The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Alex
Cross serves as
a prequel to previous big screen adaptations of James Patterson novels,
Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001), where a
much-older and experienced Cross was embodied by the brilliance, also known as
Morgan Freeman. 

Adapted
to the screen by writers Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson, with the director Rob
Cohen steering the ship, Alex Cross unfortunately, fails to live
up to its predecessors.

The story
takes place in Detroit, Michigan where Dr. Alex Cross (Perry) – a psychologist
and a police detective – is busy taking down criminals alongside his partners,
Thomas Kane (Burns) and Monica Ashe (Nichols). 
Things are good for Cross; the crime solving is a piece of cake, his
beautiful wife Maria (Ejogo) is pregnant with their third child and the job
offer to become an FBI profiler looks like a done deal – he just needs to say
yes.   

While
Cross is busy living the good life, a ruthless and a nameless assassin (Fox)
decides to show up in town and take out several high-ranking business men and women.  Using a date-rape drug to
paralyse one of his victims, and his exceptional shooting skills to execute the
others, the assassin leaves plenty for Cross and his team to feed off of. It becomes personal, though, when
the
killer turns his attention to Cross.

Alex
Cross symbolizes
everything that could possibly go wrong when attempting to make a credible and
a substantial crime-thriller.  Cohen’s approach to solving crime seems rather hasty and no one is
given much time to study the evidence offered, including the cast.  The characters spend little time
scrutinising the clues before jumping into their RV’s on their way to confront the
predator. Everything comes just a little too easy and mystery plays no part in
this story, resulting in a few, if not a lot of, unintentional laughs. 

Unlike
the aforementioned films, who earned praises thanks to the incredible
powers of Freeman, the casting choices Alex
Cross are abysmal and
simply put, wrong.  Appalling dialogue
and not a single ounce of chemistry between the main characters provides a very
unfortunate finished product.

Perry, who is more accustomed to dressing up as frumpy women on screen, is evidently not accustomed to
carrying a film of this intensity. Overly melodramatic in his delivery, Perry struggles to express any sombreness or sincerity. Cross’ partners, Burns and Nichols – who involve
themselves in a very distracting subplot – fail on all accounts. In the role of
the mad killer, Fox is surprisingly good. 
With his wild stare, twitchy mannerisms and off-beat delivery, Fox is the only one to
breathe life into his role.

The out
of the blue appearance and subsequent disappearance of veteran actor Reno
is another cherry on this badly baked cake.  

From questionable shot choices to the lazy make-up and stunt work, Alex Cross feels
strangely outdated. Zero character substance and a good deal of unintentional
laughs might make Patterson think twice before selling the rights to another of his books.