Alex Cross - Blu-Ray

Content: Police psychologist Detective Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) faces a particularly insidious adversary on his latest case. Picasso (Matthew Fox) is a sadistic as well as ingenious killer who seemingly no security system, no matter how perfect, can stop. A corporate executive tortured to death and her three murdered bodyguards are just the beginning of a brutal series of murders that the killer plans to carry out for a mysterious and very powerful client. Together with his colleague Thomas Kane (Edward Burns) Cross does everything he can to stop Picasso before he can continue his bloody trail through Detroit. But the killer is not so easily dissuaded from his mission. Rather, he now puts Alex Cross on his list and wants to meet the policeman exactly where it hurts him the most: with his family...

Alex Cross is after ...denn zum Küssen sind sie da and In the Web of the Spider the now third adaptation of the twenty-volume novel series about the psychologist Alex Cross by James Patterson. While in the first two films, which were released in 1997 and 2001, Morgan Freeman took on the role of the ingenious profiler, Tyler Perry now takes the helm here. While Perry is rather unknown in this country, he regularly enjoys great success in the USA as a writer, director and actor. His most successful role he plays again and again in drag as the resolute Madea, which has always delighted many fans, but has not necessarily endeared him to critics.

The reason for this criticism reveals itself very quickly in Alex Cross. Perry simply acts too wooden and weak to give the character, which is already very clichéd by the script, an independent and interesting character for the audience. Thus, he can neither compare to his predecessor Morgan Freeman, nor the literary template even comes close to justice. There is a very emotional scene between Cross and his daughter, which would have needed a sensitive staging as well as two good actors to be effective. But this is exactly where the film reveals its biggest weaknesses and comes across as more unintentionally comical than moving and stirring.

The fact that the thriller nevertheless works quite well is due to two facts in particular. First, Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) just knows how to make action visually appealing. And so Alex Cross looks damn good as well, which definitely has a positive effect on the entertainment value. The second and probably crucial point that saves the movie is the very intense and really good acting of Matthew Fox (Lost), who makes a very convincing and somehow also fascinating villain. The scenes in which Fox dominates the action, it becomes clear what potential the film would have had with a better lead actor and a more cleverly constructed script. Of course, this makes it all the sadder that the great Idris Elba (Luther), who was initially in talks for the role of the police psychologist, didn't get the nod here.

So Alex Cross is a routine and fairly solid thriller with a very good villain but a rather disappointing lead actor, but it's still lifted slightly above mediocrity due to the appealing production and some successful moments of suspense. For the small thriller hunger in between, this is always satiating enough!

Picture + Sound: The very clean image of the Blu-Ray has a very good image sharpness, an excellent color mixing and also the matching of black levels and contrasts can convince throughout. In addition to the film's visuals, the sound is also convincing. The dialogues, which primarily determine the events, come across clearly and distinctly. Coherently implemented ambient sounds provide an engaging atmosphere and during the action sequences the surround channels are well utilized by powerful sound effects. In technical terms, there is nothing to complain about the film.

Extras: In addition to the trailer for the film, the Blu-ray also has a conversation between Tyler Perry and author James Patterson to offer. However, this is just a nearly 2 minute promotional promo that doesn't offer much more substance than the trailer. Other than that, there are only program tips from the provider. Weak!

Conclusion:Alex Cross is the third, and unfortunately weakest, film adaptation of a James Patterson novel about the popular police psychologist Alex Cross. While Matthew Fox delivers a very good and intense performance as the psycho killer, Tyler Perry in the title role remains too stiff to be convincing. In addition, the thriller struggles with an extremely weak script that even Cohen's inherently solid staging can't fully combat. Thus, despite some good scenes and promising ideas, the film remains just average, which even the good technical realization doesn't change. If you can overlook Tyler Perry's wooden acting and some arguably clichéd moments, however, you'll certainly still be quite properly entertained

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp