Alex Cross

When you make an action crime film please remember to connect all the dots so that we, the audience, can achieve some sense of the story line. The trailer was a slice of many of the best scenes but, unfortunately the real film falls so sadly short of good storyline due to poor dialog and some jerky acting that the viewer struggles to make sense of the various actors.

If this film had been prescreened (proof read) any average movie-goer would have pointed out just how poorly made it was. I sensed that Tyler Perry gave a over acted performance. I really wanted to like this film when it first came out but, it just was so boring and unimaginative I began to realize that it was due to faulty construction of scenes and character's dialog. This was mostly due to the director.

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).

If you think you might like this movie from the trailer...go see it and ignore the bad reviews...its a good movie. If this is the worse movie you seen - you haven't seen very much. As for being predictable - easy to say that- and there aren't many movies out there thats not a bit predictable. The acting was OK, yes it really was - some of the lines they had to deliver weren't the best, but that isn't the actors fault. The thing that keep this from being really good was the directing, camera work, and editing. It really reduced the quality of the movie. Often you will see a shaking camera during a action scene - we all seen that before - but this movie takes it too a whole new level of shaking camera...who ever decided to do this and edit it so badly -needs to take the blame here on this movie for it not being what it could have. But overall for me - last night after the football game, it was an enjoyable evening at the movies.

Although I have only given this movie a 5/10 I still don't regret watching it. There are simply a lot of better films out there. It was one I managed to get cheaper tickets for so perhaps that's why I am not as critical as others. I found it entertaining and I was fully engrossed in the story. I felt some of the acting was a bit ropey but then again I thought Matthew Fox was superb. He really did portray a rather scary character, very different from that of Jack in Lost. There was some rather cheesy and altogether cheap parts to the movie, but overall it was a good watch. I can understand why some may have given this film a very low rating, but for me I saw a lot of positives.

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.