Alex Cross (2012)

Directed by: Rob Cohen | 101 minutes | action, crime, thriller | Actors: Tyler Perry, Rachel Nichols, Edward Burns, Matthew Fox, Jean Reno, John C. McGinley, Giancarlo Esposito, Carmen Ejogo, Cicely Tyson, Chad Lindberg, Christopher Stadulis, Yara Shahidi, Werner Daehn, Jessalyn Wanlim, Bonnie Bentley, Ingo Rademacher, Sayeed Shahidi, Mark Hicks, Jeff Coopwood

With the film ‘Alex Cross’, director Rob Cohen tries something that Gary Fleder and Lee Tamahori have tried before: making a successful film based on the fictional character Alex Cross. Based on James Patterson’s books about this detective/psychologist, the films ‘Kiss the Girls’ (1997) and ‘Along Came a Spider’ (2001) were released more than a decade ago. In both (not very successful) films it was Morgan Freeman who took on the role of Alex Cross. Unfortunately, we no longer see him playing the lead role in this edition (Morgan Freeman is also getting a year older) and it is now the much lesser-known Tyler Perry, who plays the role of title hero Alex Cross.

After a quadruple murder early in the film, it’s up to Alex and his partners Monica (Rachel Nichols) and Tommy (Edward Burns) to solve the mystery. A life-threatening mystery, as it soon becomes apparent when they come face to face with the perpetrator. Because of the paintings he makes of his victims, this one is called ‘Picasso’ (played by Matthew Fox). After some detective work (Alex has a rather strange gift of knowing what happened upon arrival at a suspicious place without any logical clue) the trio learns that Picasso’s ultimate target is the wealthy Leon Mercier (Jean Reno). Soon ‘Alex Cross’ becomes a cat-and-mouse game between the detectives and the brutal Picasso, who gets a kick out of not just killing his victims, but first letting them suffer unnecessarily long.

It’s safe to say that ‘Alex Cross’ isn’t exactly a high-flyer in the action genre. Instead, it’s a lackluster and at times rather odd film. For example, the choice of camera angles does not turn out well. The action scenes in particular are (deliberately) portrayed in an incredibly chaotic and swaying way: the camera really swings in all directions. Especially during the later fights you almost get dizzy from this way of filming. The characters of the characters are very superficial and none of the actors manage to make a crushing or noteworthy impression. This is true for the ‘good’ characters, with Tyler Perry having little sparkle as Alex Cross, as well as for the story’s villain, Picasso. He’s a pretty vulgar serial killer, as we learn later in the film, and although he doesn’t shy away from violence, as mentioned, he’s not a bad guy that gives you shivers.

Yet despite the many flaws that the film has, of which the dialogues that are downright weak and leave you with question marks more often than they create clarity, should not go unmentioned, a film that is entertaining at times. The action itself is certainly not bad (provided you can accept the aforementioned cinematography) and of the many plot twists the film takes, some are quite well chosen. All this is not nearly enough to make ‘Alex Cross’ an above average film. At best you can describe this spy/thriller as a tasty snack for the starving fans of the genre. Anything more than this is too ambitious for this extremely simple display.