Alex Cross

• Trailer
• Tickets

Movie Details

• Genre: Suspense/Thriller
• Release Date: 2012-10-19 Nationwide
• Running Time: 101 min.
• Director: Rob Cohen
• Cast: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Rachel Nichols, Edward Burns, Jean Reno, Giancarlo Esposito
• Producers: Bill Block, Paul Hanson, James Patterson, Steve Bowen, Leopoldo Gout, Randall Emmett
• Writers: Marc Moss, James Patterson
• Distributor: Summit
• Official Site: Alex Cross Official Site

The action-hero debut of a famous funnyman, the reboot of a neglected cinematic franchise, a strong candidate for dumbest film of the year--there are so many compelling stories surrounding Alex Cross. Alas, its actual script doesn’t offer one of them. Rather than a direct adaptation of any of James Patterson’s bestselling Alex Cross novels, screenwriters Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson have concocted an origin-story, serial-killer, revenge thriller, buddy-cop movie amalgam, introducing Alex Cross as a family man and mastermind detective for the Detroit PD who goes to war with a homicidal wacko (realized with clichéd gusto by Matthew Fox).Replacing Morgan Freeman, whose stately schtick graced previous Patterson procedurals Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls, is Tyler Perry, at last free of the fat suit. Much will be said of Madea’s transformation into a shotgun-toting badass, and for what it’s worth, Perry’s charisma largely carries him through, save for a few expressions of rage that look jarringly like the exertions of constipated defecation. But more notable is that director Rob Cohen has situated Perry’s dramatic coming-out party within the insta-camp milieu of 1980s chop-socky quickies, the kind that starred Segal and Van Damme. Cohen exploits Detroit's decay (or the idea of it, anyway-- the film was largely shot in Cleveland) exactly as you’d expect, staging implausible pursuits through urban catacombs and hollowed-out theaters, while positing whinnying Long Islander Edward Burns as a Motor City native and childhood friend to Perry. There's not a moment in Alex Cross that doesn't function splendidly as comedy. Which means that for all his cool-cat preening and heroic soul-searching, Tyler Perry must have felt right at home.