Alex Cross (2012)
Synopsis:
Alex Cross(2012) is American crime thriller film starring Tyler Perry as the titular character and Matthew Fox as the antagonist. The film is directed by Rob Cohen based on an adapted screenplay by Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson. This the third film appearance of the character Alex Cross, the main character of a series of novels by James Patterson. Cross was previously portrayed by Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001). In 2010, Idris Elba was attached to star, but he was replaced by Perry. Filming took place in 2011. The film was released on October 19, 2012 in the United States and Canada.
The film begins with Lt. Dr. Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) chasing after a criminal with the help of his team. After they catch the criminal and arrest him, Cross returns home to his children, Janelle (Yara Shahidi) and Damon (Sayeed Shahidi), his grandmother, Nana Mama (Cicely Tyson), and his wife, Maria (Carmen Ejogo). Cross finds a sonogram faxed to the house and learns Maria is pregnant with their third child. She tells him she's been pregnant for eight weeks, and makes Cross promise not to tell anyone until the twelfth week.
Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Matthew Fox) arrives at a cage fight. He bets ten thousand dollars on himself
and wins the match. He catches the attention of an attractive woman, Fan Yau (Stephanie Jacobsen). At Yau'smansion, the man paralyzes Yau, takes out a pair of clippers and places a bowl under Yau's hand. He tells her that she has ten chances to answer his question, everytime she answers wrong, she loses a finger.
In the middle of the night, Cross gets a call from Captain Richard Brookwell (John C. McGinley) informing him on Yau's murder. Cross hangs up and calls his partner Tommy Kane (Edward Burns). Kane and Cross argue about Kane's relationship with their coworker Monica Ashe (Rachel Nichols). Cross also tells Kane that he was offered a job as an FBI profiler and that Maria is pregnant.
At Yau's mansion, they find a picture in the style of Picasso. At the Detroit Police Department as they analyse the data, Cross finds the initials E.M. on Picasso's drawing which Cross realises stands for Erich Mielke.
They police arrive at Mielke's office building, warning the guards. The guards tell the detectives to leave, but one of the guards tells them that the water pressure is lowering dramatically. Cross realizes Picasso is already in the building. They rush to Mielke's office, but Mielke refuses to leave, not trusting the Americans.
Meanwhile, Picasso swims up a water pipe and cuts his way out. Picasso goes through a meeting room to cut to the office, but finds Mielke has trapped himself and Kane in the office with a bullet-proof door. Cross holds Picasso at gunpoint and orders him to drop the gun. Picasso does so, but ejects a bomb out of his belt and escapes.
Back at DPD, Cross tells an angry Brookwell him what he knows, that 'Picasso' is most likely ex-military and that that Picasso was trying to kill Mielke to get to his boss, Leon Mercier (Jean Reno). They arrive at Mercier's mansion where Cross warns him about Picasso. Mercier tries to lighten the mood, but eventually tells him he does not want to die. Ashe is in her bathroom when Picasso emerges from the corner and turns the lights off, eventually killing her. Later, Picasso phones Cross whilst he's at dinner with Maria, describing her to him before shooting her.
At Maria's funeral, Picasso watches Cross from his car, drawing a picture of him. Back at Cross's house, Kane is told that Ashe was drugged by Picasso. The drug paralyzes the body, but they still have their sense of feeling. Picasso calls Cross, mocking him for Maria's death and suggesting that the fault lies with him for her fate. Later that night, Cross has the police take Nana Mama and the kids away. The detectives sneak into the evidence locker and take a gun. Cross meets with Daramus Holiday and bribes him with the gun from a murder that Holiday committed, but was never arrested for, to tell him where Picasso gets his drugs.
Kane also threatens to shoot Holiday. Cross and Kane find the drug dealer. They beat him up until the dealer allows them to look at the security cameras. They watch and see Picasso buying the drugs and get his license number. Cross and Kane manage to track Picasso's car, which is heading to where Mercier is giving a speech at a courthouse downtown. Brookwell and the DPD shut down the entire block the courthouse is on.
Cross and Kane arrive and tell Brookwell to stop Mercier from coming, because Picasso will find a way to kill him. Picasso then boards a train, hacks into the system, opens the doors and fires a bomb at the courthouse.
Cross and Kane try to stop Mercier from entering the building, but are too late. The courthouse blows up, and Mercier is killed. Fellow detective Jody Kieboff (Bonnie Bentley) tracks Picasso's car to the parking garage. Picasso injures Kane but is finally killed by Cross.
Back at the station, Cross manages to call Mercier, who is in hiding in Indonesia. During their conversation, it is revealed that Mercier had hired Picasso and used one of his employees as a decoy to fake his death.
Mercier tries to talk his way out, but Cross blames him for unleashing a monster to the world. Then Indonesian police come to Mercier's hide out and find cocaine in his possession, which is punishable by death.
Kane drives Cross back to his house, which now has a for sale sign in the yard, revealing that Cross took the FBI job. Kane hands Cross a resume for a position in the FBI. The film ends with Cross looking at his family.
Directed by Rob Cohen
Produced by Bill Block
Paul Hanson
James Patterson
Steve Bowen
Randal Emmett
Leopoldo Gout
Screenplay by Marc Moss
Kerry Williamson
Based on Cross by James Patterson
Starring:
Tyler Perry
Matthew Fox
Edward Burns
Rachel Nichols
Cicely Tyson
Jean Reno
Music by John Debney
Cinematography: Ricardo Della Rosa
Editing by Thom Noble
Matt Diezel
Studio: QED International
James Patterson Entertainment
Distributed by Summit Entertainment
Release date: October 19, 2012 (United States)
Running time: 102 minutes
Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery
Budget: $23 million
IMDB rating: 4.8/10
Box office: $14,318,691
