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Alex Cross

  • 2012
  • PG-13
  • 1h 41m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
36K
YOUR RATING
Matthew Fox and Tyler Perry in Alex Cross (2012)
After Washington DC detective Alex Cross is told that a family member has been murdered, he vows to track down the killer. He soon discovers that she was not his first victim and that things are not what they seem.
Play trailer2:28
14 Videos
41 Photos
Serial KillerActionCrimeMysteryThriller

A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled hired killer who specializes in torture and pain.A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled hired killer who specializes in torture and pain.A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled hired killer who specializes in torture and pain.

  • Director
    • Rob Cohen
  • Writers
    • Marc Moss
    • Kerry Williamson
    • James Patterson
  • Stars
    • Tyler Perry
    • Matthew Fox
    • Rachel Nichols
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.2/10
    36K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Rob Cohen
    • Writers
      • Marc Moss
      • Kerry Williamson
      • James Patterson
    • Stars
      • Tyler Perry
      • Matthew Fox
      • Rachel Nichols
    • 196User reviews
    • 204Critic reviews
    • 30Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 4 nominations total

    Videos14

    Exclusive Debut
    Trailer 2:28
    Exclusive Debut
    Alex Cross
    Trailer 2:29
    Alex Cross
    Alex Cross
    Trailer 2:29
    Alex Cross
    Alex Cross: You're In My Way
    Clip 0:52
    Alex Cross: You're In My Way
    Alex Cross: Her Heart Just Stopped
    Clip 0:44
    Alex Cross: Her Heart Just Stopped
    Alex Cross: Dig Two Graves
    Clip 0:55
    Alex Cross: Dig Two Graves
    Alex Cross: Drop The Gun Now
    Clip 1:03
    Alex Cross: Drop The Gun Now

    Photos41

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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Tyler Perry
    Tyler Perry
    • Alex Cross
    Matthew Fox
    Matthew Fox
    • Picasso
    Rachel Nichols
    Rachel Nichols
    • Monica Ashe
    Edward Burns
    Edward Burns
    • Thomas Kane
    Jean Reno
    Jean Reno
    • Giles Mercier
    Carmen Ejogo
    Carmen Ejogo
    • Maria Cross
    Cicely Tyson
    Cicely Tyson
    • Nana Mama
    John C. McGinley
    John C. McGinley
    • Captain Richard Brookwell
    Werner Daehn
    Werner Daehn
    • Erich Nunemacher
    Yara Shahidi
    Yara Shahidi
    • Janelle Cross
    Sayeed Shahidi
    Sayeed Shahidi
    • Damon Cross
    Bonnie Bentley
    Bonnie Bentley
    • Detective Jody Klebanoff
    Stephany Jacobsen
    Stephany Jacobsen
    • Fan Yau Lee
    • (as Stephanie Jacobsen)
    Giancarlo Esposito
    Giancarlo Esposito
    • Daramus Holiday
    Chad Lindberg
    Chad Lindberg
    • Chemist
    Simenona Martinez
    Simenona Martinez
    • Pop Pop Jones
    Jessalyn Wanlim
    Jessalyn Wanlim
    • Paramita Megawati
    Trick-Trick
    Trick-Trick
    • Fight Manager
    • (as Christian Mathis)
    • Director
      • Rob Cohen
    • Writers
      • Marc Moss
      • Kerry Williamson
      • James Patterson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews196

    5.236.4K
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    Featured reviews

    4lnvicta

    Convincing performances by Perry and Fox prevent Alex Cross from being completely unwatchable.

    It's not hard to figure out what's wrong with this movie. Skeptics may think Tyler Perry was a bad choice to fill in a young Morgan Freeman's shoes, but he was fine in the role. Plus, Matthew Fox as a psychopathic skinhead assassin is a lot of fun. Where the movie fails is in its haphazard direction, bland writing, and godawful editing. It's amazing the actors were able to recite this dialogue with a straight face.

    The story of Alex Cross is a simple murder mystery: Alex Cross and his partner investigate a brutal crime scene and discover that they're after a professional killer referred to as Picasso. Things get personal and Cross plans to seek his revenge once and for all - standard crime thriller plot. The problem is when the characters start talking to each other. Honestly, it's laughable how bad some of this dialogue is, especially between Cross and his family. They throw in these "emotional" scenes to break up the action but all they do is make for a really awkward paced movie. It would be passable if the dialogue actually moved the plot forward or added depth to the characters but they don't, at all. There are some subplots that are introduced and never brought up again, e.g. Alex Cross becoming an FBI agent. What was the point of even including that?

    The main reason to watch this movie is for Matthew Fox. He plays a sadist who is "fascinated by pain." Not very original but who cares, it's Matthew Fox playing a 130 pound unhinged lunatic. The scenes in which we see him doing his job - stalking his targets, infiltrating their houses, taking out their body guards and whatnot - are the most interesting parts of the movie. He's the only character given a clear cut motive and enough development to make him a passable antagonist.

    Unfortunately, Perry isn't given nearly as much to work with. He's a generic detective with the name Alex Cross who acts as a poor man's Sherlock Holmes. His whole objective is to get into the mind of this madman while trying to maintain a steady family life, but instead of weaving tension between these two factors and having them play off one another, the writer/director think it's more effective to jump from one setting to another with no momentum building or rising tension whatsoever. Also, there wasn't enough psychological warfare between Cross and Picasso for there to be a compelling hero-villain dynamic. They try to do that in a couple scenes, but it's so poorly written that you don't believe a word of it.

    The lack of good characters and dialogue would almost be forgivable if the action was excellent, but unfortunately that is not the case. The action scenes consist of shaky cam galore, constant jump cuts, and incomprehensible choreography. The climax of this movie, if you can even call it that, is a horrifically edited nightmare. You can hardly make out what's going, and once it ends you're just like, "Okay. Is that it?"

    Again, the leads save this movie from being a total bomb. I was admittedly entertained for a good portion of the movie despite its stupid dialogue. None of it is inventive or new; it's just your run-of-the-mill murder mystery that is low on thrills and high on cheese. It's worth a one time watch if it's on TV or something, but the main thing you'll remember from Alex Cross is the criminally wasted talent.
    6Cunnilingilator

    Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox are the best part 6/10

    I have not ready the books or seen either of the previous films. Also I have only seen parts of Tyler Perry's other movies and that was enough to let me know I didn't want to watch any more. That being said, I felt that Tyler Perry's performance was very believable and very different than what I was expecting. At points in the film he is a bad-ass (albeit a bit overweight, but hey not all heroes hit the treadmill) and at others he is quite likable. He has some some quick and funny dialogue that he looked very at home with. All in all I now believe he is a pretty decent actor especially when comparing to his other "characters."

    Matthew Fox plays an intense dude. Check out the images section to see what I'm talking about. He plays the insanity factor pretty hard and at times feels like he is nearing the "full retard" line but he never quite jumps the shark. It's sort of hit and miss. At times it's extremely effective and at others it seems a bit overdone. As a whole, pretty effective, and definitely crazy.

    I liked Edward Burns as Alex's partner and Rachel Nicols as the third in their team. I was disappointed with basically everything else in the movie. Acting was for the rest of the characters pretty downright bad (with the exception of Dr. Cox who was acceptable). The stunts, aside from a cool fight scene in a business office, were pretty lame. The cinematography was average. The script was too heavy handed and convenient. The dialogue was good but the situations were not so much. It sort of felt like they were trying too hard to be gritty and raw.

    Seriously though Tyler Perry is BY FAR better than you are expecting. Go see it just to have your perception of him shattered a bit.
    4Troy_Campbell

    Mediocre entertainment.

    Adapted from James Patterson's pulp novel 'Cross', this cat-and-mouse action flick more closely resembles an extended episode of 'NCIS' or 'Law and Order' than it does a fully-fledged feature film. The episodic narrative and say-everything-I'm-thinking dialogue destroys all subtlety and intelligence this may have had, whilst Rob Cohen's murky, in-your-face direction is over-zealous, distracting and at times makes it difficult to decipher what's actually going on in the action sequences. Tyler Perry is hugely popular in the States thanks to his dumbed-down, cross-dressing comedy output, but he goes full serious here to mixed results. Perry's not a complete dud yet is easily out-acted by Matthew Fox, whose psychotic serial killer – replete with twitches, tics and crazy eyes – is fun to watch and elevates this from total boredom to mediocre entertainment.
    5freshclean-66-318608

    Good, but still way below Morgan Freeman standards.

    I just got through seeing Alex Cross. It was a good enough movie to pay the $5.75 matinée price. The movie had decent action scenes, which is totally out of the norm for Tyler Perry, that kept me entertained. The acting in this movie was pretty good and Tyler Perry himself did do a pretty good job with his part especially being that this is his first action roll. But with all that being said I still can see why Morgan Freeman turned the roll down. This movie was kind of predictable. I was telling my wife what was going to happen in the movie and I hadn't seen this movie before hand, done any research on this movie nor have I heard anyone talking about pieces of the movie. Now I've seen some of Tyler Perry's movies and those ones I have seen is what keeps me from watching his other movies, but this one, although he didn't make this one, is better than anything else he played in. Except Why Did I Get Married. So If you're not doing anything on a Sunday afternoon and want to see a little action and a little suspense it's O.K. to go and see this one.
    5Viscontifan-1

    good offering for Mystery Science Theater 3000

    Aside from the acting, directing, casting, cinematography, cutting, special effects, and script there was nothing wrong with this film. I've read a half dozen James Patterson novels and they go fine with a domestic, factory made, mass produced (like his books) beer if you just want to kill time in a deck chair. It took a couple hits of Old Crow to get through this turkey, however. Prepare yourself, if you dare, for an embarrassingly clichéd and stereotypical performance by Cicely Tyson as Alex's mother, Giancarlo Esposito caricaturing himself, and a painful more than laughable attempt at Pulp Fiction style banter by Tyler Perry and Ed Burns (who doesn't even measure up to Edd Byrnes' level of mediocrity). We are also "treated" to another "man flying through the air from a bomb blast and emerging unscathed from the fireball" fantasy so prevalent in trashy American films (compare this bit to the Polish miniseries "Wataha" to see what a blast would really do). In sharp contrast to the rest of this schlock, however, is Mathew Fox's riveting and inspired performance as an assassin. Truly creepy and worth seeing even if you have to watch the rest of this Amateur Night at the Movies offering (hence 4 stars rather than one). For a similar plot, similar dénoument, and similar psycho assasin (Snake, in this case), but done with talent, artistry, and skill, check out Golgo 13: The Professional (1983).

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    Related interests

    Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in Se7en (1995)
    Serial Killer
    Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)
    Action
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      There are references in the novel "Cross" to both Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry. The reference to Freeman may be homage to his role as Alex Cross in Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001).
    • Goofs
      Fan Yau Lee's dossier states that she received an MBA from a university in Shanghai, China and was then awarded a "Rhodes Scholarship". Rhodes Scholarships are awarded to deserving individuals from fourteen specified geographic constituencies. Mostly, these geographic constituencies are present or former commonwealth countries of the United Kingdom. None of them are in China.
    • Quotes

      Picasso: Confucius said, "When setting off on a path of revenge, dig two graves."

      Alex Cross: That's fine with me as long as you're in one of them.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Big Review: Fall Trailer Park (2012)
    • Soundtracks
      All Our Secrets Are the Same
      Written by Rob Cohen (as Rob Cashulin), Randy Edelman, and Jackie DeShannon

      Performed by Jackie DeShannon

      On Camera Piano Solo by Yara Shahidi

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    FAQ20

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    • Is this film based on a book?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 19, 2012 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Alex Cross: en la mente del asesino
    • Filming locations
      • Bali, Indonesia
    • Production companies
      • Block / Hanson
      • James Patterson Entertainment
      • Emmett/Furla Oasis Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $35,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $25,888,412
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,396,768
      • Oct 21, 2012
    • Gross worldwide
      • $34,618,867
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 41m(101 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Datasat
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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