AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

scott_camp An alternate title for the film could have easily been "Charlie Chan and the Curse of Having to Sit through Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen". If Mel Brooks had been given an opportunity to rewrite the script and direct the movie, then it might have had a chance. Instead, it turned out to be an almost entirely absurd effort with few redeeming qualities.The movie is now a permanent testament to the belief that quality actors, like the cast in this film - Angie Dickinson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter Ustivov, Brian Keith, and Roddy McDowell - can't save a bad script, and this script is as bad as they come. Watch at your own risk.

X X The short version: If you want to turn the sound off and look at Michelle Pfeiffer at some of her her dead sexiest shots, I'd give it a B. If not, it's a straight F, and I'm not talking the 59% kind of F--I'm talking the 0% kind of F.The long version: Waaaahooooo. Words fail me. I had to look long and hard to find a redeeming aspect of this movie, and the sole item I came up with is the casting of Ustinov as Chan. My girlfriend is a die-hard Charlie Chan fan and she was dozing blissfully halfway through.Writing: Did this picture even have writers? You know the game on Whose Line Is It Anyway where they all improvise a scene or musical on the spot? This entire movie seemed like that, as if they all loaded up on blow and improvised their over-the-top dialogue and gestures. If you repackaged "Rat Race" and called it a mystery, this might be what you'd end up with.Casting: This movie is a career low for virtually everyone in it. To outdo the miscasting in this flick, you'd have to have John Leguizamo as Moses. Richard Hatch in a Jerry-Lewis-type capacity simply doesn't work, especially after you've watched "Battlestar Galactica". Brian Keith's role as a cop with Tourettes makes his Hardcastle and McCormick days look like Oscar material. Why have Angie Dickinson even involved if you're not going to exploit her good looks? They could just as easily have used Cloris Leachman.I thought I'd seen the worst movie ever made after "Batman and Robin", but I may be rethinking that now. This flick was a pointless fart grenade.

trpdean I liked the Charlie Chan movies I remember watching on television when I was growing up, I like Peter Ustinov very much and I thought it a very bold stroke to have Angie Dickinson play the "Dragon Queen" (a role made for the likes of a Lucy Liu).That's why I'm irritated by having rented this movie. It's just awful - truly truly awful. You'll sigh, you'll look at your watch, you'll feel as if you're stuck with some adolescent in an elevator trying out his impressions for 17 hours until they free you.Don't rent it - it's just TERRIBLE - and with this cast, that's such a shame.

mcguffin2001 Although the script abounds with funny lines, the overall effect of this film is as though someone (Producer? Director? Studio?) took a deft Charlie Chan send up and stamped heavily on it, adding elements clearly inserted for commercial appeal rather than inherent value. These elements do their best to destroy what would have otherwise been an enjoyable hour and a half. As it stands, you'll want to see it for some stellar performances, and because you don't want to miss young Michelle Pfeiffer in one of her earliest roles. She lights up the screen.Peter Ustinov does his spiffy Warner Oland impression, and a talented cast does its best with the sparkly script but on-again-off-again plot.