Alex Cross (film)

Alex Cross is a 2012 American crime/action-thriller film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Tyler Perry as the titular character and Matthew Fox as the villain Picasso. The adapted screenplay was written by Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson. This is the third film appearance of the character Alex Cross, the main character in a series of novels by James Patterson. Cross was previously portrayed by Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001). In 2010, Idris Elba was hired to play Cross but he was replaced by Perry. Filming took place in 2011. The film was released on October 19, 2012 in the United States and Canada.

Plot

Dr. Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) is a psychologist and police lieutenant who lives in Detroit with his wife, Maria (Carmen Ejogo), their children, Damon and Janelle, and his grandmother Nana Mama. He also frequently visits a prisoner, Pop-Pop, who is serving time for a murder. Cross knows Pop-Pop's uncle, Daramus Holiday, committed the murder and framed her, but she refuses to tell the truth. When returning home, he learns that Maria is pregnant with their third child, Cross considers accepting a job as an FBI profiler with a 35% pay rise, but fears Maria's reaction, as it would require them to relocate to Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, a man (Matthew Fox) participates in an underground ultimate fighting match, where he flirts with businesswoman Fan Yau (Stephanie Jacobsen). After brutally beating his opponent, the man is invited to Fan Yau's house. There, he sedates, tortures, and kills her. He cuts off all her fingers and steals her laptop.

Chief of Police Richard Brookwell (John C. McGinley) calls Cross and his partner, Tommy Kane (Edward Burns), to the crime scene. On the way there, Cross tells Kane about Maria's pregnancy and the FBI's offer, and correctly guesses that Kane is secretly dating their colleague, Monica Ashe (Rachel Nichols). Investigating Yau's murder, Cross deduces that the killer is former military, specifically former Special Forces based on his tactics, and is a professional assassin. Cross finds a charcoal sketch left behind by the killer in the style of the artist Picasso, leading to the murderer being nicknamed after him. While examining the sketch, Cross deduces that Picasso's next target is German businessman Erich Nunemarcher (Werner Daehn). Cross, Kane and Ashe go to Nunemarcher's office, but he has his own heavily armed security and tells the police that he has no need of their help. Picasso, however, is already inside the building but is prevented from killing Nunemarcher by Cross, and escapes after being shot in the shoulder by Kane.

Cross realizes the real target is billionaire CEO Giles Mercier (Jean Reno). Cross informs Mercier that Picasso might be trying to kill him. Mercier tells Cross that he would have picked Cross, if he had not found out he was a target of Picasso. While there, Cross, Kane, and Ashe meet Mercier's assistant, who they deduce is a cocaine addict.

Later that evening, as revenge for their earlier interference, Picasso attacks Ashe, sedating and torturing her to death in her bathroom. Meanwhile, Maria and Cross go out to dinner to discuss her pregnancy and the possible move to Washington. Then, Picasso calls Cross using Ashe's phone. After sending Cross a picture of Ashe's mutilated corpse in her tub, Picasso taunts Cross to "psycho analyze" him. While Cross interrogates him, Picasso pulls out a sniper rifle and aims at Cross, revealing he is close by. After seeing Maria, Picasso switches targets. Cross continues to taunt Picasso with questions, and Picasso reveals that he is nearby by telling Cross that he (Picasso) can't take him seriously with his blue floral tie. Cross realizes that Picasso is planning to kill him and looks around for him, but Picasso simply tells Cross that he has "a very pretty wife". Cross drops the phone and runs to Maria to block Picasso's attack, but is too late. Cross tries to put pressure on Maria's wounds, but is unsuccessful, and Maria dies in his arms. At Maria's funeral, Picasso sits in his car drawing a picture of Cross. He is disappointed that he was unable to give Cross the level of pain he hoped for.

At Cross's home after Maria's funeral, Picasso calls Cross to provoke him, telling him that he is responsible for Maria's death. Kane then finds out the drug, TTX, Picasso uses on his victims paralyzes but does not numb the body or knock out the victim, which meant Ashe felt everything Picasso did to her. Cross and Kane become determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. Cross has Detroit police take Nana Mama and the children out of the city, protecting them from Picasso. Cross and Kane break into the Detroit Police Department evidence locker, and steal two guns.

Later at a car lot, Cross blackmails Daramus Holiday to tell him where Picasso gets his drugs. Cross tells him that he knows Holiday killed someone with the gun he and Kane stole and framed his niece, Pop-Pop, for the murder. Holiday chuckles and tells Cross that he knows full well that there was more than one gun, Kane points a target beam at Holiday, informing they have both guns. Cross tells Holiday that if Holiday gives them the chemist, Pop-Pop will be let free due to the missing evidence. With the name and address, Cross and Kane arrive at a drug cook's hideout. After beating him, Cross demands that they see his security camera footage. Seeing the footage, Cross and Kane learn Picasso's car's license plate.

Cross and Kane learn Mercier is attending at a conference and fearing that this will be an opportunity for Picasso to kill him get Brookwell to clear the area. Picasso, however, does not need to be in the area as he fires a bazooka from a moving train, killing Mercier, his security staff, Nunemarcher, Brookwell, and several of his men. Cross and Kane chase after Picasso, and have Jody Kenbanoff (Bonnie Bentley), a fellow detective, trace the car to the Michigan Theater, which is now in a parking garage. Cross and Kane corner Picasso by crashing their car into his, stopping him but injuring Kane. Cross chases Picasso into the abandoned theatre, where they clash physically. During their fight, they fall through the crumbling theater ceiling. Cross manages to hold on to a beam but Picasso dangles from his belt. Picasso mutters "I... Made... You!", Cross then knees him in his face yelling "Die!" and Picasso falls to his death below. Kane arrives just before Cross loses his grip and other officers arrive and pull Cross to safety.

After noting evidence at the rocket attack, Cross deduced that Picasso's employer was Mercier himself. Having embezzled money from his clients, Mercier asked for Yau and Nunemarcher's help to fake his death and flee to Bali, and then hired Picasso to eliminate Yau, Nunemarcher and a double pretending to be the real Mercier. Cross is able to frame Mercier for drug smuggling by his addict assistant placing two kilos of cocaine near his favourite couch to avoid being arrested and informs the local police. While Cross and Kane observe through a Balinese officer's shoulder camera and a Skype call, Mercier is arrested for smuggling in Indonesia, where he will be condemned to death by firing squad. Having avenged Maria's murder, Cross decides to accept the FBI's offer and move to Washington with his family. Before he leaves, Kane reveals that he also applied for a job with the FBI. After expressing his hope that he and Cross will work together again one day, they part ways. Cross then walks up to the house and watches Janelle and Damon. Nana comes down from upstairs and tells the kids to make sure they have everything. She notices Cross, smiles, and adds, "You don't want to leave anything behind that you love." Cross gazes lovingly at his family, realizing that they are his reason to live.

Cast

Production

The character of Alex Cross was rebooted in 2010 when a project began development with a screenplay by Kerry Williamson and James Patterson.^[3] David Twohy was attached as director with the responsibility of rewriting the screenplay. In August 2010, Idris Elba was cast as Cross.^[4]

Towards the end of 2010, QED International purchased rights and the initial screenplay by Williamson and Patterson.^[3] By January 2011, Tyler Perry had replaced Elba in the starring role, and Cohen was hired as director.^[5] QED hired Marc Moss, who worked on the previous Alex Cross films, to refine the screenplay for Perry and Cohen.^[3] With a production budget of $35 million,^[1] filming began on August 8, 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio and lasted until September 16, 2011. Filming locations in northeast Ohio served as a backdrop to Detroit, Michigan, where the character works for the Detroit Police Department. After Ohio, filming also took place in Detroit itself for two weeks.^[6]

Fox developed an extremely muscular physique for his role as Picasso and lost most of his body fat.^[7]

Reception

Box office

Alex Cross was released in the United States and Canada on October 19, 2012. The theatrical release poster featured the tagline, "Don't ever cross Alex Cross." The Playlist at indieWire was critical of the tagline, saying, "It'll be impressive if anything dumber appears on a movie poster this year."^[8]' Summit Entertainment purchased distribution rights for the territories in March 2011.^[9] The distributor originally set the release date for October 26, 2012.^[10] The film opened in 2,539 theaters in North America and grossed $11,396,768, with an average of $4,489 per theater and ranking #5 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $25,888,412 domestically and $8,730,455 internationally for a total of $34,618,867, just below its $35 million production budget.^[1]

Critical response

Alex Cross was panned by critics and has a "rotten" score of 12% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 119 reviews with an average rating of 3.5 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox do their best, but they're trampled by Rob Cohen's frustrating direction and a tasteless, lazily written screenplay."^[11] At Metacritic it received a score of 30 out of 100 based on 34 reviews.^[12] Audiences, however, gave Alex Cross an "A" CinemaScore.^[13] The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Perry as Worst Actor.

Sequel

Prior to the film's release, it was announced that Double Cross would be adapted into a film with Perry reprising his role.^[14] Despite the negative reviews and failure at the box office, James Patterson and Tyler Perry are in negotiations for a sequel to be made. As of October 2014, no more plans of a sequel have been announced.

References

External links

• Alex Cross at the Internet Movie Database
• Alex Cross at AllMovie