A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled serial killer who specializes in torture and pain.
Directed: Rob Cohen
Stars: Tyler Perry, Edward Burns, Matthew Fox
What we think: Whoever decided not to recast Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross should be fired on the spot.
Freeman whose played the character twice already in the very good Kiss the Girls and the abject Along Came a Spider would have surely been the front runner here.
Instead they chose Tyler Perry, someone whose more famous for cross (no pun intended) dressing into the character Aunt Madea, alarm bells should have been ringing?
Alex Cross is loosely based on the novel written by James Patterson and focusses on the Detective come Dr as he goes head to head with a venomous serial killer called Picasso (Matthew Fox) who specializes in torture and pain.
Fox is practically unrecognizable as the softly spoken and all over nice guy Jack we were so used to seeing in Lost, here he’s a shaven headed psychopath with an exceptional physique.
Led again into false sense of security with a trailer that actually promised the goods yet delivered on little, I should have paid more attention to the reviews.
To say this film was miscast is an understatement, no one looked comfortable in their roles least of all Perry or Fox, even when the pair have their phone call tradeoffs it lacks in any grittiness you’d expect from a taunting killer.
Freeman brought a sense of depth to the character who given a decent writer and director would make for potentially a solid thriller.
Perry almost didn’t know what to do, maybe he’d have done a better job back in his trademark dress?
The story is disjointed, Fox’s Picasso runs about killing people and dismembering digits, and then has time to stop and compose some art and do pull ups. Meanwhile, and I have no idea why, the great Jean Reno turns up as some kind of shady, rich business mogul.
With a script from Marc Moss who was also responsible for Along Came a Spider, (those alarm bells should have been going off once again) and directed by Rob Cohen it unfortunately falls flat in almost every area.
Alex Cross is so full of plot holes you could have strained your pasta through it, an opening scene which just barely introduced the main characters and a serial killer who just doesn’t get dug into deep enough to even give a shit.
Let’s face it, how we can be left thinking that Perry could take down Fox with one arm after Fox dispatches an MMA fighter with relative ease at the start of the film?
Perry’s family moments felt like an episode of the Cosby show without the laughs, with Grandma Cross the most annoying of the bunch. When Perry is called upon for some proper acting he’s left wanting.
It’s a rather dull film, littered with inconsistencies and a disastrous script. If the character is ever called on again let’s hope that it falls into better hands.
View the trailer
Visit the IMDb page for Alex Cross
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