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Comment RSSCan Eddie Murphy Pull Off Silent Comedy In ‘A Thousand Words’?
28.08.08 # News # 2 CommentsAs I’m one of the (very) few remaining young fans of silent film, this headline on MTV’s movie blog really caught my eye – “Eddie Murphy Channels Charlie Chaplin for 1000 Words”. Eddie Murphy as a silent actor? Fast talking Eddie? Surely not.
Murphy is well known for his loud characters, for being mouthy and borderline excessively annoying, so could he pull off a film in which almost half his role is silent?
A Thousand Words, directed by Brian Robbins, is about a man (Murphy) who discovers he only has 1000 words to speak before his death. Through this, he finds the importance in the words he chooses to speak.
Kerry Washington, his co-star in the movie, says “it becomes a Charlie Chaplin film for Eddie. It’s hilarious.”
Most of my contemporaries only know Charlie Chaplin as ‘that guy who looks like Hitler’.
This is going to be interesting… Eddie Murphy hasn’t been funny lately. Will shutting him up do the trick, and force him to work harder?
- – Stop Press – - News Just In – - Brian Robbins also directed Norbit and Meet Dave. Forget it then… Forget I bothered.
Readers, your thoughts please. …In a thousand words or less.
Source: MTV
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While I just turned thirty I still catagorize myself as a “young fan” of Chaplin’s and I also caught MTV’s blog post. (I also did a double-take at the headline.) I believe that at this point when popular media calls upon Chaplin, I think they use it more of a description of silent films in general, and not as a direct comparison to Chaplin, the actor. It’s a shame really, as most young people not familiar with his work will start seeing his name as a general adjective without understanding the talent that brought him his initial fame. (Like facial tissue is called Kleenex, regardless of the actual brand.)
That being said, it’s not going to help Murphy.
As much as I know in my heart that this movie will disappoint (Like most of Murphy’s recent films), I am excited to see a really good premise come out of Hollywood. I could be wrong, but I don’t recall ever hearing a concept lilke this. I hope it’s a good film and successful. We need more original ideas like this one.