''Alex Cross'' is a 2012 American

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Rob Cohen Rob Cohen (born March 12, 1949) is an American director and producer of film and television. Beginning his career as an executive producer at 20th Century Fox, Cohen produced and developed numerous high-profile film and television programs, inc ...

and starring

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmak ...

as the title character and

Matthew Fox Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on '' Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned h ...

as the villain Picasso. The

adapted screenplay A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

was written by Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson. It is based on the 2006 novel ''

Cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

'' by

James Patterson James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the '' Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', '' Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' ...

and is the third installment of the ''Alex Cross'' film series, which was considered as a

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of the series. The title character was previously portrayed by Morgan Freeman in '' Kiss the Girls'' (1997) and '' Along Came a Spider'' (2001). Unlike the previous films, which were distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film was released by

Lionsgate Films Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the larg ...

on October 19, 2012. It was panned by critics and audiences, and became a

box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

Plot

Dr.

Alex Cross ''Alex Cross'' is a crime, mystery, and thriller novel series written by James Patterson. The series focuses on Metropolitan Police Department detective and father Alex Cross as he faces threats to his family and the city of Washington, D.C. ...

is a psychologist and police lieutenant who lives in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

with his wife Maria and their children. After learning Maria is pregnant, Cross considers accepting a job as an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

profiler in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Meanwhile, a man participates in an underground fighting match and seduces businesswoman Fan Yau. The man is invited to Yau's house, where he kills her after injecting her with TTX. At the crime scene, Cross finds a charcoal sketch left behind by the killer in the style of the artist

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, leading to the murderer being nicknamed after him. While examining the sketch, Cross deduces that Picasso's next target is German businessman Erich Nunemarcher. Picasso attempts to kill Nunemarcher but is foiled by Cross, and escapes after being shot by Cross's partner Tommy Kane. Cross deduces that Picasso also plans to target billionaire CEO Giles Mercier. As revenge for foiling his attack on Nunemarcher, Picasso attacks Cross and Kane's colleague, Monica Ashe, torturing her to death. Picasso then tracks down Cross, who is on a date with Maria, and kills her with a sniper rifle. Picasso targets Nunemarcher and Mercier at a conference, killing Nunemarcher and seemingly Mercier. Cross and Kane track Picasso to the abandoned Michigan Theater. As Cross and Picasso fight, they fall through the crumbling theater ceiling. Cross kicks Picasso off the ceiling, killing him and avenging Maria. Kane helps pull Cross to safety. Cross deduces Picasso's employer was Mercier himself. Having embezzled money from his clients, Mercier asked for Yau and Nunemarcher's help to fake his death and flee to

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, then hired Picasso to eliminate them and a double pretending to be the real Mercier. After Cross frames Mercier for drug smuggling, Mercier is arrested in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, where he will be condemned to

death by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

. Having avenged Maria's murder, Cross decides to accept the job offer from the FBI and moves to Washington with his family.

Cast

as Dr. / Detective

Edward Burns Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director best known for appearing in several films including ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), '' 15 Minutes'' (2001), ''Life or Something Like It'' (200 ...

as Detective Tommy Kane *

as Michael 'The Butcher of Sligo' Sullivan / Picasso *

Jean Reno Jean Reno () (born 30 July 1948), is a French actor. He has worked in American, French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian movie productions; Reno appeared in films such as '' Crimson Rivers'', ''Godzilla'', '' The Da Vinci Code'', '' Mission ...

as Giles Mercier *

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

as Maria Cross *

Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...

as Regina 'Nana Mama' Cross * Rachel Nichols as Detective Monica Ashe *

John C. McGinley John Christopher McGinley (born August 3, 1959) is an American actor. His best known roles include Perry Cox in '' Scrubs'', Bob Slydell in ''Office Space'', Captain Hendrix in '' The Rock'', Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's ''Platoon,'' ...

as Chief Richard Brookwell *

Werner Daehn Werner Daehn (born 14 October 1967) is a German actor, who has worked with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson in '' XXX'', with Jason Priestley in ''Colditz'' an ITV1 2005 miniseries, with Bill Pullman in '' Revelations'' and with Steven Seagal in ...

as Erich Nunemacher *

Yara Shahidi Yara Sayeh Shahidi (born February 10, 2000) is an American actress and model. She gained recognition for her starring role as the oldest daughter Zoey Johnson on the sitcom ''Black-ish'' (2014–2022) and its spin-off series '' Grown-ish'' (2018 ...

as Janelle Cross * Sayeed Shahidi as Damon Cross * Bonnie Bentley as Detective Jody Klebanoff * Simenona Martinez as 'Pop-Pop' Jones * Stephanie Jacobsen as Fan Yau Lee *

Giancarlo Esposito Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series '' Breaking Bad'', from 2009 to 2011, and in its prequel series ''Better ...

as Daramus Holiday *

Ingo Rademacher Ingo Rademacher (born 22 April 1971) is a German-Australian television actor best known for his role of Jasper "Jax" Jacks on the American daytime soap opera ''General Hospital'', which he played almost continuously from 1996 to 2021. In 2012, ...

as Ingo Sacks

Production

A reboot film about Alex Cross character began development in 2010, with a screenplay by Kerry Williamson and James Patterson.

David Twohy David Neil Twohy ( ; born October 18, 1955) is an American film director and screenwriter. Early life Twohy was born in Los Angeles County, California. He attended college at California State University, Long Beach, graduating with a degree in ...

was attached as director, and was set to rewrite the screenplay. In August 2010,

Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor.

was cast as Cross. Towards the end of 2010,

QED International QED International is a Los Angeles-based independent film production studio, financier and international distributor. It is best known for financing and producing District 9, Fury, and Dirty Grandpa. History Bill Block formed QED Internationa ...

purchased the rights, and initial screenplay by Williamson and Patterson. By January 2011,

had replaced Elba in the starring role, and Cohen was hired as director. The production company, QED, set Marc Moss, who worked on the previous Alex Cross films, to refine the screenplay for Perry and Cohen. With a production budget of $35 million, filming began on August 8, 2011 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and lasted until September 16, 2011. Filming locations in northeast Ohio served as a backdrop to

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, where the character works for the

Detroit Police Department The Detroit Police Department (DPD) is a municipal police force based in and responsible for the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1865, it has nearly 2,500 officers, making it the largest law enforcement organization in Michigan. Histo ...

. After Ohio, filming also took place in Detroit itself for two weeks. The production office remained in Cleveland throughout production inside an empty portion of the old American Greetings Company Factory.

Summit Entertainment Summit Entertainment is an American film production and distribution company. It is a label of Lionsgate Films, owned by Lionsgate Entertainment and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. History Independent era (1991–2012) Summit ...

purchased domestic distribution rights in March 2011, and set the release date for October 26, 2012. The theatrical release poster featured the tagline, "Don't ever cross Alex Cross." ''The Playlist'' at

indieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

was critical of the tagline, saying, "It'll be impressive if anything dumber appears on a movie poster this year."

Reception

Box office

The film opened in 2,539 theaters in North America, grossing $11,396,768 during its first weekend, with an average of $4,489 per theater, and ranking #5 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $25,888,412 domestically and $8,730,455 internationally, for a total of $34,618,867, on a $35 million production budget.

Critical response

''Alex Cross'' was widely panned by critics and audiences. The film holds an 11% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox did their best, but they're trampled by Rob Cohen's frustrating direction and a tasteless, lazily written screenplay." At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film received a score of 30 out of 100, based on 34 reviews. Audiences, however, gave ''Alex Cross'' an "A"

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

. The film earned a

Razzie Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...

nomination for Perry as Worst Actor.

Cancelled sequel

Prior to the film's release, it was announced that '' Double Cross'' would be adapted into a film, with Perry reprising his role. However, the sequel was cancelled, following the critical and commercial failure of ''Alex Cross''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alex Cross Alex Cross (novel series) 2012 films 2012 crime thriller films 2010s mystery thriller films American action thriller films American crime thriller films American mystery thriller films American serial killer films American films about revenge Reboot films Films directed by Rob Cohen Films based on American novels Films based on crime novels Films based on works by James Patterson Films set in Detroit Films shot in Cleveland Films shot in Indonesia Summit Entertainment films Lionsgate films Fictional portrayals of the Detroit Police Department QED International films MoviePass Films films Films scored by John Debney Films produced by Bill Block Films shot in Detroit 2010s English-language films 2010s American films