Alex Cross
Alex Cross
PG-13 | 18 October 2012 (USA)
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Alex Cross, a genius homicide detective/psychologist is trying to clean up the mean streets of Detroit while keeping his family out of the line of fire. As he mulls over accepting a job with the FBI, he is told that a friend has been murdered and he vows to track down the killer. Soon, he and his team are forced to match wits with a psychotic contract killer, who displays a disturbing commitment towards seeing his job through.

Reviews
Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Off-da-Grid "Tyler Perry" ....really ?? Were the producers possibly on a drunken-binge for days or off-their-medication when they made this fatal error of choosing the "main" character ?? And this isn't even mentioning the writing, directing, and other characters. But choosing such an unworthy and a "bad choice' for the title role of the character that the movie is named after....is catastrophic !My choice would have been...."Idris Elba", then get better writers and a better director and "Cross" fans would have been a lot happier. ( and the movie would've also made a lot more money for these obviously incompetent producers).
Andrew Gold It's not hard to figure out what's wrong with this movie. Skeptics may think Tyler Perry was a bad choice to fill in a young Morgan Freeman's shoes but he was absolutely fine in the role. Plus, Matthew Fox as a psychopathic skinhead assassin? Hell yes. Edward Burns as Perry's detective partner? Eh, less convincing but I'll let it slide. The direction and the writing though... whew. It's amazing the actors were able to recite this dialogue with a straight face.The story of Alex Cross is a simple murder mystery - Alex Cross and his partner investigate the scene of a crime and discover that they're after a professional killer referred to as Picasso. Then things get personal and Cross plans to seek his revenge once and for all. Standard crime thriller plot, right? The problem is when the characters start talking to each other. Honestly, it's laughable how bad some of this dialogue is, especially between Cross and his family. They throw in these "emotional" scenes to break up the action but all they do is make for a really awkward paced movie. It would be passable if the dialogue actually moved the plot forward but it doesn't, at all. There are some subplots that are introduced and never brought up again. Like Alex Cross becoming an FBI agent. What was the point of even including that?The main reason to watch this movie is for Matthew Fox. He's playing a sadist who is "fascinated by pain." Not very original but who cares, it's Matthew Fox playing a 130 pound untamable psychopath. The scenes in which we see him doing his job - stalking his targets, infiltrating their houses, taking out their body guards and whatnot - are the most interesting parts of the movie. He's really the only character given a clear cut motive and enough development to make him a decent antagonist. He's also batsh*t crazy, did I mention that? Yeah, he's a lot of fun to watch.Unfortunately Perry isn't given nearly as much to work with. He's a generic detective masquerading under the name Alex Cross who acts as a poor man's Sherlock Holmes. His whole objective is to get into the mind of this madman while trying to maintain a steady family life, but instead of building tension between these two factors and having them play off one another and ultimately effecting Cross' personal life, the writer/director think it's more effective to jump from one setting to another with no lead-ins or relevance to what just happened or what is about to happen. The family scenes are cringeworthy, and even the dialogue with his partner gets really cheesy. I wanted to see more psychological warfare between Cross and Picasso. They try to do that in a couple scenes but it's so poorly written that you don't believe a word of it.Tyler Perry's acting shines in a few scenes. He's certainly a capable dramatic actor and anyone who says otherwise is talking out of their ass. Thankfully I haven't seen the Madea movies so I had no prior opinion of Perry but he won me over with this. Mind you, some of his lines sound forced and awkward but that's completely on the scriptwriters. It's just impossible to be drawn to the character, and you'd think with a title like Alex Cross that we'd get a deep look into the mind of the title character, but instead they spoon-feed us this cheesy soapy dialogue and the occasional battle-of-wits with the villain that isn't the least bit intriguing. Also, the climax of this movie, if you can even call it that, is laughable. The fight scene is probably the worst camera work I have seen in an action movie. You can hardly see what's going on half the time, and once it ends you're just like, okay. Is that it?Again, the leads save this movie from being a total bomb. I was admittedly entertained for a good portion of the movie despite its stupid dialogue. None of it is inventive or new; it's just your run-of-the-mill murder mystery that is low on thrills and high on cheese. Worth a one time watch if it's on TV or something, but really the main thing you'll remember from Alex Cross is the criminally wasted talent.
rps-2 I continued watching this movie with increasing disgust just to see how bad it would get. It did not disappoint me. This is yet another graphic (and bloody and violent and pornographic) example of the decay of American society. If they had made movies in the last days of the Roman Empire, they would have been like this. The film starts with a violent gun battle, moves to no holds barred bare knuckle boxing and soon is showing sexual scenes that leave nothing to the imagination. On top of all this, it is set (although only partially shot)in Detroit, that urban symbol of everything that is wrong with American society. Hollywood pours out violent, negative films like this, full of gun violence then people recoil in horror when an 11 year old boy brandishing a BB gun and believing that life really is as portrayed in the movies is shot and killed by police.
thelastplace I've been reading James Patterson for 20 years and have read ALL the Alex Cross books. This piece of crap was made for the money and no other reason. And from the posted gross, that didn't work either. First, the two previous movies were based on Alex Cross books, 'Along Came A Spider' and 'Kiss the Girls'. This was a made up story that is too predictable. Second, the partner, Thomas Kane, is NOT Cross' partner. He has NEVER had a partner except John Sampson. Third, Maria would have been dead BEFORE this movie, not in this movie. Fourth, set in DETROIT, not D.C. where it should have been set. I don't remember a single story where Alex Cross worked in Detroit, let alone lived there. Fifth, Cicely Tyson, as good as she is, was WRONG for the role of Nana Mama. Should I go on? If you love Alex Cross, stay away from this piece of garbage.