No laughing matter as Eddie Murphy's 'worst comedy of all time' A Thousand Words bombs at U.S. Box Office

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He's renowned as one of Hollywood's funnymen - but Eddie Murphy will not be laughing following the dismal performance of his latest film.

The actor's new comedy A Thousands Words was the laughing stock of the U.S. Box Office this weekend - only ranking in sixth place and taking just $6.4m.

The movie - a leftover shot in 2008 and finally dumped into theatres by distributor Paramount - was so bad it had a perfect score on the film critic site Rottentomatoes.com: all of the 37 reviews compiled there for the movie were negative.

Nothing to smile about: Eddie Murphy's comedy A
Thousand Word took just $6.4m at the Box Office

It features Murphy as a fast-talking literary agent and neglectful family man who gets a lesson on the important things in life after discovering he has only a thousand words left to utter before he dies.

Critics piled in and were universal in their opinion, branding it as one of the worst comedies of all time.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said of the film:

'Everyone in the film seems to be living in Stupid High-Concept Movieville,' while Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote: 'The concept is unoriginal, the scenarios aren't funny, and its message is banal.'

Barbara VanDenburgh of the Arizona Republic judged that 'with A Thousand Words, Murphy plunges headlong back into the swamp of insipid comedies he'd just crawled his way out of.'

Variety magazine was also unimpressed: 'Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum,' critic Justin Chang wrote.

Poor performance: Murphy plays a literary agent who gets a lesson on the important things in life after discovering he has only a thousand words left to utter before he dies

Meanwhile, Dr. Seuss' the Lorax easily beat Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'John Carter' at the weekend box office.

Studio estimates on Sunday put Universal Pictures' The Lorax' at No. 1 for the second-straight weekend as the animated adventure based on the children's book took in $39.1 million.

That raised its 10-day domestic total to $122 million, making 'The Lorax' the top-grossing movie released this year.

John Carter, based on Tarzan creator Burroughs' tales of the interplanetary adventurer, opened in second-place with $30.6 million.

That's an awful start given the whopping $250 million that Disney reportedly spent to make John Carter, which also earned generally poor reviews that will hurt its long-term prospects.

Winning: Animated movie Dr. Seuss' the Lorax maintained the top place for the second week running

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2114376/Eddie-Murphys-comedy-A-Thousand-Words-bombs-U-S-Box-Office.html#ixzz1p4pdqi5k