The Curse of the Jade Scorpion *** (2001, Woody Allen, Helen Hunt) – Classic Movie Review 1803

Writer-director-star Woody Allen’s carefree 2001 comedy is fun up to a point, with enough funny gags and amusing situations to keep the mood happy and the movie likeable.

In the daft, nostalgic yarn, Allen plays C W Briggs, a dithering Forties veteran insurance investigator feuding with efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), a new employee in the company he works for. They’re hypnotised by a crooked magician called Voltan (David Ogden Stiers) into nabbing gems. It turns out Briggs has a love-hate thing going with Betty Ann Fitzgerald, who adores a married creep (Dan Aykroyd). The next evening, Briggs makes his first robbery but, when he wakes up,  he has no memory of it. 

Allen’s looking a bit old to be chasing Hunt, but is still in the prime for spitting out the witty wisecracks. Hunt has got stuck with romancing old blokes in movies — but then she’s good at it — and Aykroyd hits the target too.

If it plays like a parody of a Woody Allen film, then why not?

Elizabeth Berkley, Charlize Theron, Wallace Shawn and John Schuck also star.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1803

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