Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 13% (Critics) / 63% (Audience)
Directed By: Rob Cohen
Written By: Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson
Starring: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Edward Burns and Rachel Nichols
Studio: Summit

Synopsis: Alex Cross follows the young homicide detective/psychologist (Tyler Perry), from the worldwide best-selling novels by James Patterson, as he meets his match in a serial killer (Matthew Fox). The two face off in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, but when the mission gets personal, Cross is pushed to the edge of his moral and psychological limits in this taut and exciting action thriller.
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The Good:
The transformation (both physical and acting wise) that Matthew Fox underwent for this role is quite impressive. His Picasso is a very memorable movie maniac thanks almost totally to the way Fox reshaped his physical appearance into one of a gaunt, wiry wisp of a man with deeply sunk in facial features that sometimes made his eyes look like the cold black orbs of a shark rather than a man. Add to that a verbal tic and movements like a predator stalking his prey and Fox completely erases the very familiar actor fans came to know on the TV show LOST for so many years.

The Bad:
Aside from Fox the rest of this movie is absolute garbage. The main issue is with the casting of Tyler Perry. Perry never seems comfortable or fully engaged in this movie no matter what is going on around him. His line delivery is flat and lacking any emotional heft. Pretty much all of his lines are said in the exact same way whether its reacting to the news that his wife is pregnant, joking with his partner or threatening Picasso. The guy is just not a very good actor and his robotic detachment is a huge problem.
Also the storyline is preposterous with plot holes and leaps of logic that were sometimes dumbfounding to witness.

The Ugly:
There seemed to be a bit of a misogynistic vibe in this movie with none of the female roles being fully formed or even really mattering except as plot devices to move the male characters story along.

Final Verdict: ALEX CROSS is a not very good film that features a very good villainous performance that was desperately in need of a better hero to play off of. A different actor in the lead role could have gone a long way to mask some of the inherent problems with the movie and make ALEX CROSS, if not a good movie, at least a fun diversion for 2 hours.

Grade: D