Review of The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) by Blake P — 29 Aug 2011

I for one, am a HUGE Woody Allen fan, and the fact that "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" gets bad critic reviews really surprises me! Old-timer C.W Briggs (Allen) is a worker in a law office, and when "efficiency expert" Betty Ann (Hunt) comes, the two automatically hate each other on sight.

When members of the office go out on the town, they go to a club with hypnotist Voltan (Stiers) and as a prank he makes them pretend to be lovers in front of the crowd, but later that night, Voltan calls Briggs and hypnotizes him to rob a rich family of their jewels.

Later on, the same happens to Betty Ann, and the two not only do their own individual robberies, but they becomes lovers when they're in a trance. "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" has often been called Woody Allen's worst film, and maybe just because I haven't seen every single classic ("Annie Hall", "Broadway Danny Rose", "Bullets Over Broadway") that might be the cause why I liked this.

Heavens no, I don't like it as much as "Manhattan" or "Hannah and Her Sisters", and it's not even close to being as funny as the two, but "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is amusing enough, even though most of the jokes fall flat.

The lack of humor is saved by the cast which consists of some pretty big names AND some great performances, and some neat set and costume designs which makes the '40 scene look pretty realistic. If only this was shot in black-and-white, that would have been a real hoot! "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" isn't as funny as the other Woody Allen crime comedy "Manhattan Murder Mystery", but if you're not a serious film watcher, this is Allen for not Allen fans.