The Facts:

Synopsis: A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled serial killer who specializes in torture and pain.

Stars: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Ed Burns, Cicely Tyson, Rachel Nichols

Director: Rob Cohen

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 101 minutes

TMMM Score: (1/10)

Review:   When I heard that there were plans to reboot the Alex Cross films as a star vehicle for Perry, I shook my head ‘no’.  After I saw the preview for the film, I shook my head ‘no’.  Sitting down and readying myself to write this review, I can only shake my head with a mixture of incredulity and anger that a series with so much potential has yet again been squandered.  You see, while the first two stabs at bringing James Patterson’s famous detective to life were noble attempts that had their moments, this film is a piece of garbage not worthy of being mentioned in the same breath.

Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001) both featured Morgan Freeman as a wise detective up against various devious killers.  Freeman may have been a tad too old for the character but he added a grace and gusto that was needed as the transition from page to screen was made.  In reality, the novels have such a wealth of stories that a television series really should have been explored; it’s a format that would have served Alex Cross and his fans well.

When Freeman was done after two entries the character seemed kaput, until some genius thought that Perry would be the right guy to take another whack at it.  Wrong choice.  Perry has made a fortune off of his Madea films and other productions that are marketed one way but in truth are preachy messes that test the will to live of many audiences and critics.  As bad of a director as Perry certainly is, his acting is worse.  He’s so laughably out of his league here that one wonders if he thought he was in a comedy.  His unmotivated line readings and phony attempts at sounding concerned are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems Perry presents taking on this leading role.

To be fair, Perry isn’t the only offender in the acting category.  Pretty much everyone else in the movie sleepwalks through their roles – from Burns as Perry’s partner to lean and mean Fox as the killer that is seeking vengeance on Perry and his team for getting in the way of his work.  The only thing really scary about Fox is how much weight he lost for the role – his commitment is admirable but wasted in a film that offers no support for him.  Only Tyson, valued pro that she is, seems invested in what she’s doing and saying…but at times even she looks pained to say some of the incredibly adrift dialogue from Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson.

There’s so much wrong with the film, not the least of which is basic logic, timelines, and continuity.  Nothing makes much sense so if you must watch this try to appreciate it for Cohen’s direction which at least keeps things moving in an efficient way.  Cohen knows his way around an actor with limited range (he directed Vin Diesel in xXx and The Fast and The Furious) so the conclusion must be that Perry is beyond saving.

You know a film is bad when the best thing about it is the song played over the closing credits…and certainly “All Our Secrets Are the Same” penned by Jackie DeShannon, Randy Edelman, and Cohen is far and away the only redeeming point of the film.  I place the blame solely on Perry at the end of the day…his atrociously inept acting drags the film down at every turn…though Alex Cross lives on in novels it’s Perry that has put him in a cinematic grave.