This review of Alex Cross is brought to you, much like the movie, by Cadillac: The New Standard Of The World. It is also brought to you by the letters F and the letter C for completely cliche. This movie offers nothing original to the genre, the writing is filled with one liners. The plot and characters seem more like they come from serialized daytime TV dramas than they do from James Patterson. And the camera work is too stylized for its own good. I don't know if I can find one redeemable moment from this movie but I will do my best. Tyler Perry tries to step outside of his usual comfort zone and perform to a much broader audience but the product that comes out is far beyond his control of anything close to bearable.
Some of you may remember Alex Cross from the Morgan Freeman movies "Kiss The Girls" and "Along Came A Spider." In "Alex Cross" he plays a younger version of the character. One that got his start in Detroit before moving to Washington D.C. to become a renowned profiler. Tyler Perry seems to be a natural pick for the movie, he has a huge following and one would hope that a movie like this could supply him with a broader audience. There just wasn't much for him to grab onto with this role and for that his potential big push for more on-scene roles without the Madea suit may be put on hold.
The story can't get anymore simple. It is brilliant cop vs. a sadistic killer. The story seems more along the lines of an episode of CSI than anything else. The story has almost every cliche cop moment in there. There is just no depth to this movie. In his first walk through of the murder he is investigating he has the entire scene figured out. But we as the audience, unless you are familiar with the character, have no background to set this up. We are just supposed to accept he is brilliant and move on.
Afterwards come a series of awful one liners from partner Eddie Burns which helps us connect to his character. But he is supposed to be a little dopey so not too much credit can be given for nailing the one part that is supposed to seem simple. Then Cross goes back home to a family we have no emotional attachment to.
The entire movie is a paint-by-numbers cop movie, you know every role to the movie. As soon as Jean Reno walks on the scene you know he is destined for be a more integral part of the plot. Matthew Fox looks the part of a dangerous psychotic having underwent an intense diet for the role. Fox's physical transformation into the role was actually one of the things I was excited to see but as soon as he opens his mouth he seems as out of place as everyone else.
We are supposed to fear Matthew Fox and he shows how dangerous he can be in the opening sequence. But in an attempt to gain a larger audience they keep the movie to a PG-13 rating. So instead of seeing any of the violence you get highly stylized camera work that become more distracting than anything else.
The only moment that comes close to being surprising happens half way through the movie when someone close to Alex dies (I guess I should have said spoiler alert, but you're not going to see this movie so who cares). But there is just no emotional attachment so what should come off as a tender and possibly tear inducing moment comes off as forced instead.
Hasn't Detroit gone through enough, just when you think they are getting somewhere with Detroit making the World Series a movie like Alex Cross comes out and they will have to claim it as its own. Tyler Perry has no business being an action star and that is proven here. But what may be most upsetting about the whole movie is that they have already green lit a sequel. F
