The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Woody Allen is in nostalgic mood for this handsome tribute to the 1940s crime B-movie. But he not only misses the timbre of hard-boiled argot, but also allows his pastiche plot to meander in a manner unthinkable in the bad old days of the 60-minute programme-filler. Yet, what really prevents a potentially diverting project from taking off is the love/hate mismatch between Allen's hapless insurance investigator and Helen Hunt's efficiency expert, who have been hypnotised into doing the bidding of nefarious showman David Ogden Stiers. Dan Aykroyd and Charlize Theron gamely boost underwritten supporting roles, but nothing disguises the lethal lack of inspiration.