A Thousand Words

DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: March 9, 2012

4.8	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 84 Ratings

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WhoSaneNov 25, 2012

Terrible movie. I gave this movie a two solely because the plot was somewhat original. however everything else in the was just plain awful. Its flat, dull, painfully unfunny and the terrible jokes from good ol' funny Eddie Murphy will makeTerrible movie. I gave this movie a two solely because the plot was somewhat original. however everything else in the was just plain awful. Its flat, dull, painfully unfunny and the terrible jokes from good ol' funny Eddie Murphy will make you cringe. In fact this movie is just another cash in from Eddie Murphy himself, avoid this film at all costs.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

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TheDRauchNov 3, 2012

An embarrassingly unfunny, desperate attempt at building on Eddie Murphy's return to form in last year's 'Tower Heist', A Thousand Words is one of the worst films of the year, hands down. The lasting impression I get after watching it is thatAn embarrassingly unfunny, desperate attempt at building on Eddie Murphy's return to form in last year's 'Tower Heist', A Thousand Words is one of the worst films of the year, hands down. The lasting impression I get after watching it is that the only person who looked even remotely well suited for their role was Jack McBrayer as a cheery Starbucks employee (which, by the way, is heavily advertised throughout). Eddie Murphy looks really uncomfortable and why shouldn't he be? His greatest comic asset is his voice and, once taken away from him, he becomes trapped in a joyless excuse for a movie. Every single joke falls dead flat. I just want to say it again, so that you really feel it. Every single one. Perhaps it's just that I in particular am a stingy critic with an over-critical taste, I don't know, but I saw the entire film as a cloying, through-the-motions money-grabber. I feel bad for everyone involved.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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MovieGuysMar 10, 2014

A Thousand Words had potential as a successful, meaningful comedy with a good-hearted message about the consequences of our words. But instead, Eddie Murphy screwed the whole movie. Though, it might be the script's fault as well.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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CincinnatiDaveMar 9, 2012

DUD! This movie was tired after the first 22 seconds. There were very few moments of originality, and everything in between was flat, uninspired, dull, and painfully unfunny! The supporting cast was awful, especially his wife (I don't wantDUD! This movie was tired after the first 22 seconds. There were very few moments of originality, and everything in between was flat, uninspired, dull, and painfully unfunny! The supporting cast was awful, especially his wife (I don't want to learn her name because I want to forget everything about her). I really wish someone in Hollywood could write an excellent script for Eddie Murphy because I want him to be successful...we keep waiting and waiting. Should I be happy or sad that I used my free rewards movie ticket to see this drivel??? It is a bit of both for me: I'm happy that I didn't waste a penny of my own money on it, but VERY sad I wasted a "free ticket".… Expand

10 of 11 users found this helpful101

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ShiiraApr 10, 2012

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When Mookie asks Pino who his favorite movie star is(in Do the Right Thing), the epithet-spouting Italian-American answers, "Eddie Murphy." It's a testament to Murphy's talent that even the racist son of a pizzeria owner worshipped the then-former SNL star. Given the time frame, the last film starring his screen idol which Pino probably saw in a Bedford-Stuy theater would probably have been Coming to America. For a man who resents how his Brooklyn neighborhood seems to be growing blacker by the day, the story about an African prince's mission to find a wife in Queens, should fill Pino with outrage, since Akeem, who finds work at a fast-food joint, is taking some McJob away from a white man. If the prince had "jungle fever", however, then maybe Pino would turn on Murphy, and see for the first time, his confused assignation of a racial double standard that exempts entertainers(he likes Magic Johnson and Prince, too) from being "n*****". In that scene with Lee, John Turturro mocks Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, and the Minister Louis Farrakhan, black men who are willing to fight back against the white establishment. And yet, in 48 Hrs., although Reggie Hammond gets called every name in the book by the cop who temporarily paroles him, the 1982 film allows the black man to retaliate, not only through off-color language, but with fisticuffs too, most memorably, in a knock-down, drag-out fight where Jack Cates takes his fair share of licks against the African-American convict. This constituted as progress, because back in the early-seventies(Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, notwithstanding), blacks weren't allowed to challenge white authority. To hit a cop, especially a racist one such as "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection, where Brooklyn's finest, posing as Santa Claus, surreptitiously calls some black youths "boy", as in "Have you been a good boy?" was unthinkable. Inside the social club(whose dark-skinned patrons are the source of the lexical transference that Doyle lays on the two kids), there's movement, the surveillance pays off, when Det. Russo coaxes their target to flee, a chase that ends with police brutality, and intimidation in a back alley. It's a show of excessive force made justifiable by the bodily incision Doyle's partner suffers from the black man's knife-wielding hand. But, of course, the times as they were, the whole filmic contraption was fixed ,with The French Connection being a prime example of how black actors were either cast as criminals or entertainers. In the aforestated scene, the two stereotypes align themselves in perfect symmetry, on both sides of that bar window, in which Doyle keeps his eyes peeled for the con, while he urges the black kids into minstrelization by singing "Jingle Bells" to a jolly bigot, who later states, "Never trust a n*****." In another bar, another drug raid, Popeye corrects a patron after he calls him Doyle without prefacing his surname with a "Mister". Spike Lee was just 14 at the time when the William Freidkin film won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It would take another decade, but Sam Cooke finally made good on his word when he promised that "A Change is Gonna Come", during a blink and miss it moment in 48 Hrs., when a hegemonic shift in the racial hierarchy occurs after Jack's request that back him up is met with askance. "Now why the f*** would I do that?" implores Reggie. In a scene that mirrors The French Connection(referring to Popeye Doyle, he says, "When white cops came in to f*** with me and my friends, the only thing that stopped us from kicking their a*ses, they had guns and badges."), Murphy walks into a monochromatic-skinned bar and intimidates the clientele just like Gene Hackman did back in '71. "There's a new sheriff in town," promised Murphy. Now, after countless bad movies, including A Thousand Words, you could say that Murphy put himself "Back on the Chain Gang". The Bodhi tree, often associated with the place that Prince Siddhartha finds enlightenment, is transmogrified in A Thousand Words, an unaware Buddhist horror movie, because Bo doesn't want Jack McCall, a literary agent, to meditate. Uh-uh. This Sacred Fig wants him dead. Pitched as a comedy, Dr. Sinja, a New Age guru whose book Jack aspires to publish, goes largely unexamined as a psychopath, since, contrary to his avowed obliviousness to the evil leaf-letting Bodhi's origin, is probably the man who directs the ficus to sprout in Jack's garden. After countless depictions of evil Christians, Dr. Sinja is that rare character in film: an evil Buddhist. The tree dictates Jack to do the right thing and choose his words wisely, which he does, but still, the Bodhi kills him. "The fake me died," he says. Only then does the guru agree to work with Jack(or is it "Jack"). A Thousand Words is like some bizarre eastern retelling of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Jack isn't a pod person, but rather, a Bo one.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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RonaldOVOXOMar 10, 2012

Eddie murphy is os bad this movie is so bad i regret taking my friends to see this movie. Eddi disappointed me with this movie. It had some ok parts pu this movie isnt worth more than a zero

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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DanielOnFilmMar 10, 2012

Is it funny? It is amusing, I'll give it that. I smiled out of pure schadenfreude, and I chuckled several times--but did I actually laugh? Well, there is a scene where gardeners spray insecticide on the tree, which has a drug like effectIs it funny? It is amusing, I'll give it that. I smiled out of pure schadenfreude, and I chuckled several times--but did I actually laugh? Well, there is a scene where gardeners spray insecticide on the tree, which has a drug like effect on McCall, who is at a business luncheon. The waiter rattles off a few menu items in French. McCall imitates the funny sounding language, and acts completely out of it, to the shock of the publishers he's meeting for a deal worth millions. There's nothing inherently funny about Murphy on drugs, but in the context of a formal lunch meeting, it works Other than that, there isn't a laugh to be found. Full review on my Blog.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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ScarTissue1990Mar 24, 2012

This movie, is very boring and tired. It seemed like it was thrown together, without being properly written. I expected it to be a little better than what It was, I do not like this film and I wouldn't see it again.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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meowmeowmeowMar 10, 2012

no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no.no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no.

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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BroyaxJan 15, 2017

Principe génial que ces derniers mille mots avant de mourir... surtout quand le clown Eddie Murphy s'y colle. Alors à la tchatche coutumière succèdent mille grimaces désespérées et désespérantes... puis une épouvantable guimauve à la fin. UnePrincipe génial que ces derniers mille mots avant de mourir... surtout quand le clown Eddie Murphy s'y colle. Alors à la tchatche coutumière succèdent mille grimaces désespérées et désespérantes... puis une épouvantable guimauve à la fin. Une occasion ratée pour ce bon vieux Eddie qui pédale comme un hamster de Parkinson épileptique dans sa roue bringuebalante.

Les gags que ne renieraient pas Ben Stiller ou Adam Sadler ou les frères Farrelly ou... n'importe quel débile mental professionnel s'enchaînent et loupent le coche à 98% (j'ai quand même ri une fois lorsqu'il crache des feuilles partout en criant "c'est la cata"). Quel dommage de ne pas avoir développé correctement une telle idée de départ, quel gâchis effroyable ! Là, on a juste une comédie mongolienne de plus sur le marché saturé des comédies mongoliennes.. américaines.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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