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Movies / On DVD / The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

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The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)

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Reviews Counted:35

Fresh:14

Rotten:21

Average Rating:5.1/10

Consensus: The writing for Scorpion is not as sharp as Woody Allen's previous movies as most of the jokes fall flat.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some sexual content

Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Aug 24, 2001 Wide

Box Office: $6,793,998

Synopsis: Woody Allen's funny, frantic THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION is part screwball romantic comedy, part 1940s noir detective story, and part ingenious heist film. Allen stars as C.W. Briggs, a... Woody Allen's funny, frantic THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION is part screwball romantic comedy, part 1940s noir detective story, and part ingenious heist film. Allen stars as C.W. Briggs, a set-in-his-ways old-time insurance investigator who refuses to get along with the bright new efficiency expert, Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), brought in to streamline his office's operations. Their back-and-forth bickering is reminiscent of the interplay between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. When a magician, played by the always excellent David Ogden Stiers, hypnotizes them as part of his stage act, Briggs unknowingly becomes a jewel thief while falling in and out of love with the exceedingly more confused Fitz, who is carrying on a secret affair with the married head of the company (Dan Aykroyd). Mayhem ensues as a pair of brother detectives zero in on the criminal, a sexy debutante comes on to Briggs, and Briggs and Fitz start suspecting each other. Production designer Santo Loquasto, who has been working with Allen for more than twenty years, once again has created beautiful sets, and the soundtrack, featuring such 1940s jazz treasures as Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington, is simply splendid. [More]

Starring: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron, Helen Hunt

Starring: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron, Helen Hunt, Elizabeth Berkley, John Schuck, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Markinson, Professor Corey

Director: Woody Allen

Director: Woody Allen
Screenwriter: Woody Allen
Producer: Letty Aronson
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC

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Release:

Jan 29, 2002

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Reviews for The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

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The movie has an odd feeling, both lush and listless. It's enough to make us believe Allen's comic batteries need recharging.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
08/09/02
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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The romance between C.W. and Betty Ann doesn't have much ardor, repressed or otherwise.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
01/22/02
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
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Mid-level, pretty-but-not- hugely-funny Allen film.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/06/02
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
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[Allen's] let his guard down and has allowed himself and his audience to relax -- something that doesn't often happen when the specters of class and European art hover over his pictures.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
08/31/01
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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Despite an appealing, even ingenious premise, Scorpion is another quippy but uninspired comedy.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
08/24/01
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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Many of the jokes fall flat, and the film has a musty smell about it, like an apartment someone has been living in for too long. Yet the picture plays out pleasantly, and Allen creates a world that's easy to inhabit.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
08/24/01
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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The frothiest, funniest comedy he has made since Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
08/24/01
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday
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Enormous fun.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
08/24/01
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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This new one has a clever premise, is well-acted, and has a polished, deliberately antiquated look, but it elicits more shrugs than laughs.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
08/24/01
Eric Harrison
Eric Harrison
Houston Chronicle
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Feels like an exercise in seasoned craft with an occasional good line, which can't help seeming hugely lacking in ambition. There's a prevailing sense that the wind has gone out of Allen's artistic sails.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
08/24/01
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
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The title is, to be sure, delightful but the movie itself is, finally, a trifle.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
08/24/01
Susan Stark
Susan Stark
Detroit News
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In nearly four decades of filmmaking, Woody Allen has been hilarious, brilliant, maddening, contrary and unsettling. Never, though, has he been so ordinary.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
08/24/01
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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The movie is a pleasure to watch, the craft is voluptuous to regard, but The Curse of the Jade Scorpion lacks the elusive zing of inspiration.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
08/24/01
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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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.

comment Comment
08/24/01
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe
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It has that same kind of hit-and-miss comedy about it, and Allen is really just going through the motions at this point, just as Groucho often was.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
08/24/01
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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It ain't great Woody by a long shot, and his battling with Hunt grows tiresome. But it's better than his last outing, Small Time Crooks, and its stilted stoogery.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
08/23/01
Susan Wloszczyna
Susan Wloszczyna
USA Today
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A stylish and fun little bauble.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment Comment
08/23/01
Glenn Lovell
Glenn Lovell
San Jose Mercury News
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Allen's new picture, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is nothing but plot and production values, and there's barely a laugh in it that isn't quashed.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
08/23/01
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor
Salon.com
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Curse is a vignette overinflated to feature-length, threatening to burst from distension.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
08/23/01
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
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A charming trifle that flatters the good taste of everyone involved: the cast, the audience and, not least, the writer- director.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
08/23/01
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
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Latest News for The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

June 03, 2005: Woody Allen Makes a "Match" With DreamWorks
Woody Allen's well-received entry into the Cannes Film Festival, "Match Point," has been snatched up by DreamWorks Pictures for a cool $4 million. Described as much... More...

June 05, 2001: Hey, if it worked in 2000 with Small Time Crooks (which was Allen's most commercially profitable film ever) maybe it can work this film too. Opens in new window
More...

June 05, 2001: Woody returns with another period piece, this one set in the '40s. Opens in new window
More...

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