Alex Cross
(USA, 104 min.)
Dir. Rob Cohen, Writ. Marc Moss, Kerry Williamson
Starring: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Edward Burns, Rachel
Nichols, Jean Reno, Carmen Ejogo, and Cicely Tyson.
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| Courtesy of eOne Films |
After seeing Silver
Linings Playbook on Monday, I remarked once again what an excellent year it’s
been for movies. “There’s been one great film after another!” I exclaimed. However,
I might need to recant my statement now that I have seen Alex Cross. For every Silver
Linings Playbook this year, there has been an Alex Cross. While some film circles are yielding greatness upon
greatness, others are cranking out brainless trash ad nauseam.
Armed with a doctorate, which he must have got at clown
college, Detective Dr. Alex Cross is smarter than the average bear. It makes little
sense, then, when he throws good logic to the wind and becomes a shotgun-wielding
vigilante. This film follows the trend of most reboots and does a descent into
darkness, but unlike Batman Begins or
Casino Royale, Alex Cross backfires to the most laughable degree. It’s a film that’s
been corrupted by a decade of z-grade procedurals on TV. Alex Cross tries to show that it has bigger brains—the characters
actually remark how it takes more than forty-five minutes to get the job done. The
new Alex Cross is not the suave thinker he was before; instead, he’s a ripped
Rambo who plays connect the dots with convenient clues.
Tyler Perry throws away every shred of respectability he
earned for directing For Coloured Girls by
stepping into Freeman’s shoes to play Detective Dr. Alex Cross. Tyler Perry is
no Morgan Freeman. The disparity is not quite as bad as, say, a remake of Sophie’s Choice with Madonna place of
Meryl Streep, but Perry lacks the gravitas, timing, and presence to sell any of
the film’s convoluted logic or action. Perry is outdone by his co-star Matthew
Fox as Cross’s serial killer nemesis “Picasso”, who draws charcoal portraits of
his victims for reasons unknown. If Perry is out of his depth, then Fox is
indescribably bad, not to mention alarmingly gaunt. This film hardly demands
much from its actors, so the extra effort amounts to distracting vanity.
Picasso’s anorexia is another of the many things that go unexplained in Alex Cross.
Alex Cross, on the
other hand, hardly begs for logic. Scripted in a cut-and-paste job of clichés
and one-liners from Criminal Minds
and seemingly edited with a butter knife, Alex
Cross is a by-the-numbers cat and mouse thriller. It struggles to realize
that one plus one equals two, but the only pleasure afforded by the film is
watching how clumsily director Rob Cohen it rolls Perry along. Perhaps the silver
lining of duds like Alex Cross is
that they make us appreciate the great films even more.
Rating: ★ (out of ★★★★★)
Alex Cross is currently playing in Ottawa at Empire Kanata.
