The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: August 24, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
17
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Woody Allen's most purely entertaining film in years. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Seemingly a simple comedy, it actually -- like all Allen's "simple" comedies -- has a lot to say. Will the audience listen or just dismiss it as minor, out-of-date Woody? If they do, it's their loss. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizCody Clark
Allen's good with the material, but Hunt sparkles, repeatedly razoring her diminutive antagonist to shreds.
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
One thing I especially like about it, apart from the flavorsome 40s decor in color, is that it's silly in much the same way that many small 40s comedies were. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's a real charmer from a director who feels that a knockabout romantic farce doesn't have to be mindless -- take that, "America's Sweethearts." Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo
A thoroughly likable, if familiar, Woody Allen comedy -- not the most original or revealing tintype in the director's gallery, perhaps, but blessedly free of the self-conscious hand-wringing and tortured navel-gazing that impede the former Mr. Konigsberg's more sluggish efforts. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Hardly the first of Woody Allen's love letters to the good old days, but it's a high-spirited, entertaining one, falling along the same lines as "Radio Days." Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
There's nothing major here, certainly nothing on the order of my favorite among Allen's retro workouts of the past decade, ''Bullets Over Broadway.'' But it's entertaining all the same.
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
Certainly not a piffle, nor an impressive departure into a new filmmaking realm, Allen's second film in a row about crooks ranks in the middle range of his work. Read full review
63
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
Since a goodly portion of Jade is given over to the barbed banter lobbed by Allen and a solid Helen Hunt (in Stanwyck mode as a peevish efficiency expert who challenges his façade of male superiority), Woody the wordsmith is in full evidence, too. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Never quite lifts off. The elements are here, but not the magic. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It would be dishonest to deny that Jade Scorpion has amusing moments, but it never gets better than that and often settles for less. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not credited)
This charming and funny film may be one of the last of a rare genre deservedly named after a person -- the Woody Allen movie. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
The problem is that Allen is getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing a romancer-rescuer, and since he and Helen Hunt have a rather frigid actorly rapport, we have plenty of time to notice the awkward, and barely acknowledged, disparity in their ages. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A loose- jointed, not especially memorable comic caper with some lovely moments of humorous invention, many patches of clumsy writing and a few game performances. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianBarry Johnson
This one is for Woody fans, and maybe Woody fans only. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
So lame and Woody himself seems so worn down and the humor is such a pale shadow of the former Allen brilliance that -- despite a few chuckles here and there -- it's a considerable disappointment. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Lightweight, inoffensive fare, as bland as a sleepwalker under a hypnotist's spell. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyStaff (Not credited)
It feels wrong; the entire machinery of the movie seems to be rotating around Woody Allen's vanity. He remains a canny (if, in this case, hollow) film craftsman, but by now we know him far too well to be asked to find him adorable. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
This mid-level, pretty-but-not-hugely-funny Allen film slips into the top spot by regretful default. I enjoyed every single second of it, a little bit. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
There are lots of plot twists and romantic angles. What's lacking is laughs. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It's not fresh and irreverent, qualities we admire in Allen. It is recycled and irrelevant. Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
Nothing but plot and production values, and there's barely a laugh in it that isn't quashed. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's middling Allen, which means that fans won't be sorry to see it, while everyone else can wait until the next "Bullets Over Broadway." Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Scorpion fails to connect on anything but the most basic comic level. Despite Allen's usual excellent direction, it all plays like a TV-movie version of something else, Allen-lite. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's evidently important to Allen to work, work, work, but he's starting to make his movies by rote instead of passion. Could he handle -- psychologically -- a year or two off? Could he afford -- creatively -- to keep grinding them out? Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie isn't terrible -- a few clever notions snap to life and pay off, at least modestly -- but it's dispirited and eventually dispiriting, a force-fed farce that falls far short of fascination.
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Despite an appealing, even ingenious premise, "Scorpion" is another quippy but uninspired comedy. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
Although there's no evidence of sexual chemistry on the screen, the stars share a certain physical defensiveness that occasionally makes them seem simpatico; most of the time, however, they just look bored to death. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The problem with Allen's latest, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is "Not enough Double Indemnity." Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Achieves a generic period look, but there's nothing lived-in about its rooms, nothing persuasive or necessary about its time and place -- there's no longer even a movie fan's nostalgia to give it some spark, or a reason for being. Read full review
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