Alex Cross. Rated M (violence and sexual references). 101 minutes. Directed by Rob Cohen. Screenplay by Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson.
Verdict: Mildly engaging but mostly brutal reboot that
fails to equal the sum of its parts.
James Patterson’s best-selling
novels about the fastidious detective and psychologist Dr Alex Cross have been
adapted for the screen on two previous occasions – Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001) – with the indomitable Morgan Freeman in
the title role.
For this brutal and patchy
reboot, Tyler Perry (Good Deeds)
takes over to match wits, insults and body blows with Matthew Fox’s (Lost) Picasso, a psychopath who is waging a gruesome
vendetta against Leon Mercier (Jean Reno), a rich businessman who plans to
redevelop a derelict Detroit.
