Eddie Murphy’s Bad Week Gets Worse: ‘A Thousand Words’ Trailer Drops

A week ago, everything was going Eddie Murphy's way. "Tower Heist" was coming out and was sure to be a big hit. He was set to be the host of the Oscars. After too many "Imagine That"s and "Daddy Day Care"s, Murphy was going to be relevant again. Exciting times ... until it stopped rather abruptly. "Tower Heist" got beat by "Puss in Boots" at the box office. Brett Ratner said some unfortunate things and had to step down as Oscar producer, which in turn prompted Murphy to withdraw as host. So much for the image overhaul: Now we're stuck with the old Eddie Murphy, which was hammered home by the unveiling of the trailer for his forthcoming comedy "A Thousand Words." This is the Murphy we don't want.

Quick history on "A Thousand Words": The film was shot way back in 2008 with "Norbit" director Brian Robbins. The premise -- an inveterate liar discovers that after the next thousand words he speaks he'll die -- was hardly terrible, even if it was sorta reminiscent of "Liar Liar." But apparently the test screenings were so bad that Paramount chose to keep the movie away from public view. Well, the studio has finally decided to unveil the movie, which was supposed to come out in January 2012 but was then moved to March, probably because Paramount wanted to capitalize on Murphy's Oscar telecast.

So how bad does "A Thousand Words" look? To be honest, like the movie's logline, the "Thousand Words" trailer isn't jaw-droppingly horrific. (We've seen a lot of trailers for Murphy comedies in the last 10 years that were at least on par with this.) Mostly, it just seems like the same old same old from a star who for too long has been coasting. We thought Murphy exiting the Oscars was sad. This trailer is even more depressing.

Trailer For Eddie Murphy's Long-Buried "A Thousand Words" Surfaces... How Timely [Shadow and Act via The Playlist]