Review of Alex Cross (2012) by David D — 26 Feb 2014

Tyler Perry has come a long way from playing his signature character Madea in countless movies ("Diary of a Mad Black Woman", "Madea's Family Reunion", and "Madea's Witness Protection", to name just a few)! I guess his guest appearance as Admiral Barnett in 2009's "Star Trek" gave him a taste of playing roles that he did not create himself.

Here, he takes over the lead role of Alex Cross, previously played by outstanding actor Morgan Freeman in two films ("Kiss The Girls" in 1997 and "Along Came A Spider" in 2001). Perry is no Freeman but he does a pretty good job playing James Patterson's character (this movie is based on Patterson's novel "Cross").

Detective/psychologist Alex Cross and his team are on the trail of a professional killer (Matthew Fox, in a surprising turn as a psycho) who enjoys torturing his victims before killing them. They're able to prevent him from killing his second target, which enrages the psychotic hitman, and goes after Cross and his team.

I won't give away too much but there's tragedy and revenge which occurs in the last third of the film. At first, I was jokingly expecting that Perry would spot a grey wig and dress and have Medea go after the killer (which would have been pretty damn funny).

But, he turns in a fine performance here as Cross. Matthew Fox (ABC's "Lost") sheds his nice guy act as the unnamed killer. Unfortunate box office numbers (the film came 3 million dollars from making its budget back) and negative critic reviews may prevent Perry from playing Cross in the next film, but there is already buzz that he may return.

If that happens, I'll be seeing that one, too!!