Actor's latest comedy rated at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, ranking it alongside such epic fails as Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Is it possible to prove which is the worst film of all time? Maybe not, but the Rotten Tomatoes reviews aggregator is as good a measuring device as any, and the new Eddie Murphy comedy, A Thousand Words, has achieved a remarkable 0% rating as of Monday morning.

While an unexpectedly positive review may arrive from some hitherto overlooked corner of the film-reviewing universe, A Thousand Words has drawn a solid 39 negative reviews out of 39 on the site.

Naysayers range from the established media, such as Claudia Puig of USA Today – "The concept is unoriginal, the scenarios aren't funny, and its message is banal" – to the blogosphere (Brian Tallerico of HollywoodChicago.com: "Only the most masochistic connoisseurs of the truly awful need check it out"). Everyone, it seems, is united by A Thousand Words' awfulness.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Everyone in the film seems to be living in Stupid High-Concept Movieville", while 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."

Even the normally understanding Variety is unsparing in its criticism: "Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum," wrote Justin Chang.

In A Thousand Words, Murphy plays a literary agent who is cursed by a new age guru: he will die when the guru's bodhi tree sheds all of its 1000 leaves – and every word he speaks means it will lose another leaf. The film was originally planned to be released in 2009, but was delayed by corporate restructuring of its parent studio, DreamWorks. It then targeted a January 2012 release to capitalise on Murphy's appearance as Oscar host, but after he stepped aside, it was moved again.

A Thousand Words is by no means the only film to receive a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other no-marks include the Adam Sandler-scripted sex comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, the ham-fisted Pinocchio film by Roberto Benigni, and the disastrous adaptation of the Nicci French novel Killing Me Softly with Joseph Fiennes. A Thousand Words is unique, however, in having a significant amount of critics (30+) agree on the poor quality of a vehicle for a high-profile Hollywood star.

A Thousand Words was released on Friday in the US, and in the UK on 6 April.