‘Alex Cross’ reboot isn’t convincing on any level

Based on the James Patterson novel Cross, Alex Cross is a shoddily made, half-assed attempt to bring back the fictional character that Morgan Freeman portrayed in two previous films. After bad dialogue, the real problem is the miscasting of funnyman Tyler Perry, who’s really out of sorts here as Cross, a crime-fighting detective who has a PhD. and possesses the Sherlock Holmes-like ability to find clues where no else can.

It’s not that Perry, most famous for putting on women’s clothes to the play the crotchety old woman Madea in his own movies, is a crappy actor. He’s not an incompetent thespian; he’s just not suited to this role. That much is apparent from the film’s start when we see him in his suburban Detroit home, lovingly joking with his mother and wife. The guy’s a big softie and no matter how director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) would try to convince us otherwise.

When Cross finally has a close encounter with a crazed killer who goes by the name of Picasso (a slimmed down, practically unrecognizable Matthew Fox), we see what a miscast Perry really is. He doesn’t have the bravado, energy and physicality most action leads need and looks completely out of sorts when he’s running and fighting. (The action scenes are so poorly shot you can’t figure out what is happening anyway.) A later scene really reveals the extent to which the slightly hefty Perry is miscast for the role—it takes half the force to pull him to safety when he’s hanging from a hole in the ceiling.

Initially, Alex and his crime-fighting partner Tommy (Edward Burns, who too is likeable and miscast) think that Picasso wants to take out the wealthy developer Leon Mercier (Jean Reno). But once they begin their investigation, Picasso turns his attention to Alex and Tommy, killing some of the people most dear to them. Enraged, Alex sends his Nana Mama (actress Cicely Tyson) and family into hiding and sets out to take down the serial killer. The bad guy proves to be quite the professional assassin, staging an attack on City Hall that only Alex can possibly stop.

Set in Detroit but primarily filmed in Cleveland, the film’s switch and bait doesn’t work, especially since the filmmakers didn’t bother to change the street signs in downtown Cleveland to ensure they’d be consistent with a line of dialogue and the film’s Detroit-centric script. Too bad for everyone involved, this film is just a real mess.