Up until this weekend, the title of 2012’s top turd in the tank belonged to Katherine Heigl’s pitiful One for the Money, which is currently running at 2% on Rotten Tomatoes to make it one of the year’s worst films. But 39 terrible reviews and a pathetic $6.4 million opening weekend later, Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words is in the driver’s seat with a Bucky Larsonian 0% rating.
Sure, it’s still early in the year and the film’s box office run – and lord knows Armond White still needs to chime in – but enough critics have ripped this movie apart, that there’s a good chance that it could be declared… *cues dramatic music* the worst movie of all-time.
A Thousand Words is by no means the only film to receive a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other no-marks include the Adam Sandler-scripted sex comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, the ham-fisted Pinocchio film by Roberto Benigni, and the disastrous adaptation of the Nicci French novel Killing Me Softly with Joseph Fiennes. A Thousand Words is unique, however, in having a significant amount of critics (30+) agree on the poor quality of a vehicle for a high-profile Hollywood star. (Via The Guardian)
It’s hard to put a finger on when exactly it happened, but at some point after Boomerang and The Distinguished Gentleman in 1992, someone let the air out of Murphy’s balloon and he just ran around Hollywood making a long farting noise. Hell, some people would even point to Harlem Nights in 1989 as the first tumble.
Regardless, Beverly Hills Cop III (10%), Vampire in Brooklyn (10%), Metro (15%), Holy Man (12%), Life (50%), Showtime (25%), The Haunted Mansion (13%), Pluto Nash (6%), I Spy (15%), Daddy Day Care (28%), Norbit (9%), Meet Dave (19%) and Imagine That (39%) are all considered to be critical bombs, and while Tower Heist is somehow holding on to a 68% rating despite being my Worst Movie of the Year for 2011, Murphy’s track record should shock no one.
We can only hope that he somehow pulls a George Lucas and decides to re-package Raw and Delirious so we can go back to a better time in Eddie Murphy’s life.