So I just watched 'Alex Cross' (2012)

[chazraps]

Oh. My. Goodness. You guys...

[jagilki]

That good?

[Deleted]

Alex Cross makes Jack Reacher look like the Bourne Identity.

[triplethreatmark]

This thread is making want to see this disaster zone of a movie.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I'll never forget the first time I saw the trailer and just started laughing while thinking "..they're serious?"

[wakko]

It's actually not a bad movie. Sure the book is better, but putting their own twist on the book and ignoring the time delay of 14 years or so helped the movie. The acting wasn't bad and Matthew Fox looked pretty awesome.

[Crappler El 0 M]

What on earth possessed you to do that?

[chazraps]

Jan 6, 2014 2:15:19 GMT -5 wakko said:

It's actually not a bad movie. Sure the book is better, but putting their own twist on the book and ignoring the time delay of 14 years or so helped the movie. The acting wasn't bad and Matthew Fox looked pretty awesome.

No, it's a bad movie. A really f***ing bad f***ing movie.

Jan 6, 2014 2:16:58 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

What on earth possessed you to do that?

My parents are both huge James Patterson fans and had wanted to see the movie for months, but it never made its way to their OnDemand or Netflix. Due to the weather, my family's doing an impulse Christmas in Orlando this year and they saw the DVD on sale while Christmas shopping and I jumped at the opportunity to watch it at the end of the night with them tonight.

No spoilers, I'm going to try to explain how bad it is straight up.

The movies as if you showed somebody who has never so much as seen a detective movie in their life one detective film and the had them go make it.

I got no real beef with Tyler Perry's film endeavors, but the Alex Cross character works against any and all of his strengths. He has two emotions in the entire film, slightly annoyed and slightly more annoyed. There's two moments for comic relief, but they're in the middle of the movie's most tense scenes and just make the characters, as well as the film-makers, seem like callous assholes.

I went back and counted, and the supporting characters all have exactly two scenes. We're first introduced to them and given ONE character trait, and then we see them again much later after some tragedy and that ONE trait is revisited.

I can't tell if the dialogue makes the acting worse, or if the acting makes the dialogue worse. For instance there's a scene where

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Cross' wife, who is carrying his unborn child, is shot while sitting at a restaurant by an assassin. Cross is cradling her while she's dying in his arms and Cross says in a voice only two decibels up from librarian "Could somebody please call 911."

For Cross to be the absurd super-detective that his action imply, the tone of the film is unflinchingly serious, making the suspend-your-belief moments feel downright goofy. There's also the most un-necessary trite sentimentality so forced in the 11th hour that I feel it would have even be dialed back in a Madea film.

There's such a waste of talent in the film (Gus from "Breaking Bad" is in it) and the end makes the entire affair unsatisfying on every level.

It made me feel some type of way.

If you don't mind some spoilers, Roger Ebert's review is a pretty on-point take down of it.

Twenty minutes in, my parents even began cracking jokes on the movie. What's worse is there's an extra on the DVD that has Patterson, Perry and the director talking about the making of the film. It's the most pretentious DVD extra I've ever seen, and yes, I've heard the Requiem For a Dream director's commentary. If you do seek out 'Alex Cross,' it's worth watching if only for Tyler Perry explaining how, from an actor's perspective, Madea and Alex Cross are very similar characters.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

Surely they could got someone better to play Cross than Tyler bloody Perry.

[G✇JI☈A]

They could have gotten Idris Elba. They should of gotten Idris Elba.

Anyone that has watched the BBC series 'Luther' would agree.

[4real]

I liked it. But then I've never read the books so don't know the story that well.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Jan 6, 2014 3:15:38 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Jan 6, 2014 2:15:19 GMT -5 wakko said:

It's actually not a bad movie. Sure the book is better, but putting their own twist on the book and ignoring the time delay of 14 years or so helped the movie. The acting wasn't bad and Matthew Fox looked pretty awesome.

No, it's a bad movie. A really f***ing bad f***ing movie.

Jan 6, 2014 2:16:58 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

What on earth possessed you to do that?

My parents are both huge James Patterson fans and had wanted to see the movie for months, but it never made its way to their OnDemand or Netflix. Due to the weather, my family's doing an impulse Christmas in Orlando this year and they saw the DVD on sale while Christmas shopping and I jumped at the opportunity to watch it at the end of the night with them tonight.

No spoilers, I'm going to try to explain how bad it is straight up.

The movies as if you showed somebody who has never so much as seen a detective movie in their life one detective film and the had them go make it.

I got no real beef with Tyler Perry's film endeavors, but the Alex Cross character works against any and all of his strengths. He has two emotions in the entire film, slightly annoyed and slightly more annoyed. There's two moments for comic relief, but they're in the middle of the movie's most tense scenes and just make the characters, as well as the film-makers, seem like callous assholes.

I went back and counted, and the supporting characters all have exactly two scenes. We're first introduced to them and given ONE character trait, and then we see them again much later after some tragedy and that ONE trait is revisited.

I can't tell if the dialogue makes the acting worse, or if the acting makes the dialogue worse. For instance there's a scene where

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Cross' wife, who is carrying his unborn child, is shot while sitting at a restaurant by an assassin. Cross is cradling her while she's dying in his arms and Cross says in a voice only two decibels up from librarian "Could somebody please call 911."

For Cross to be the absurd super-detective that his action imply, the tone of the film is unflinchingly serious, making the suspend-your-belief moments feel downright goofy. There's also the most un-necessary trite sentimentality so forced in the 11th hour that I feel it would have even be dialed back in a Madea film.

There's such a waste of talent in the film (Gus from "Breaking Bad" is in it) and the end makes the entire affair unsatisfying on every level.

It made me feel some type of way.

If you don't mind some spoilers, Roger Ebert's review is a pretty on-point take down of it.

Twenty minutes in, my parents even began cracking jokes on the movie. What's worse is there's an extra on the DVD that has Patterson, Perry and the director talking about the making of the film. It's the most pretentious DVD extra I've ever seen, and yes, I've heard the Requiem For a Dream director's commentary. If you do seek out 'Alex Cross,' it's worth watching if only for Tyler Perry explaining how, from an actor's perspective, Madea and Alex Cross are very similar characters.

To be fair, Patterson checked out a long time ago.

[bigalbass86 AKA Smokin Vokoun]

Hey don't cross.......Alex Cross.


*shakes head and walks away*

[Crappler El 0 M]

Jan 6, 2014 11:29:10 GMT -5 bigalbass86 AKA Smokin Vokoun said:

Hey don't cross.......Alex Cross.


*shakes head and walks away*

Cause if you do...he'll get cross. You wouldn't like him when he's cross.

[trollrogue]

Jan 6, 2014 11:34:39 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

Jan 6, 2014 11:29:10 GMT -5 bigalbass86 AKA Smokin Vokoun said:

Hey don't cross.......Alex Cross.


*shakes head and walks away*

Cause if you do...he'll get cross. You wouldn't like him when he's cross.

"Imma crucify your ass, cause I'm Alex Cross bitch!" Actually that would've been a kickass quote, too bad it's not in the actual movie.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Don't mess with his brother, Chris either. He will make ya JUMP JUMP!

[mysterydriver]

Jan 6, 2014 6:44:30 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

They could have gotten Idris Elba. They should of gotten Idris Elba.

Anyone that has watched the BBC series 'Luther' would agree.

I remember reading that he was suggested but a Producer shut it down because he felt Elba was a good actor but Tyler Perry was world's beyond him in fandom and a franchise carrier.

[angryfan]

Jan 6, 2014 6:44:30 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

They could have gotten Idris Elba. They should of gotten Idris Elba.

Anyone that has watched the BBC series 'Luther' would agree.

Elba would be great, though he'd have to tune down the grittiness just a hair.

Hell, look at who they've had play Alex Cross in the past? Morgan God Damn Freeman played him and so now we get Tyler Perry?

[Danimal]

Morgan Freeman is great and worked if you didn't know the books. He's too old to be the guy in the books.


Tyler Perry did better than I'd have expected but still wasn't a good choice. As was earlier said Elba would've been better. I thought the movie as a whole wasn't bad, certainly worth watching on dvd or cable. Thing is it needed to be good enough to be worth paying crappy theater prices for, and it wasn't, which sucks because they obviously wanted to start a new series.

[Savage Gambino]

Jan 6, 2014 20:41:54 GMT -5 mysterydriver said:

Jan 6, 2014 6:44:30 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

They could have gotten Idris Elba. They should of gotten Idris Elba.

Anyone that has watched the BBC series 'Luther' would agree.

I remember reading that he was suggested but a Producer shut it down because he felt Elba was a good actor but Tyler Perry was world's beyond him in fandom and a franchise carrier.