Review by Bob Ignizio
Detective/psychologist
Alex Cross (played by Tyler Perry, he of all those “Madea” plays
and movies) has observational skills that appear to rival those of
Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, his abilities have made him more than a bit
cocky, which leads to tragedy after Cross stops cold blooded assassin
Picasso (Matthew Fox) from killing his target. Cross figures the
killer for a professional primarily interested in taking out Detroit
businessman Leon Mercier (Jean Reno). He's not prepared when Picaso
makes things personal by going after Cross's wife Maria (Carmen
Ejogo) and Monica (Rachael Nichols), an officer on Cross' team.
Keeping the chain of cause and effect going, this sends Cross and his
partner (and best friend since grade school) Tommy (Edward Burns) off
on a mission of vengeance to take down the psychopathic hit-man.
This
isn't the first cinematic outing for Cross. Morgan Freeman played the
character in ALONG CAME A SPIDER
and KISS THE GIRLS,
but even if this weren't a more action heavy film than those two he'd
be too old to continue in the part. Perry does a good job stepping
into the role when he's in action hero mode chasing after the bad
guy, but he comes up short in more emotional scenes. When tragedy
strikes, there's nothing in Perry's performance that conveys genuine
grief. It's not that he seems numbed by events; he's just cold. That
may well have been the way it was written in the script, but one
can't help but think if Freeman were here, he'd at least have managed
to show his character's loss with an expression or in the way he
carries himself, knowing that the audience needs to feel that sense of humanity in
its protagonist.
As
for Fox, I'm not sure if his performance is technically “good”,
but the guy definitely swings for the fences. His Picaso is sort of a
leaner, meaner version of Robert DeNiro's Max Cady from CAPE
FEAR. It's hard to imagine such
an unstable individual finding employment as a professional assassin
where cool detachment is a necessary component of the job, but at
least he's fun to watch..
That's
more than can be said for the movie over all. The script is so
utterly pedestrian and the direction by Rob Cohen so bland, you may
find yourself wishing for Perry to put on his old lady drag to
dispense justice as Madea. That would at least have been a surprise,
and a hell of a lot more entertaining than anything in the actual
movie. Further hampering the fun factor is the undercurrent of casual
misogyny running through the film. SPOILER ALERT:
Every major adult female character in the movie (other than Cross'
grandmother, played by Cicely Tyson who deserves better than this) apparently exists only to die, preferably by horrible
torture, so they can motivate the heroes.
ALEX CROSS
is completely unoriginal and mediocre
at every level. The nicest thing I can say about the movie is that it
has the good sense not to go past the ninety minute mark. And I guess
it gets points for doing a lot of its principal shooting in
Cleveland, resulting in some Hollywood money being injected into the
local economy. If you're just looking to see some Cleveland real
estate in a movie, though, you're probably better off watching THE
AVENGERS again, or waiting
about a month for Ted Turner to start running A CHRISTMAS
STORY non stop on TV. 2 out of
4 stars.
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