10 Disappointing Action Movies You Should Die Before You See
6. Alex Cross (2012)
In the first five minutes of Alex Cross, our eponymous hero (Tyler Perry, badly miscast) brings a criminal to justice, helps a wrongly-convicted brother on Death Row and gives his daughter a piano lesson, which we think were right in saying was supposed to establish him as THE GOOD GUY, even if he is being played by a transvestite. Seconds later, we meet Picasso (Matthew Fox) who in order for us to ascertain that hes THE BAD GUY, ties up, tortures and kills some chick he met at a cagefight. Anyway, Cross investigates and when he comes close to catching the sumbitch, Picasso takes it personal like and tapes the detectives photo to his mirror, stalks him when hes off-duty etc. Lot of subtle shading to this guy. In no way is he a caricature in a by-the-numbers cop movie. Alex Cross is hokey as hell, but it couldve been a great bad movie with a few tweaks. Put Ice Cube (or Coolio) in the title role, make Nic Cage the villain, dress them as penguins and tell them theyre making The Wicker Man 2: Electric Boogaloo and swish.instant cult classic. Instead, for such a high-profile effort, with such a large built-in audience, its all rather anonymous and forgettable.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
