User Reviews

Finally, a Tyler Perry movie that is actually funny. For those who don't know, however, Alex Cross is not meant to be a comedy. It's supposed to be a serious action/drama. With all of its cheesy moments, corny dialog, and doubtful plot points, Alex Cross misses entirely.

Alex Cross stars Tyler Perry as an expert detective who is about to embark on his most difficult case. The case is to track down a deranged psycho-killer played by Matthew Fox. Matthew Fox enjoys torturing people to death and playing mind games with the detectives that are on his trail. I would like to say more about the plot of this movie but sadly, there isn't much more to tell. It's that basic. You'd think a plot where a genius detective is facing an intelligent serial killer would have more complexity, but it doesn't.

There are a lot of problems with Alex Cross. For starters, the script may as well have been written by a thirteen year old. This is probably one of the worst scripts of the year. In order to buy this script, you just have to believe everything the characters say with no explanation. The character Alex Cross never proves that he's smart. The audience is just supposed to believe he's smart because other characters say so. Cross just throws out theories without backing them up and of course, they turn out to be right. For example, when Cross and his partner (Edward Burns) walk into the first handful of murders committed by Matthew Fox, Burns guesses that this must have been the work of multiple guys. Cross replies, "Nope. This was one guy." Does he bother to explain why he feels that way? Nope. In another example, Fox is on a train and Burns comes up to Cross and says, "You need to get in his head and think like him. If you were him, where would you be?" Cross thinks and then exclaims, "He's on a train!" Care to enlighten us on how you arrived to that realization Dr. Cross? The problem is, the writers clearly aren't smart enough to come up with ways for their characters to solve the case. Because this movie is so poorly written, it is unbelievably predictable. I'm no Alex Cross, but I knew exactly what was going to happen throughout the film. Literally, every scene can be predetermined by a first time viewer.

Not only is there terrible writing, but there was also terrible directing. Matthew Fox and Edward Burns are both very good actors, but they can't do anything under poor direction. Everyone in this movie is horrendous except for one person and that's Tyler Perry. I found this very surprising because I can't stand Tyler Perry's work and I thought he would be the worst thing about the movie. However, he is the only thing that can be considered somewhat decent in the movie. You can tell Perry wants to branch out but unfortunately, he can only do the best with what he was given. There were so many bad decisions made by the director. For emotion, he tries to add some family value by adding in an old sassy black woman as character. Thankfully, this character was not played by Tyler Perry. Another terrible idea was to have the camera constantly shaking because that's an action movie cliché that everyone loves (sarcasm). The camera was shaking during the most still moments. For example, the camera was shaking ferociously when, I kid you not, a woman was typing on her computer. Perhaps one of the worst decisions from the director though, was to throw in a twist at the end. Not only did he add a twist, but he made it glaringly obvious.

The only reason anyone might find Alex Cross appealing is because they get a kick out of watching bad movies or they really might enjoy seeing Tyler Perry try and do something different. Other than that, there is absolutely no reason to see this film. The acting is horrific, the dialog is idiotic, the action sequences are poorly choreographed, and the plot is 100% predictable. This movie is so bad, that you will find yourself laughing at moments when you're supposed to be either gasping or crying. D

I'm a big fan of the 'Alex Cross' series of books. I feel they've weakened a little in recent years, but was still glad to hear they were rebooting the movie series. The most exciting part of the books for me was always the villains, The Wolf, The Mastermind, Casanova etc. and how Cross would be effected by them and ultimately track them down and confront them. This was key to the quality of each individual book to me and I felt the first two movies 'Kiss the Girls' and 'Along Came a Spider' were a real let down in this regard.

So I was glad to my find myself captivated by Matthew Fox's portrayal of Picasso. His opening scene demands your attention and his screen presence never lets up from that point on. The other thing I was always going to be interested in was how Tyler Perry went at portraying Cross. For me Morgan Freeman has always just been Cross. When I'm reading one of the books I can't help but picture him. He brought a calm serenity to the role that helped define Cross for me and I felt Perry had this as well, at least for the first half of the film.

The film really shows us two sides of Cross. At around the halfway stage, Cross's pregnant wife is shot dead by Picasso himself. This enrages Cross and sends him rogue along with his partner Thomas Kane who also has had his lover murdered by Picasso. From this point on we see a darker Cross, willing to use any means necessary to enact revenge upon his wife's killer. Perry's performance gets even better from this stage on. He nails the intensity needed to bring the audience in on the pain and drive he's feeling to achieve his ultimate goal.

The problems lie in the writing for the most part. The opening and closing action sequences just don't have any imagination. The car crash that sets up the closing one is also bizarre. Are we just supposed to believe this was a complete coincidence? Or has Cross displayed superhuman timing to achieve this, risking his friends life in the process? Incredibly lazy writing shown at that point.

It's far from perfect. The actress cast as Nana Mama was done so poorly. She had none of the charm that the character in the books has. She just came across as mean. The twist right at the end is one of the most foreseeable I can ever remember. One scene, from a big name actor, that added absolutely nothing to the story at the time = has to be a twist that he was in on it. More lazy writing.

But for all its faults its a very watchable movie. Perry and Fox are excellent and the story is entertaining, if flawed. I certainly have no objections to more additions being added to the series.

I have read all of the Alex Cross books. I have seen the other Alex Cross movies....this "sham" is Alex Cross in title only. It's like Alex Cross in bizarro land.....his wife Maria is still alive (for a while), yet his daughter Janie appears to be around 9 or 10 years old, Damon is the younger child, they live in Detroit, his best friend and partner is a white guy; no Sampson???? The plot, the characters, everything is so far off from what it could/should be, I have to wonder if they used the title just to sucker in the many James Patterson fans. I was very sceptical of Tyler Perry playing Cross. I have to say that overall, he did a somewhat decent job. Fox was a great creepy guy. I think had they been given a better story, like maybe..um, Alex Cross to work with, and had the directing not been so cheesy,it might have been a decent movie.

I read several reviews of this movie before I went and I was expecting the worst movie ever, but for the first show price of $6, I figured I try it anyway. Overall, it wasn't as bad as people said. When I heard this movie was being made with Tyler Perry, I was so excited. Alex Cross is one of my favorite characters of all time.I had seen the other movies with Morgan Freeman, which I loved, but Morgan Freeman was too old and physically not the Alex Cross of the books. I love James Patterson's flair for bringing to life such a strong, likable, noble character. The Alex Cross of this movie was not that man. Tyler Perry's Alex was strong and likable and mostly noble, but he was not the literary character I love. Tyler Perry definitely had the feel for him, but the writing of this screenplay was terrible. I understand that by moving the setting from DC to Detroit, film makers gave a much needed boost to the depressed economy in Detroit. I applaud that. However, one of the key elements in Alex Cross's character is his devotion to the neighborhood he grew up in and its people. John Sampson is his best friend, and a black man. Adding Edward Burns' character made this more appealing to white viewers, I guess. Another change seems to be that Nana Mama is now Alex's mother, not grandmother and Janelle (daughter) is older than Damon (son). There were one or two other nods to the various novels, but different. Stupid little changes that Hollywood made, but it looks like James Patterson signed off on, if the JP Enterprises that produced this film is his company. I am glad I saw this movie. It was certainly better than other action movies in the last few years, but it was disappointing. I assume they'll make another one. I'll see that too probably since I am a fan of both Tyler Perry and Edward Burns. The best part of this movie, acting-wise, was Matthew Fox. He was so out of character as the psycho killer and almost hard to look at with his physical changes (weight loss, hair cut). He was downright creepy and his unique ways of carrying out his plans kept my interest. Go see it. Worth at a matinée price.

Alex Cross - fictional sleuth known for taking readers on excursions into killer's minds. Tyler Perry - personality known for making face on camera.

This film misses the whole point of the Cross stories. The public doesn't read or see Cross stories to watch Cross emote. We want to see him solve the puzzle.

Adolescent execution, the film tells us instead of showing us. We know Alex Cross is smart because all the other characters say so. We know the first female victim was brutalized because everyone says so.

I don't know for sure but this production seems to have Perry 's fingerprints on it.

Some of the action was choreographed well. In particular the rail car footage was well done. Moreover, the child who played his daughter stood out. Fox's performance was top rate.

Morgan Freeman has set a standard as Alex Frost that is going to be hard to beat. However, having said that, this shows Alex as a younger man still ready for a good fight. Although I have never thought of him as a young man, I guess this is what he probably would have been in his youth. And Tyler Perry has done a good job portraying a younger Alex. He can do more "rough work" than an older Alex is expected to do. I think Idris Elba would have been a more perfect replacement for Freeman. He's not as old as Freeman, but he's more in line with what I expect Alex Cross to be. In most of the books, Alex comes across as an older guy, so this doesn't really seem to be him. Again, this is a good movie...just not the character I expected to see.