Curse of the Jade Scorpion
| Year: | 2001 |
| Director: | Woody Allen |
| Writer: | Woody Allen |
| Cast: | Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron, David Ogden Stiers, Elizabeth Berkley |
In the midst of Woody Allen's down period comes this so so mystery/comedy.
Helen Hunt in particular provides the signature performance we expect from a Woody Allen film, everyone else more or less coasts - it's Allen himself who looks out of place here. He cast Kenneth Brannagh in the role he'd normally play himself in 1998's Celebrity, so I would have thought he realised he didn't suit his own self-styled lead character anymore, except that this film is more recent than that one.
He plays an insurance investigator who's old school ways are threatened by the encroaching of the new corporate style, embodied by efficiency expert Helen Hunt, with whom he quickly becomes the worst of enemies, cueing many trademark insulting quips.
But during an office party, both are hypnotised by an entertainer who proceeds to use them to unwittingly carry out burglaries for him against their rich and influential clients.
As wishy washy as it was funny, but Hunt gives the whole thing an air of performance authority, while Theron's role is completely throwaway.
Helen Hunt in particular provides the signature performance we expect from a Woody Allen film, everyone else more or less coasts - it's Allen himself who looks out of place here. He cast Kenneth Brannagh in the role he'd normally play himself in 1998's Celebrity, so I would have thought he realised he didn't suit his own self-styled lead character anymore, except that this film is more recent than that one.
He plays an insurance investigator who's old school ways are threatened by the encroaching of the new corporate style, embodied by efficiency expert Helen Hunt, with whom he quickly becomes the worst of enemies, cueing many trademark insulting quips.
But during an office party, both are hypnotised by an entertainer who proceeds to use them to unwittingly carry out burglaries for him against their rich and influential clients.
As wishy washy as it was funny, but Hunt gives the whole thing an air of performance authority, while Theron's role is completely throwaway.