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People are voting emotionally.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The plot is a homage to early American talkies and involves detectives, robberies, magicians, hypnotism, wise cracks and as always with Allen's films, dames. The latter are exquisitely represented through the fantastic Helen Hunt as Allen/Briggs' nemesis and love interest, and the sumptuous Charlize Theron as the femme fatale and fantasy woman, which Allen often likes to include in his films. Add to this potent mixture the usual highly complimentary music score, and you have a film which is entertaining, beautifully shot.Allen put together a terrific supporting cast for this one, including John Schuck (Mize), Elizabeth Berkley (Jill), Wallace Shawn (George), John Tormey (Sam), Kaili Vernoff (Rosie), Brian Markinson (Al) and Peter Gerety (Ned). There's an inspired precision to this film, in the way Allen blends the story, characters and music (such a big part of creating that necessary atmosphere) that makes "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" something of a minor classic in the Allen canon. Aficionados of the classic films of this period will be especially delighted with this one, but anyone who appreciates a film that is well crafted and delivered and provides some solid entertainment will be satisfied, as well.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Underrated 1940s "noir comedy" among Woody Allen's resume, and he considers it one of his worst. As a fan of Woody's, agree to disagree. The period art direction, costumes, hair and makeup, characterizations, atmosphere, and sensibilities offer Allen fans a beautiful platform for his cast to work from. And what a cast assembled!A magician (David Ogden Stiers) places an insurance investigator (Allen), under anxiety due to a recently hired office "organizer" (Helen Hunt) who has urged the company boss (Dan Aykroid) to use outside PIs in an independent investigation firm instead of the current in-house detectives on the payroll, under hypnosis, encouraging him through a trigger word to steal jewels held by his employers (or behind security for clients to protect their jewels). It happened while Allen was attending a birthday function for a fellow co-worker in a club with Stiers performing his hypnosis act. Hunt is also under hypnosis and later when Allen is unavailable, Stiers will use a trigger word on her to commit the same type of jewel heists.How this "wronged man" plot gets Allen off the hook is most amusing, but for me it is the traded barbs/insults/remarks between him and Hunt is what most entertained me personally. I realize Allen felt he was miscast in the lead, but the cockroach or weasel insults towards someone else wouldn't have had the same impact as when Hunt demeans him. The "don't have a coronary" or "don't choke" or "be careful not to be hit by a truck" conclusions to finished dialogues from Hunt to Allen make up some of the "flirt" later to give credence to their unlikely romance and alliance later. The case that develops against Allen is damaging but how Wallace Shawn and Brian Markinson learn of his hypnotic entrapment, rescuing him in the process, proves to be his salvation. Charlene Theron is a sultry and naughty femme fatale caricature, John Shuck is an opinionated employee who works at the company, and Elizabeth Berkeley landed a plum part as a stunning but supposedly airheaded secretary at Allen's company. The description of Allen's apartment by Theron, Allen conceding to Hunt after considering her a cipher that she is worth confiding in, and Allen giving Hunt as much as he takes offer rich dialogue exchanges and humorous quips to giggle at. Just lots of fun. The setting enhances the cast and words. A sleeper in Allen's oeuvre.

Woody Allen's "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is set in 1940 and combines and pays homage to two film genres popular during the forties, screwball comedy and film noir, even though during that decade those two genres were not generally regarded as having much in common with one another. It shares with film noir the figure of the dedicated, trenchcoat-wearing lone criminal investigator and with screwball comedy not only an absurd and convoluted plot but also the device of two characters who, on the surface, hate (or at least dislike) one another but who are secretly in love. In the forties those characters were often a divorced or separated couple who inevitably ended by getting back together, like Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday."Here the ill-matched couple are C.W. Briggs, an insurance investigator, and Betty Ann Fitzgerald, an efficiency expert working for the same company. Although Briggs has had a good deal of success in uncovering insurance frauds and recovering stolen goods, due mainly to his ability to think like a criminal and his numerous underworld connections, he does not impress Betty Ann who regards his methods as outdated and Briggs himself as a male chauvinist pig (to use a more modern expression not actually in use in the forties). Unfortunately for Briggs, Betty Ann has the ear of his boss, Chris Magruder, with whom she is secretly having an affair. The plot is not only far-fetched but also fairly complex, but the central idea is that Briggs and Betty Ann are hypnotised by a crooked stage magician into stealing jewels, that neither of them have any memory of what they have done under hypnosis, and that Briggs is then assigned by Magruder to investigate these crimes. The film had a production budget of $26 million, making it Allen's most expensive film to date, even though that figure is peanuts compared to today's average Hollywood blockbusters, or even to the Hollywood blockbusters of 2001. It fared poorly at the box office and received a mixed reception from the critics. For at least the last twenty years the standard critical idée recue about Woody Allen has been to say "He's not as funny as he used to be", but in the case of "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" critics of this type have had an unexpected ally, Woody himself, who has said that it is perhaps his worst movie. He stated that it was only the high cost of the film, caused largely by its period setting and its elaborate sets, which prevented him from going back and reshooting the whole thing from scratch as he famously (or notoriously) did with "September". My initial reaction was to say that this is yet more evidence that great artists are not always great critics, especially where their own work is concerned. Yet in one respect I think that Allen was right. His main concern was that he had been wrong to cast himself as Briggs, and, in all honesty, I am compelled to agree with him on this point. To start with, it was a mistake to make Briggs so much older than Betty Ann. (Allen is 28 years older than his leading lady Helen Hunt). Addressed to a man of her own age, Betty Ann's sharp put-downs would be pertinent and to the point; addressed to a man old enough to be her father they seem arrogant, impertinent and evidence of a lack of respect. More importantly, Briggs is totally different from the sort of neurotic, angst-ridden intellectual whom we have come to regard as the typical Woody Allen character. This is a role- a cynical, wisecracking private eye, irresistible to women even if they dislike what he stands for- which seems to demand a cross between Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, and I don't think Woody really fits that particular bill. And yet, despite this miscasting, I cannot agree with Woody that this is his worst movie. "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" may lack the depth and significance of his truly great films like "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan", but it has a genuinely witty script, based around the brilliant comic idea of a detective investigating a series of crimes which, unknown to him, he has committed himself. Allen himself may be miscast, but this cannot be said of the rest of the cast, especially Hunt who makes the most of her splendidly bitchy part, the sort of roles which in the thirties or forties would have been played by Russell or Katharine Hepburn. All the great films noirs, and most of the great original screwball comedies ("Nothing Sacred" being a rare exception), were shot in black- and-white. No doubt Allen considered doing the same with this film, as he had done with "Manhattan", but in the end made it in colour, but in colours which Roger Ebert described as "burnished and aged", with a palette dominated (as in some of his other films, such as "Alice") by browns, yellows and oranges. This palette combines with the elaborate period sets to give this film a highly distinctive look, one which recalls the films of the forties without actually copying them. Charlize Theron appears in a role which adds little to the plot but which adds greatly to the mood by recalling the femmes fatales of noir; if Hunt is the new Russell or Hepburn, Theron takes on the role of the new Lizabeth Scott or Gloria Grahame. Is this really your worst movie, Woody? In my view it's nothing of the sort- in fact, it's a positively good one!. You will have to try very hard if you want to come up with something as awful as "September". Even in its reshot version that must count as your worst movie. 7/10

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.