Cliff Curtis film may not show here

Rotorua moviegoers are unlikely to be able to watch local actor Cliff Curtis' latest movie A Thousand Words on the big screen.

The movie, starring Eddie Murphy and currently screening in the US, has been labelled the worst-reviewed movie of all time.

On the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes it has received a thumbs-down from more than 40 international critics who have given an average rating of zero per cent. On IMDb, the movie got a critics' review rating of 42 per cent from 570 users and on the Metacritic website it scored a dismal 26 per cent. In its review The Guardian newspaper asked: "Is this the worst-reviewed film of all time?"

Rotorua's Reading Cinema Complex manager, Adam Morrison, said he doubted the movie would be released in New Zealand. Decisions about showing movies here were decided by distributors based on how a movie did in the US, he said.

The fact Curtis featured would not make much difference because it wasn't a major role, Mr Morrison said. "It would probably go straight to DVD."

Murphy plays a literary agent who stretches the truth but finds things change after he meets a New Age guru played by Curtis. A magical tree appears in Murphy's backyard and a leaf falls from the tree each time he utters a word and when the last leaf falls both he and the tree will die.

Curtis appears to escape most of the criticism. The Screen Rant movie website said this about Murphy's fellow actors: "For such a flimsy and poorly-executed concept, A Thousand Words manages to collect some talented players ... Cliff Curtis (Die Hard 4, Training Day) is a much better actor than his presence in this film would suggest".

The New Zealand movie Boy, co-produced by Curtis, is currently screening in the US and receiving good reviews. It was released the same time as A Thousand Words and The New York Daily News called it "quirky" and "a valid effort to explore the difficulties in coming of age during tough times".

Curtis could not be reached for comment about either movie but his New Zealand agent Gabriella Larkin-Bruce said she was unaware of the criticism of A Thousand Words.

Ms Larkin-Bruce said she usually received movie scripts for Curtis. "But this was one that was obviously picked up by his American agent - particularly if it was an Eddie Murphy movie," she said.

Curtis' next project is the TV drama Missing, which premiered in the US this week. Additional reporting APN News and Media