Eddie Murphy's New Movie Seems To Be Spiraling

A Thousand Words opens today after several years on the shelf, with Eddie Murphy as a fast-talking literary agent who realizes that with every word he speaks, a leaf falls from the mysterious Bodhi tree in his backyard.

So Eddie has to find other ways to communicate--just like the cast of The Artist, the old man in Extremely Loud, and the girlfriend in Beginners.

But not as interestingly, it seems.

Critics have unanimously weighed in with a lot of words and called this one a big turd.

"Even Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum"--Variety

"It needs to make like a tree and leave." -Associated Press

"Another lazy, 'family-friendly' comedy in which Murphy phones it in"--The Wrap

"The concept is unoriginal, the scenarios aren't funny, and its message is banal. Plus Murphy alternately hams it up and phones it in."--USA Today

"In its execution it demonstrates how technical efficiency can drain the life from a story."--New York Times

Wow! That's a lot of "phoning it in" (but at least the "physically adroit performance" thing can be used as a pull quote if they decide to keep advertising.)

Eddie should have never done a comedy with a guru character. As Mike Meyers will tell you, that generally equals death when it comes to mirth.

And maybe if his friend hadn't screwed up their Oscar gig, Eddie could have plugged this on the awards telecast and garnered a couple more car-accident-watcher types to buy tickets.

But nope, Words will surely be greeted with stony silence.

And for those of you who are calling this another Norbit, don't go there. Norbit made money and was considered a hit!