Alex Cross (2012) premiered in Egypt this month, a few months late of its US premiere. Often, I will walk into a movie blind, without glancing at the trailer, reading a summary of the plot, or glimpsing one of the many review aggregator sites that score movies. The film features famous Blaxploitation auteur and actor Tyler Perry (known for Diary of a Mad Black Woman and the Madea series) in the title role of Alex Cross, a Detroit detective and doctor of criminology, and a screenplay adapted from James Patterson's best-seller list thrillers, the Alex Cross series. Alex Cross seems like one of those movies worth taking a chance on for an afternoon of light if enjoyable mystery and suspense genre thrills. Alex Cross is a young, tough, and preternaturally observant detective with a young family and career ambitions to profile criminals for the FBI in Washington, DC. Alex Cross and his partner Thomas Kane (played by Edward Burns) Detroit's top homicide detectives are assigned to track a psychotic contract killer (Matthew Fox) after a murder-torture shakes the upper class of Detroit. The killer leaves Picasso-like sketches at the scene of the crime, and hints that he has plans to eliminate Detroit's leading business magnate Giles Mercier (played by crime film veteran Jean Reno). Alex Cross and his detective team give chase in a race to catch the killer and save Mercier, a philanthropist with plans to save the city. Even with its pedigree thriller background burns and ensemble cast, Alex Cross burns out before it begins; the movie is truly painful to watch, difficult to follow, and nearly impossible to enjoy. Alex Cross is anything but 2-hours of afternoon mystery escapism, instead this is a movie that leaves you wondering (instead of watching the movie) if anyone, the production crew, the director, the cast, realized what they were doing while they were doing it. Tyler Perry who stars in his first dramatic role gives a performance that is wooden, static, and below the standards of a late-night B movie. Writers Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson managed to ignore the two decades of brainy thrills offered to them by James Patterson's Alex Cross series, and instead created a script that is awkward and grating to listen to at nearly every corner. Director Rob Cohen did not seem very interested in helping either. The flic is choppily and carelessly edited and presented, and Cohen seems to be more interested in drawing from action/crime clichés and throwing them onscreen rather than creating something new, original and mildly fun. Do yourself a favor and do not walk into this movie. Bikyanews.com
