'Scorpion' boasts comedic sting

When Stanley Kubrick\'s final film, \"Eyes Wide Shut,\" was released a few years ago, I heard a rumor that the director had briefly considered Woody Allen for the lead. It\'s probably not true, but regardless, it would have been the casting mistake of the century, for one reason -- Woody Allen is funny. I don\'t just mean his films are funny, or his writing is funny -- the man is a walking gag. That\'s not to say he can\'t strike an emotionally resonant chord in movies like \"Manhattan\" or \"Husbands and Wives,\" but something about the way he furrows his brow or stumbles through a self-deprecating joke is just inherently amusing.\n\"The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,\" Allen\'s 30th feature film, is reminiscent of his other period comedies like \"Bullets over Broadway.\" Set in 1940, Allen plays C.W. Briggs, an investigator for an insurance company who always gets his man, but tends to throw his salary away on gambling. He\'s constantly put upon by the firm\'s new efficiency expert, Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), who loathes him as much as he hates her. Their constant back and forth is a nice showcase for Allen\'s still undiminished knack for the snappy one-liner. The feuding pair are hypnotized at a party by a magician, who later hypnotically coerces C.W. into breaking into clients\' mansions and stealing their jewels. When he\'s suspected of the crime, Briggs (with the reluctant help of Betty Ann) has to clear his name, not realizing that he actually is committing the crimes while in the magician\'s trance.\n\"Jade Scorpion\" is as light and frothy as the previous Allen film, \"Small Time Crooks,\" and while it doesn\'t reach the screwball comic highs of \"Crooks\"\'s first half, it\'s more consistent overall and a worthy companion to nostalgic Allen period pieces like \"Radio Days.\" Hopefully Allen isn\'t done with the more complex contemporary relationship stories that put him on the \"serious\" filmmaker map back in the 1970s, but in the meantime, light-hearted fare like \"Scorpion\" will put a smile on your face.