A Thousand Words

This movie could have been a winner – much like The Golden Child – for Eddy Murphy. The premise for this film could have gone there – mystical, imaginative...the plot line lent itself to such success. However, rather than using Murphy's awesome comedic talent, the makers of this picture resorted to reducing him to grimaces, hideous facial contortions – none of which were amusing at all. Granted there was a reason in the movie for Murphy's character not to be able to talk for awhile, but he could easily have performed versions of charades, used eye rolls and raised eyebrows and brought the house down. However, that didn't happen. It was all over the top and not funny at all. The only character in this picture to do justice to his part was Clark Duke playing Murphy's assistant. This wasn't enough to make the film a success. Such a waste and frankly, I'm rather tired of being disappointed when I go to the movies. Especially to an Eddy Murphy film. I expect more.

I have to assume that the people who rated this one below a 5 were expecting the standard slapstick fare. This isn't going to go down as a classic film, but it kind of picks up from "Holy Man" from 1998 in that the movie is about an unexpected encounter causing someone to re- evaluate and embrace their life.

Murphy does a pretty good job straddling comedic and dramatic acting. It's more like one or the other rather than both in the same scene, but it's not bad. The supporting cast is pretty good as well. The writing is decent enough.

What made me give this a 7 instead of a 6 is the ending. You pretty much know what's coming - that Murphy's character will resolve the issues which keep him from being happy. But the last 8 minutes or so are just really well done. Murphy's warmth really shines and you can't help but smile. And for that ending, I gave it an extra star.

Put this in the "feel-good comedy" category.

I cannot understand why someone would rate this so poorly and call it "an abomination" of a film. These people must like to watch depressing or utter brain dead movies, over heart warming, feel good movies.

Granted this film is not perfect, there are definitely some unnecessary and quite stupid scenes, but this does not detract from the overall moral of the story which makes a powerful philosophical point - a point we must all contemplate.

Eddie Murphy is his funny usual self and the rest of the cast do a great job. Also the cinematography is excellent with some remarkable scenes.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone looking for a meaningful movie. A must watch for all who are positive.

Peace.

I happened to come across this movie by sheer luck as it was showing on TV, I gave it a chance since I saw it being an Eddie Murphy movie. And I will say that I am very glad that I did so, because this might be the best Eddie Murphy movie ever, or at the very least it is his most touching of movies.

The story turned out to be rather interesting and refreshing from the usual movies that Eddie Murphy is in. The story is about a man's fate tied to a tree, and with each word he speaks a leaf falls from the tree, slowly killing it and in turn also endangering the man.

I was really surprised at the level of impact the story had, and it mixed drama and comedy together quite well. But near the end of the movie the story really stepped up and into character. And I think some might actually need a tissue at hand at that point.

The cast did good jobs with their given roles, and it was nice to see Eddie Murphy unfold his talent in a combination of drama and comedy, proving that he is much more than a goofy laugh, a handful of jokes and one-liners. This is really a movie that made Eddie Murphy shine Again.

Regardless of if you are a fan of Eddie Murphy or not, then "A Thousand Words" is definitely worth watching because it is a beautiful story put to film. I am rating it seven out of ten stars and must applaud Eddie Murphy for his performance in this movie.

You will find reviews here using thousands of words in order to flame this movie, clearly they didn't understand it. You will know why after seeing it.

People are disappointed because they wanted to see an Eddy Murphy style comedy, the problem is this ain't a comedy it is a drama with a very good message. I loved Eddy Murphy in his first movies, he was a fast talking joke machine, he still is but the jokes are the same and comedy has moved on. For that matter I didn't like the comedy portion of this movie too much but I was deeply touched by the drama version. The solution to his problem is right in front of him and anyone who is willing to give this movie a fair chance will see it too and exactly this is what made the movie so strong because he is doing it all wrong and you want to scream at the screen and tell him what to do and how to do it.

In my opinion Eddy Murphy gave a partially brilliant performance. As I said I didn't enjoy the comedy too much, it was some sort of best of Eddy Murphy but when you are willing to accept that this is actually a drama and understand the comedy part as the metaphor that it is you will love this movie and maybe pull something valuable out of the message. For the concept of the message Eddy Murphy was the best possible actor for this role.