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“Do you like nature, Dr. Cross?” a character asks the eponymous hero in this self-serious thriller.
“Human nature,” the detective and criminal psychologist fires back.
Directed by Rob Cohen, whose biggest hit was “The Fast and the Furious,” “Alex Cross” is filled with line-readings tailor-made for accompanying rimshots, or maybe “oohs” and “boo-yas” from a live studio audience. In the title role, Tyler Perry is encouraged to intone like a Sunday-morning preacher, around whom other characters shut up and listen as he gabs about souls and hell. The risible script is the work of Kerry Williamson and Marc Moss, the latter of whom also adapted 2001’s “Along Came a Spider,” the last shoddy movie featuring James Patterson’s case-cracker.
Perry has never appeared in a film he didn’t develop himself, and while he doesn’t necessarily flub his first trek outside the box, he’s headlining a vehicle that doesn’t much benefit anyone. Patterson has seen his novels’ film versions decline since “Kiss the Girls” in 1997, when the venerable Morgan Freeman originated the Cross role. Cohen has never made an exemplary movie, but he firmly cements his post-“Fast and the Furious” downswing. Matthew Fox, who’s a bit too zealous in his search for work after “Lost,” whips himself into solid, yet borderline-sickly, shape, playing a killer with crazy eyes and over-the-top tics.
So, if “Alex Cross” isn’t dreadful, it’s still a consummate downgrade, and it feels like a standard-issue actioner left over form ’93. What’s it all about? The usual stuff: An all-star policeman meets his homicidal match, and the proceedings boil down to a mano-y-mano showdown, which, of course, isn’t quite the true ending.
The movie’s only real relevance stems from its setting of Detroit, a broken city whose streets look no better in this tale of murder and decay. But “Alex Cross” has such little interest in anything beyond plot mechanics that pointing out points of substance feels preposterously generous. It’s a shame, because Cross has franchise potential in a biz where action heroes are whitewashed. Everyone, on screen and off, deserves better.
Alex Cross
PG-13
One-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Recommended Rental
Ruby Sparks
R
Available Tuesday
Real-life sweethearts Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan star in “Ruby Sparks,” the winsome and surprisingly daring sophomore film from “Little Miss Sunshine” helmers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Dano plays a struggling novelist who dreams up Kazan’s titular muse, and the couple’s love unfolds in a dance of witty, Frankensteinian developments. Kazan wrote the sharp script herself, and her artistic advancement is two-fold, as she also gives one of the year’s best female performances.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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