October 19, 2012 in GENRES
ALEX CROSS
RYAN: Tyler Perry stars as Dr. Alex Cross. This is the reboot to Morgan Freeman’s Alex Cross films Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls.
KIM: I’m thinking it’s a prequel. I didn’t know going in, but in those movies he was in DC and in this one he’s deciding whether to go there.
RYAN: I actually liked this more than I thought I would.
KIM: Me too. The first half hour all I kept thinking was, “Madea’s a cop.” And then it just happened where I saw him as Alex Cross.
RYAN: He’s better in this than I expected to give him credit for. He’s not a great actor but he did a fine job. His body type is just a little oafish for this kind of role. He’s not that agile, LBH.
KIM: True. And the chemistry between him and Ed Burns as police partners was good.
RYAN: Ed was also an awkward casting choice so together they kind of worked, randomly.
KIM: It was odd but did work.
RYAN: Cicely Tyson and Carmen Ejogo were great. And Matthew Fox, hello! He was brilliant.
KIM: He nearly pulled a Christian-Bale-in-The-Machinist here. He got so skinny for the role.
RYAN: Skinny and ripped! And faux’tooed!
KIM: My God! He looked intense.
RYAN: He really became the role.
KIM: He looked creepy for sure.
RYAN: But it was appropriate! He’s playing a psychopath. I mean, this is the good guy from TV’s Party of Five and LOST and this role was a real stretch for him and he more than pulled it off.
KIM: He sufficiently creeped me out. And Rachel Nichols was also a cop in this. I remember her from season 5 of Alias. She was good.
RYAN: That was a good call. I didn’t recognize her.
KIM: That’s cause she was blonde in Alias.
RYAN: Ah. You know I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It’s 90 minutes. It’s an easy movie. It’s just that some of the script is farfetched. Alex is as intuitive a character as Sherlock Holmes, but when Sherlock knows something, you buy it, whereas with Alex, I was a bit dubious of his spotless instincts.
KIM: Honey, he’s the world’s best profiler! Meanwhile, the fight scenes were way too closeup and shaky cam.
RYAN: That’s happening a lot lately in movies. It’s lazy filmmaking. Even a scene at the police desk was shaky cam. Why is a scene about a phone call shot with shaky cam? That doesn’t make it an action scene.
KIM: They could have created the same urgency with good editing or music or something. The shaky cam is distracting. And I’m sure you noticed the egregious product placement.
RYAN: Totally! So annoying. You’re getting like me now, noticing that stuff!
— BOTTOM LINE —
KIM: I think it’s well worth seeing. It’s fun, action… the fight scenes weren’t perfect but Tyler was pretty good and I could even see them making a sequel.
RYAN: If it does well and there’s money to be made, yes. I’m on the fence between See It and Rent It for this one. Compared to other options out in theaters now – Argo, Looper, etc… this is not a must see. But for a fun, breezy, crime thriller, this is a good popcorn movie.
— RATING —