I will confess that I've never seen any of the Madea movies nor read the Alex Cross book series, but I didn't have high expectations for this film, although the trailer looked interesting. Although there are some good performances in the film, they are marred by the unrealistic situations and sometimes cheesy script throughout, and also a few gaping plot holes that the writers left open.
I was later told that this movie is a prequel to the series, as books Alex lives in D.C. and works for the FBI; in this film, he is a cop living in Detroit and he is thinking of applying to the FBI. Alex (Tyler Perry) has just learned that his wife, Maria (Carmen Ejogo), is pregnant with their second child, and he thinks that moving to D.C. will be better for the family - however, Maria wants to stay in Detroit. Meanwhile, Alex and his partner Tommy (Edward Burns), are on the hunt for a murderer who killed a heiress, and who later abducts fellow cop Monica (Rachel Nichols), who is also secretly dating Tommy. The murderer (Matthew Fox) has a hit list, but when he sees that Alex getting too close to catching him, he deviates from that list to kill someone that Alex loves.
The action scenes in this movie were pretty cool, and that is probably why I am giving this movie a higher rating that it deserves. The film was partially shot in Detroit and also in Ohio, and there's a particularly interesting scene involving the People Mover downtown, though they just call it "the train." There's also a scene near the end in the old Michigan Theater in Detroit, which is now a parking garage.
Maybe see this film. There were a few lines throughout the movie where the audience was laughing and I don't think they were supposed to be funny - they were just that cheesy or ridiculous. There's one major character death that left a huge plot hole, as we assume the character was killed but no one mourns the character or even discusses it after, really, which was confusing. You also don't find out until the very end of the movie why the murderer was hunting all of these people, and who was paying him to kill the people on his "list." It will be interesting to see if Alex Cross does well at the box office, too, and if so, whether a sequel will be made; based on what I now know about the books, it looks as if they made this a prequel with the intent of more movies to follow.
Alex Cross is in theaters today, October 19th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 101 minutes. 2.5 stars out of 5.
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Liz Parker is a University of Michigan graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Literature, and she loves going to the movies. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films