From director Rob Cohen, a guy whom has been known for making a string of mediocre action movies, "Alex Cross" is the third film appearance of, you guessed it, Alex Cross, who is known as the main character in James Patterson's series of crime novels. At a pace of 101-minutes, Tyler Perry stars as the title character, a psychological police detective who can tell what happened in a crime, when did it happen, why did it happen, or how did it happen. Now, he must try to take down a psychopathic assassin, played by Matthew Fox, sadly following the tired and formulaic cop story. Not only unoriginal and predictable, but also painful and uncomfortable to sit through, "Alex Cross" is one of the very worst movies of the whole year. Although Tyler Perry is really trying his best to make something good out of this tired material, he sadly fails to bring a lot of charm to a character that was once portrayed by Morgan Freeman, and he sadly felt miscast-ed. Nothing god-awful or anything, I just can't take Tyler Perry seriously in a dramatic role, since all he does in his career is be in drag the whole time as Madea. But, hey, at least he tried! But, don't even get me started on Matthew Fox. Although he's a very talented actor and also tries hard in this film, he tries way too hard, going way over-the-top, in one of the most unintentionally laughable performances of the whole year. Edward Burns, Rachel Wilson, Cicely Tyson, Jean Reno, and Giancarlo Esposito, all star in the supporting cast, given literally nothing to say or do than just read lines from such a horrendous script. Luckily most of these actors have higher talent than these writers, and they are really trying their best. Sappy and melodramatic moments, childish writing, over-the-top performances, and unoriginal story might have been enough, but the main problem of the whole movie involves all the action scenes, provided by director Rob Cohen and the cinematographer. Horribly directed and filmed, the action scenes left me uninterested, but most of all, it gave my brain a major meltdown. Delivered with some of the worst use of shaky-cam, it feels more like the camera-man is literally shaking the camera back and forth, which I bet actually happened. The scenes are all over the place, totally inconsistent, and Rob Cohen should stop making action movies! Generic, bland, inconsistent, sappy, over-the-top, and annoying are the perfect verbs, nouns, or adjectives to describe my hate for this film. But, if I had to correct anything to make this a good movie, I would have casted Idris Elba as Alex Cross, have very talented writers known for making very good cop movies, and a director who takes these films very seriously. Sadly, this movie doesn't give us any of that. "Alex Cross", in my review, "waste of potential, formulaic and indulgent".
Review of Alex Cross
