Product Details

• Actors: Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, Woody Allen, David Ogden Stiers
• Directors: Woody Allen
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: DreamWorks Home Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: September 10, 2002
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CY69
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,110 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Video > Comedy > Comedy Directors > Woody Allen
  #10 in	Video > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Woody Allen
  #35 in	Video > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Dan Aykroyd

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Woody Allen pays another visit to his idealized past, and his retro blend of humor and nostalgia will surely satisfy the filmmaker's most loyal fans. Like The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, and Sweet and Lowdown, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is physically impeccable: its period-perfect costumes and sets capture 1940 New York with splendid authenticity and are further enhanced by the burnished glow of Zhao Fei's cinematography. And like those earlier films, Jade Scorpion mines comedic gold from its timeframe, molding it into a plot laced with expert zingers that could only spring from a keen awareness of comedic tradition. Add an appealing roster of costars (including Elizabeth Berkley and Charlize Theron) and you've got vintage Woody that perks right along.

The movie's also as trivial as it is engaging; hack off 30 minutes and it might have had the delirious precision of early Marx Brothers classics. Instead, Allen's goofy conceit--enemies falling in love by hypnotic suggestion--is stretched to absurdity when efficiency expert Betty Ann "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) is hypnotically attracted to seasoned insurance investigator C.W. Briggs (Allen), despite their office enmity. Plus, a jewel-heist caper masterminded by the nightclub hypnotist (David Ogden Stiers) casts them both as suspects! Woody harvests a bumper crop of old-fashioned laughs from this predicament, and despite their conspicuous age difference and occasional awkward delivery, Hunt and Allen exchange volleys of dialogue like a seasoned comedy team. Dan Aykroyd is also good in a stodgy supporting role, but Jade Scorpion remains a mixed blessing--a welcomed throwback to comedy's yesteryear, from a master funnyman who's struggling to maintain relevance in the present. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

Woody Allen's latest comedy, set in an auburn-colored and jazz-haunted past, looks good, but the picture feels attenuated, redundant, and trivial. Dressed in a fedora and a loosened tie, Allen plays a garrulous nineteen-forties insurance investigator (a sort of crotchety, self-pitying Edward G. Robinson). Helen Hunt is the newly hired office-efficiency expert (a Rosalind Russell type, except blond). They meet, hate each other, and engage in baroquely phrased period insults that allegedly hide their true attraction. The plot turns on the manipulations of a mesmerist (David Ogden Stiers) who intones magical words into the telephone, causing people to fall into trances and commit crimes. This may be funny when seen once, but when it becomes the central plot device it's remarkably uninteresting-hardly worth the attention Allen gives it. Woody himself is looking a little worn, and his flirting, however acidly, with an actress almost thirty years younger than himself (Charlize Theron) becomes embarrassing. You have to enjoy the movie (if you can) as a put-on, not as the romantic comedy it's intended to be. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stop looking for another Manhattan and enjoy the movie!!!, August 24, 2001

By	Jason Singer (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

All these self-appointed Woody Allen experts who long for the brilliance of Woody's introspective era of film making are missing the point. WAKE UP! He stopped making those movies 15 years ago! What Jade Scorpion IS is FUNNY! It's wall-to-wall classic Woody Allen one-liners. This is NOT "a very bad movie" as one other critic here suggests. It's a very funny way to spend 90 minutes. This has infinitely better jokes than any of the other crap coming out of Hollywood and the jokes AREN'T based on bodily functions! In the pacekd house I saw it in, also a sneak preview, EVERYONE was laughing hard and loud throughout and buzzing when it was over. There are a couple points where the action meanders, but the one-liners that follow make you forget them. While I think Helen Hunt is a little stiff, Woody is at his joke-telling best. Noone can deliver the jokes like he can (which is why, I imagine he continues to play the leading man roles in his films instead of letting someone else butcher them, ie "Celebrity"). The secondary characters are all adequate and as usual, fit the look and feel of the film to a tee! Overall, not his best movie of the past ten years, but certainly as funny as anything he's put out in some time. Hmm...let's see, American Pie 2, Scary Movei 2, Rush Hour 2...umm...I'll take a slightly above average Woody Allen film, please!!! Relax, have some popcorn, and laugh!

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take A Vacation In Madagascar, August 15, 2001

By	Chad Spivak (North Miami Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews

This movie can be summed up in one word...funny. Woody Allen has written and directed many films, and he completely amazes me in that he can still come up with hysterically new concepts.

THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION takes place in 1940 where Woody Allen plays C. W. Briggs, an investigator for an insurance company. Classified as "more lucky than good," Allen plays his typical underdog/unsung-hero type role. His main adversary, Betty Ann Fitzgerald played by Helen Hunt, is the company's efficiency expert, not to mention the boss' mistriss. At a birthday party, these two are placed under a spell, and never released. Every once in a while the two are called upon to steal valuables while under the trance, making them the perfect theives.

In a screenplay loaded with sarcasm and witty dialogue, the film is quite enjoyable. Hunt is the perfect compliment to Allen, as her timing couldn't have been better. Dan Akroyd also plays an good part as the Chris McGruder, the owner of the company. His straightforward demeanor is a nice counterpart to the snappy punchlines throughout the film.

This is an entertaining film that will cause you to laugh out loud several times. A good cast coupled with an easy, humorous storyline will keep you wondering if they will ever catch the bad guy. THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION is a good film. It will not disappoint.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woody Allens back again...just not as sharp, September 8, 2001

By	"snlkidsinhall" (Topeka, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews

There are things you can look forward to every year...tax season, winter, spring, summer, fall...a new Woody Allen film. Last year was 'Small Time Crooks', an uneven, yet a fulfilling and funny Woody Allen film that made me reminisce of his older movies like 'Take the Money and Run.' His latest one takes the nostalgia of 'Radio Days' mixes it with the mystery in 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' and gives you the constant one liners of 'Annie Hall'. There are things you can always expect from a Woody Allen film...the jazz music, the same title cards, some of the same reoccurring themes...yet each one is just as original as the other.
His newest movie released August 24th, is a subtle, smart nostalgic romantic-comedy-mystery. Set in 1940, "Curse" is about an insurance investigator (Allen) who seems to be a thief but isn't and two people (Allen and Helen Hunt) who seem to hate each other but are actually madly in love. It's also about hypnotism, which is the catalyst that brings these lovers togeher.
Allen, plays CW Briggs, a smart-aleck insurance investigator who has a nose for scams and robberies. Briggs works for Northcoast Insurance, where he's a star investigator. Hunt plays Betty Ann Fitzgerald, the efficiency expert that is out to get Briggs. The two absolutely hate each other. He compares her to Mussolini, while she calls him various insulting names. Briggs' boss, Chris Magruder (Dan Aykroyd) is having an affair with Hunt which only tangles things together even more.
At an office birthday party for co-worker George Bond (Wallce Shawn) held in a local nightclub, show-biz mesmerist Voltan (David Ogden Stiers) hypnotizes Briggs and Betty and gets them to romance each other on stage. Even worse, the villainous Voltan programs them for instant obedience to all his commands, as soon as they hear the key words "Constantinople" (Briggs' cue) and "Madagascar" (Betty's).
Voltan calls up Briggs and orders him to commit a string of jewel robberies at the mansions where Briggs himself installed the security. At night he is robbing these mansions, during the day he is investigating the robberies. Soon everyone suspects him as the robber, but this is just where the movie starts getting really funny.
My personal favorite scenes were the ones between Briggs and Laura Kensington (Charlize Theron). Theron burns up the screen as the nymphomaniac daughter of one of the robbery victims; she is a Veronica Lake look alike. The chemistry between Allen and Theron was one of the giddiest and most enjoyable twists to this movie. Theron's part is a notch above a cameo role but she stands out, which is a good thing.
Woody Allen of course plays a version of himself, which I never get tired of. Helen Hunt is mediocre to say the least, something about her in this part just didn't click with me, I would've loved to see Diane Keaton back again with Woody Allen in this role. Dan Aykroyd played a more serious role, which takes a while to get used to because its Aykroyd we're talking about here. But he pulls it off nicely. My biggest complaint is Elizabeth Burkley whose acting is as hollow as her career has been. She could've nicely stole every scene she was in as the office secretary, instead she made me cringe.
The movies plot progression takes a while to get used to, this is due to the direction of Allen, who in his old age isn't as sharp as he used to be. The script is filled with funny one-liners, but they never build up to be what they should be. Zhao Fei's cinematography is subtle yet brings alive the era, the style and the setting.
This, in the end, is a send up to the 1940's genre of films from Hitchcock to Bogart to Bob Hope. Allen and Hunt remind me of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. This movie is not flawless, but its fun, its interesting, it's a nice nostalgic journey and the ending is one of the best conclusions I've ever seen, without using any words Allen had me rolling in the aisle and leaving the theatre with a huge grin on my face.