Film Reviews

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Brian Markinson
• Details: US / 102 minutes / (15PG).

Set in 1940, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion follows CW Briggs (Allen), an insurance claims investigator at a Manhattan firm. He's at loggerheads with his boss, Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Hunt) who sees him as a relic from another age. One evening, while they are celebrating the birthday of a colleague in a local bar, Briggs and Fitzgerald are called on stage by a hypnotist called Voltan (Stiers).
Both Briggs and Fitzgerald are led to believe that they're in love (how nutty!), but Voltan has a sinister ulterior motive - he's programmed them with a code word so they will be susceptible towards committing robberies for him, which they will have to investigate.
The last decade has been littered with substandard Woody Allen movies but The Curse of the Jade Scorpion ranks alongside, Everyone Says I Love You as the weakest. Of course that doesn't mean that it's a terrible film. Indeed, by most directors' quality control standards, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion would probably be classified as something of a minor success, a throwaway, harmless caper. In terms of Allen's career, it can't be seen as anything other than yet another inadequate affair. There's little energy or sparkle in the screenplay and although he's still packing a few good gags up his sleeve, the ratio of duds is far too high. Similarly, the two leads share precious little chemistry and though Allen's still game for a laugh, one wonders if his heart is still really in it.

Review by Garreth Murphy