agent and an efficiency expert who hate each other are both hypnotized by a crooked hypnotist with a jade scorpion into stealing jewels. This is a mystery comedy in which Allen once again reveals his classic neurosis, although always with the acid sense of humor that he has demonstrated in his modern classics. Costars Helen Hunt who gives a nice acting as efficiency expert Betty, who's hired to update the Manhattan offices. On this occasion Allen also intervenes as the protagonist along with a good cast of main and secondary actors, such as: Dan Aykroyd, David Ogden Stiers, John Schuck, Elizabeth Berkley, Wallace Shawn, Brian Markinson and special appearance from Charlize Theron as Veronica Lake-alike femme fatale.

Soundtrack is chock full of Allen's beloved 40s era jazz and Big Band tunes. Adding an evocative and colorful cinematography by the chinese Fei Zhao, Yimou Zhang's regular cameraman . This hokum-filled thriller was competently played, written and directed by Woody Allen. In the beginning Woody made usually hilarious films in which he used to act, such as : ¨What's Up, Tiger Lily?¨, ¨Take the money and run¨, ¨Pussycat, Pussycat I Love You¨, ¨Sleeper¨, ¨Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask¨, among others . Subsequently he made several masterpieces. Including a series of movies in which he provided nice direction, investing care enough, wit and warmth, such as : ¨Crimes and misdemeanors¨, ¨New York stories¨, ¨September¨, ¨Radio Days¨, ¨Hanna and her sisters¨, ¨Broadway Danny Rose¨, ¨Zelig¨, ¨Stardust memories¨, ¨A midsummer Night's Sex Comedy¨, ¨Interiors¨, ¨Purple rose of Cairo¨, ¨Manhattan¨, ¨Annie Hall¨, ¨Melinda Melinda¨ and many others . Rating 7/10 . Better than average. The movie will appeal to Woody Allen and Helen Hunt fans. Well worth watching.

I paraphrase from memory from Allen's speech at the 2001 Oscars: `When the Academy called me, I was surprised - as you know, my movie, ‘The Curse of the Jade Scorpion', hadn't been nominated for anything. I thought maybe they'd called to apologise.' At the time, I thought this was just another self-deprecating joke. And I'm sure it was. But having seen the film, I'm starting to think he had a point, or at least, as much of a point as anyone who complains about being snubbed at the Oscars ever has.

In three of the categories which are ludicrously called ‘technical' - art direction, cinematography costume design - Allen's picture had as much right to be included among the nominees as half of those that WERE included; it also had an original screenplay that had far more going for it than that of "Amelie" or "Monster's Ball" and it was at the very least above the AVERAGE quality of the films competing for the Best Picture award.

Really - it's one of Allen's better films, and I don't see how anyone could reasonably think otherwise. The early, pure comedies which some people supposedly still long for ("Take the Money and Run", "Sleeper") weren't actually any funnier; the obvious classics (like "Manhattan") weren't better structured, or cleverer, or more pointed. (Granted, "Manhattan", "Zelig" et al. had a divine spark which isn't, perhaps, to be found here, but you can't expect to be zapped by a divine spark every day of the week.) It's an old-time romantic comedy, set in the 1940s, which could ONLY be set in the 1940s (and Allen has a magic touch when it comes to 20th Century period pieces; don't ask me to explain it), in which several clichés - a contrived and unlikely plot involving (in this instance) hypnotism, a male lead decades older than the female lead, an odd couple who start by loathing each other and end up in love - are explained, given surprising depth, and pressed into serving new functions. When Briggs and Fitzgerald are arbitrarily HYPNOTISED into falling in love, it's like a comment on the absurdity of the way love strikes in romantic comedies ... but the story never fails to work perfectly when taken straight, too. All of Allen's implied second-order comments serve, in the end, to enrich the first-order story. It's as if he decided to show us that fiction crafted to debunk the conventions of other works of fiction CAN actually be good in its own right, when it's done by a true artist rather than some wanker with a theoretical axe to grind. The result: "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is diverting, pleasurable, and satisfying as not one film in a hundred succeeds in being.

Place this alongside "Sweet and Lowdown" and you'll wonder how the rumour that Woody Allen's powers are declining ever got started. I blame the modern addiction to novelty. Allen has been making movies for a while now, and even though his films today are no more derivative than they've ever been (less so, in fact), a Woody Allen picture is no longer a new KIND of thing. The same people who would argue that Haydn's 102nd symphony couldn't possibly be as good as his 80th because the latter happened to have been written and performed first (and there are people who WOULD argue this, the instant it became fashionable to do so), will tell you that "Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is clearly inferior to, say, "The Purple Rose of Cairo", because it's in the same style and vein, and was made later. Put like that, the view sounds silly. And indeed it is.

This film was dull. But it was great to watch. What I mean is that, as usual, Allen is able to recreate the feel and idiom of another era. I thought he did this to perfection in Zelig. How does he recreate the colors, the atmosphere? Where does he find the coffeepots, the sequined turban? It probably all comes from growing up in the late 40's to early 50's. Then, memories of the immediate past (and what a past!) were very clear, 30's and 40's movies were still "new", and people still saw 30's educational films in the schoolroom. I see a combination of all this in Scorpion.

Well, all that is great. So, I ended up enjoying the film only as a series of "stills", a series of vignettes, and a series of impressions. Though I admire the artifice a lot, the film as a whole was not so great. The plot idea was charming. But the execution was poor.

Very funny film. Not very deep, not very significant, not very complicated. In fact this is set in and around a 1940's insurance office that looks very much like the more usual newspaper offices of the original screwball comedies. And that's what this is no more and no less a simply plotted, single central devise and lots and lots of great one liners. Woody Allen and Helen Hunt have the central roles of the two warring office colleagues who suffer the repercussions of a hypnotic stage act. Both leads are superb and if Dan Aykroyd is a little pedestrian this is hardly noticed with all the other back up throughout the cast. There are films that come out seemingly on a weekly basis and we are assured they are the funniest and they are not, Woody Allen turns out yet another that is and rarely gets the credit he deserved. The man makes funny films.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (CJS). That sounds like one in a series of mystery novels, featuring a plucky detective and his side kick, maybe a little dog. Who would that be in this case? CW Briggs, veteran investigator of insurance fraud, larceny, crimes and misdemeanors. But just as the caped crusader in Allen's Radio Days (1987) was voiced by a little homunculus (Wallace Shawn, also in CJS), so Briggs is converted from hero to comic zero so that the director can play him. And thus the movie's problems begin.

Yes, that is Woody Allen as CW Briggs asking Elizabeth Berkley (Jill) out on an impromptu date, and yes she is eagerly and flirtatiously assenting, and there's an age gap of 39 years between them. Now, why not? After all, there have been relationships, successful ones, between adults who have decades between them. But, well, it usually helps if the older one is super rich, or a genius. Woody Allen is a genius, yes, but CW Briggs is an insurance investigator, a silver ferret more than a silver fox. Warning! Suspension of disbelief destabilising.

We then see an irate CW walking down a corridor, rather too long a corridor to be of interest without dialogue, and storming into the office of boss Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), and his protestations are met with disinterested put-downs that do neither Allen nor Hunt any favours. He compares her to Adolf, whom he describes as "Chancellor of Germany", but this is meant to be 1940, so is it a joke to indicate CW Briggs is behind the times or a script error? Briggs' physical inhibition in the presence of Betty Ann is a reminder of two things, first that Allen wanted Jack Nicholson for the role he himself wound-up playing, and second, that either the director's own inhibition or hesitancy caused by a post-feminism world is causing Allen to only weakly convey the hustle of the 1940s. The opening is noticeably slower than a '40s version of this story. It feels like a scene is missing to more interestingly convey what this company does. An insurance firm. Good luck with that.

Maybe if it had begun with the wine bar scene, in which Hunt and Allen spar, amusingly. Thing is, or rather isn't: Hunt's character, Betty Ann, an obvious feminist, but in 1940? Ambition and sass, yes, but there's such a chronic lack of respect for Briggs - Allen's character, who is supposed to be a top-notch investigator - that she, and basically Hunt herself, feel too contemporary, too two-thousands, for the period. The tete a tete with Dan Aykroyd (as Chris Magruder) recalls scenes between Yale and Mary in Manhattan (1979), except now we don't believe in their affair. And the kiss? Urgh!

CSJ is/was Allen's most expensive film, something which prohibited reshooting. It tanked. I guess the truth is, Allen should have tossed this script in a drawer until he could get the casting right. But then again, the movie is full of wisecracks written by him for his voice, ideally. I suppose today they could digitally de-age him for the part (shudder). Black and white instead of colour film would have been a plus point, too. Allen's joking and flirting as CW is genuinely funny and entertaining, especially when Charlize Theron is on screen, so there is that aspect of CJS to enjoy. The mystery, the magician, the hypnotic trance? It's very Woody, but also very meh. Someone in his team should have told him, nobody cares about stage magic, Mr Allen.

In sum, CSJ's potential is not realised due to a failure to convey the period with sufficient assurance. It has its funny moments, but they are counterbalanced by too much that is cringeworthy.

A week ago, I went to see "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," which I must say is the filthiest movie ever made. Nothing but dirty jokes and tons of profanity. The kind of film that simply shows the decline in cinematic society, rather than the advancement. Watching "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" I was relieved. I've always been a fan of Woody and though this is not a hysterically funny comedy that will deliver a laugh a minute, it delivers good, honest laughs and that's what I appreciated most about it. If we were living in the 1940's or 50's, a comedy like this would be no big deal. Actors and actresses in those eras knew how to make people laugh, without even uttering a minute sexual reference. Because they were professionals and they were talented and they knew what comedy was all about. Despite heavy regulations on censorship, they delivered hilarious gags with the greatest of ease. Showing us it isn't the least bit necessary to use sex or bodily functions to make audiences laugh. "COJS" is like an old-fashioned comedy and it happens to be set in the dawning of the 1940's.

For all you Woodyphiles expecting those grand Woody zingers--you won't be disappointed. One of his biggest gifts is witty dialogue. In this movie the dialogue is not only witty, but incredibly intelligent. So even if this is not the funniest movie ever, I'm certainly not going to say this is one of Woody's minor works. The chemistry--or should I say, non-chemistry--between Woody and Helen Hunt (his nemesis) is sharp. They build up a great tension--angry and sexual. I also liked the sexual innuendos between Woody and Charlize Theron, who plays the seductive Laura Kensington. Some say that Woody purposely wrote those scenes into the script so that he can have a couple of steamy scenes with the beautiful actress; I think not. The innuendos between them are very honest and she even admits at one point that she's used to strong, muscular men. Those scenes between Woody and Charlize are some of the film's funniest moments.

I'm guessing Woody used a slightly bigger budget that usual to produce this comedy, which you can consider a period piece. He really brings out a great aura of 1940's New York. Of course, I wasn't around during that time period, so I can't exactly scribble down every anachronism on a notepad and submit them in the "goofs" section. But judging by films I've watched, which took place during that era, I think the look was dead-on.

The film runs just a little long, and it slightly drags at points, but overall it's a feel-good romantic comedy with a good heart. There are even some good moments of mystery, which kept me intrigued. I liked the ending, which wasn't forced at all. It was an imaginative conclusion that suited the fate of the two leads, and it made me smile. Nothing like a typical Hollywood ending. This is the kind of sharp writing that existed before the film industry became a haven for money-hungry shysters. I admire Woody for continuing to make films that don't appeal to any particular demographic. This is a zestfully clean PG-13 comedy that probably won't do wonders at the box office, because there's no crude or sex-related humor, no nudity and no profanity--but Woody's an artiste and he's not about to let this explosion of gross-out comedies affect his integrity as one of our most talented writer/directors. If your IQ is in the double-digits, this probably won't be the film for you. I know (most) young people aren't used to thinking when they watch a comedy, so they may as well pass on this one and save themselves from a migraine. But for those in the mood for a fun, adult comedy--brace yourself for the Jade Scorpion. Comedies like this are becoming extinct--may as well watch as many of them as you can before they banish completely.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

The other one being Scoop, though that still had its fair share of flaws. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion has often been cited as one of Allen's worst(Allen even saying it being his worst) and while I would have said that on first viewing on re-watch definitely not. The ending is over too soon and is a cop-out, a lot of chemistry between the actors is quite bland- non existent between Hunt and Aykroyd- and Dan Aykroyd is completely wasted in an underwritten role. However, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is gorgeously filmed and the costumes and scenery are equally beautiful, one of Allen's better-looking later films. The upbeat and jazzy soundtrack matches the light bouncy mood of the film really well, while the script is very funny and smart with some intelligent touches and Allen's unmistakable style all over it and the story(while meandering towards the end) endears in its light-hearted approach, isn't too dull and doesn't waste its creative premise. The characters are not as relatable or as developed as other Allen films but other than Aykroyd's and to a lesser extent Charlize Theron's they do engage at least and like the script how they're written is distinctive of Woody Allen. Allen's direction hardly flounders and while he is in a way too old for his role he still gives a good account of himself, being purposefully neurotic, touchingly dithery and funny in a way that only he can be. Helen Hunt is wonderful, David Ogden Stiers plays with much lively gusto(if slightly hammy compared to everyone else but this is a case of that not being too much of a bad thing) and Elizabeth Berkley as well as looking beautiful is also surprisingly good. Like Aykroyd, Charlize Theron's character is very underwritten but her witty lines and her being at her sexiest more than compensate and she manages to be memorable at least. Overall, a decent film that could have been stronger but much better than its critical reputation and on re-watch. It's no Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanours, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Husbands and Wives or The Purple Rose of Cairo and it's not as ground-breaking as Zelig. But it is a long way from Allen's worst, What's Up Tiger Lily, Celebrity, To Rome With Love and Cassandra's Dream are worse, and panned films that I have yet to watch(re-watch in the cases of Shadows and Fog, September and Anything Else, all of which on first viewing didn't impress me) are likely to be even worse than them. 7/10 Bethany Cox

With virtually no chemistry between any of the actors/ characters, plus generally horrible delivery of the script, makes this unsatisfying from beginning to end. Performances seem much more like a 1st or 2nd run-through, rather than screen-ready by the actors but especially the director (Allen). The script itself is also stilted, made worse by the absence of nuance & timing in the performances. It's like the worst of community theatre, where everyone is waiting to say their lines, and not listening to or engaging with each other, not playing in the full context of the story.

Humor is lost in forced attempts at it.

With all the talent in virtually every role, and the great look, it's rightfully reviewed - including by Allen himself, as the worst of his films.

It's also a challenge to see Allen unconvincingly playing a character who would have to be 2 or 3 decades younger.

EDIT: everything above is valid, BUT, with a little more time, I realize the movie stayed with me. It's got a charm to its stylized manner. This is a great example of suspending disbelief, because of course, it's fiction. But, it's also an example of suspending expectations - expectations for a 'normal' movie, a typical Woody Allen film, etc. Taken 'as is', "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" offers some light comedy with a great (though not optimized) cast, great looking cinema, and a touch of fun. It's worth watching.

I really enjoyed this movie. Although it wasn't that well reviewed it was really very good if not his best work.

This is a charming comedy mystery which is original and well written. There are lots of very good one liners you have to concentrate to catch. Many of the situations are delightful to watch unfold.

The cast is good. Helen Hunt's deadpan insults are tailor made for her. Charlize is alluring - just wish she had more screen time.

The main fault is Woody is a bit old looking for the romantic part of the role. I guess that's why he hasn't been acting in too many more of his own movies.

It's 1940. CW Briggs (Woody Allen) is an insurance investigator who cracks a lot of cases. Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) is his new boss working under the owner Chris Magruder (Dan Aykroyd) who she's having an affair with. She's constantly butting heads with CW while reorganizing the office. They are at a company diner. CW and Betty Ann are hypnotized by magician Voltan to be used later for robberies. Then CW is given a robbery case on Laura Kensington (Charlize Theron) that he himself unknowingly robbed.

It has marginally funny lines from Woody. I don't think Helen Hunt and/or her character works that well. Her affair with the boss keeps her from having any romantic chemistry with CW. It's good that they hate each other because it comes across the screen. They are more bitter and not funny together. Their eventual turn is unconvincing. This is a passable effort from Woody especially the period piece aspect. There are funny moments but the central chemistry is lacking.

This looked like an attempt to do a slight but breezy Bob Hope comedy of the 1940s. In fact, it is set in 1940. A good idea for Woody who did do this well before. This one fails. Why? It was not crisp. Scenes were played with bad timing, incongruous acting styles and performers who seemed to have some difficulty in remembering their lines or recognizing their cues. Sloppy.

There is supposed to be a thread of eroticism in the film, but the only performance with any sexual juice was Elizabeth Berkley as a sweet virginal office worker. She had charisma, but her part was small and she had no real significance in the plot.

Woody Allen wasn't necessarily too old for his role; he was the wrong kind of old. The neurotic shtick that was so funny when he was young doesn't work for someone of his age. His character hasn't learned anything about life. He doesn't seem bumbling and cute; he seems old and dumb.