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Review || ||

REVIEW: Eddie Murphy Mugs, Flails and Fails in A Thousand Words

REVIEW: Eddie Murphy Mugs, Flails and Fails in A Thousand Words

The troubles marring the relationship between fast-talking literary agent Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) and his wife and the mother of his baby Caroline (Kerry Washington) are nothing next to the issues A Thousand Words has in marrying wacky physical comedy and a new age exploration of absentee fathers. The film, which is directed by Norbit's Brian Robbins and written by  Bruce Almighty's Steve Koren, is being slung at audiences as a broad family laffer of the Jim Carrey school, but spends just as much time trying to be a serious tale about letting go of childhood resentments and accepting mortality. The "deep" bits aren't, despite a climactic shot in which Murphy actually frolics with his childhood self through a Terrence Malick-style dreamy field of wheat, and the parts that aim to be funny rarely succeed at that either, telegraphing their punchlines so far in advance that they don't really need to follow through on them.
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The Movieline Interview || ||

Ask Away: The Best of 2011's Movieline Interviews

Ask Away: The Best of 2011's Movieline Interviews

Another year, another couple hundred entries in the ever-deepening conversational archive known as The Movieline Interview. They're the collective backbone of our site, and in 2011, it was at its strongest. Look back with us now at the highlights, including the luminary likes of Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jason Segel, Jodie Foster, Paul Giamatti, and a certain honey badger of a director.

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The 2-Minute Verdict || ||

Eddie Murphy is Back Already in A Thousand Words Trailer

So this whole Eddie Murphy dropping out of the Academy Awards thing has to be good for someone, right? Maybe even for Eddie Murphy and DreamWorks, who have cleverly unveiled a trailer for the long-postponed Murphy comedy A Thousand Words today, hoping that a little publicity will go a long way for what appears to be a knock-off of one of your favorite Jim Carrey titles.

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