Alex Cross
10.19.2012 | By Jack Rico |
‘Alex Cross’ is one of the worst films of 2012. Between the stiff and unconvincing acting by most of the pedestrian B cast (in particular some of the villains), the second rate tacky special effects and the embarrassingly laughable delivery of the dialogue, one has to really question who is the person that gives the okay for these films to be released?
Based on the worldwide best-selling novels by James Patterson, this prequel to ‘Kiss the Girls’ (1997) and ‘Along Came a Spider’ (2001) starring Morgan Freeman, has homicide detective/psychologist Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) meeting his match in a serial killer (Matthew Fox). The two face off in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, but when the mission gets personal, Cross is pushed to the edge of his moral and psychological limits.
Tyler Perry, mostly known for the Madea series of comedy dramas, is not an action star, at least not the conventional one that Hollywood is used manufacturing. To the naked eye, most would question and ponder why he’s the lead on this action thriller. Truth be told, James Patterson himself said to Perry that he resembles the fictional character the most. Now I know why Perry thought he could pull this off. Nevertheless, Perry has a massive following that makes him a valuable commodity to producers who are counting on them to generate an abundance of cash at the box office. It’s an experiment/risk that could end up being very profitable, but not very exalted by critics and those outside of his devout supporters.
To spend money on ‘Alex Cross’ is just throwing it away. The thrills are minimal to nonexistent, the cast as a whole isn’t very good (except for Matthew Fox who if he had toned it down a notch would have been memorable and Long Island guy Ed Burns who has mastered the Irish wise-cracking cop down to a science) and everything else takes itself WAY too seriously for its own good. There’s nothing in this movie that can garner a sequel, except high box office numbers. Can Tyler Perry do it? He just might and I think I’ll be disintegrating it when the time comes again.
