Alex Cross
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: October 19, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
30
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
16
Negative:
17
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
40
Total FilmKen McIntyreNov 25, 2012
Miscast and underwritten, Alex Cross does not reinvent Tyler Perry, or James Patterson's character, or anything, really. The only appeal here is the sick kick of watching a franchise blow itself to bloody stumps. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 23, 2012
Picture Alan Alda in the title role of "Dirty Harry," and you have a good idea why Tyler Perry playing a hard-edged cop in "Alex Cross" doesn't work. [19 Oct 2012]
30
Village VoiceEric HynesOct 20, 2012
There's not a moment in Alex Cross that doesn't function splendidly as comedy. Which means that for all his cool-cat preening and heroic soul-searching, Tyler Perry must have felt right at home. Read full review
20
Time OutBen KenigsbergOct 20, 2012
In drag or out of it, the soft-spoken star has rarely been less convincing than when locking and loading from his home arsenal or dangling from a decaying Detroit edifice. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 20, 2012
What a whorish film this is: Even the serial killer lectures the detective. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 20, 2012
In the face of such junk, the idea that Fox would proudly put himself on a punishing regime of severe diet and exercise to get prisoner-skinny-yet-crazy-muscled for the job of make-believe is vanity at best, obscenity at worst. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 19, 2012
The resulting film, despite its occasional outbursts of action and tension, is less an action film than a psychological thriller, although even there it fumbles the ball. Read full review
38
New York PostSara StewartOct 19, 2012
Aside from these curious role reversals, though, Alex Cross is a mess. Drawing on every conceivable '80s B-movie action cliché and treating its beleaguered female characters like pieces of meat (literally, in one scene of butchery), director Rob Cohen squanders a surprisingly recognizable cast on a half-baked plot adapted from James Patterson's series of novels. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanOct 18, 2012
Instead of playing the role in drag, the erstwhile Madea simply is a drag. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 18, 2012
Alex Cross isn't meant to be analyzed too deeply. The title character probably sums up the best strategy for appreciating the film's modest pleasures when he says, "Don't overthink it; I'm just looking for a bad guy." Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 18, 2012
There is one thing interesting about Alex Cross, and if you miss this, you've missed the whole movie. It's not the story - it's worse than mediocre. It's not the lead actor - nothing wrong with Tyler Perry, but as an action star he's no Vin Diesel. And it's not the dialogue, which has a clunker every other scene. It's the direction. Notice the direction. Alex Cross is a good example of what a seriously talented director can do with a heaping pile of garbage. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 18, 2012
Alex Cross is slipshod cinema hoping to capitalize on a star out of his orbit here. Read full review
50
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 18, 2012
Alex Cross is filled with accidental comedy, and while it's a mess in any traditional movie sense, it's has its moments of preposterous fun that come in the form of a nonsensical plot and a fabulously competent, scenery-gnawing villain. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 18, 2012
It neglects, for one thing, to make any sense. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 18, 2012
There's nothing in Alex Cross that argues another installment is warranted, but much will depend on whether Tyler Perry's audience crosses over and continues to follow him in this new, very different role. Read full review
25
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 18, 2012
Formulaic serial-killer crapola. Read full review
20
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 18, 2012
A grim, dispiritingly stupid waste of time, energy, money and talent. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 18, 2012
The best of the Alex Cross mess suggests that as an actor, he has the talent to move beyond the world of Madea should he want to. He just needs to look for much better material. Read full review
16
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 18, 2012
The movie is stunningly perfunctory, soul-crushingly oblivious to its own lack of originality, and, to be blunt, just plain dumb. Read full review
40
NPRMark JenkinsOct 18, 2012
It's a strange sort of film that casts Gallic tough guy Jean Reno as a clean-fingernailed mogul while employing cross-dressing comic Tyler Perry as a guy capable of hand-to-hand combat with someone called The Butcher of Sligo. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 18, 2012
Nothing works. Or some of it works, but that doesn't matter because what's working is so deeply, painfully boring. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 18, 2012
Though they lack chemistry as a team, it's gratifying to see both Perry and Burns stretching in ways they haven't before. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsOct 18, 2012
Where Freeman was warm but enigmatic, Perry is warm but empty. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 18, 2012
Director Rob Cohen shoots believable action sequences, too. Nobody jumps the gap between skyscrapers or falls 40 feet, then gets up and runs away. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 18, 2012
The sharpest five minutes in Alex Cross, by a considerable margin, belong to Giancarlo Esposito. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubMike DAngeloOct 17, 2012
Perry shifts into full-on badass mode... well, the best that can be said is that he's sincere. For all that, he's still less embarrassing than Lost's Matthew Fox, likewise cast against type as the film's sadistic villain. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 17, 2012
It's a courageous but misguided move on Perry's part; he has none of Freeman's soulful, nuanced subtlety, and watching him display the gamut of emotions called for in Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson's script is like watching the Hulk attempt Swan Lake. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 17, 2012
A disjointed thriller with two many characters rattling around. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondOct 17, 2012
Rebooting novelist James Patterson's famous Alex Cross character for the big screen, Tyler Perry aims at new cinematic territory and scores a bullseye as the Detroit detective embroiled in a hunt for a mega-evil killer that turns personal. Read full review
16
The PlaylistDrew TaylorOct 17, 2012
Alex Cross is more boring than your average weeknight procedural, except much longer, dumber and more violent. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 17, 2012
Perry must have felt it was high time for him to try his hand at playing a darker role. But starring in this badly directed, suspense-free film with its unintentionally laughable dialogue does Perry no favors. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChris CabinOct 17, 2012
Expositional and often self-serious to the point of genuine awkwardness, the dialogue is never as haltingly unconvincing as when it's attempting to give some approximation of Alex Cross's essential looseness and good humor. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 16, 2012
You almost feel sorry for Tyler Perry, stepping out of his own universe for the first time to try to expand his range and finding himself in something as thoroughly dismal as Alex Cross. Read full review
20
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 15, 2012
The cross-dressing "Madea" star seems out of his depth playing the hard-boiled detective made famous by Morgan Freeman in "Along Came a Spider" and "Kiss the Girls." Even action helmer Rob Cohen ("The Fast and the Furious," "XXX") seems to be off his game here. Read full review
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