"Vengeful Cop Hunts Down Psychopath"
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What You Need To Know:
ALEX CROSS isn’t a well-told story. The characters aren’t believable, and the emotion they try to invoke feels forced. The action is has some intense moments, but it doesn’t make up for characters lacking depth. The content is about as rough as a PG-13 movie can get, with some gruesome violence, torture, sensuality, and foul language. To make things worse, the protagonist chooses vengeance rather than justice. Ultimately, this gives the movie a humanist worldview, with bad ethical ramifications, despite some minor Christian references. MOVIEGUIDE advises extreme caution for ALEX CROSS.
Content:
(HH, B, C, LL, VV, SS, NN, A, MM) Strong humanist worldview of revenge and protagonist losing himself to hate, despite some moral and Christian content such as protagonist loves his family and will protect them at all costs, mention of a prayer meeting, and protagonist goes to an abandoned church for comfort; 11 obscenities, eight profanities; strong violence includes implied torture where a man cuts the fingers off a young woman, we later see a bowl full of fingers, hand to hand combat includes breaking bones, blood, explosions, and lots of dead bodies; a long scene involves the villain and a young woman undressing themselves and preparing for sex, but instead, he ties her up and tortures her, a depicted sex scene is interrupted by a phone call; upper male nudity, slight upper female nudity, woman in lingerie; light alcohol use; no smoking or drugs; and, protagonist is bent on revenge.
More Detail:
ALEX CROSS is an adaption of the popular novel series written by best selling novelist James Patterson. In it, Alex Cross (played by Tyler Perry) is a young homicide detective for the Detroit Police Department with a skill of hyper-observance. Because of his skill set, the FBI wants him and his family to move to DC so that Alex can do profiling for the FBI. This job would be more stable than being a homicide detective.
Everything changes, however, when a psychopath killer nicknamed Picasso tortures to death a young woman. It’s clear to Alex this was no random murder, but a planned assassination. Also, the murderer left a clue revealing his next target, a wealthy, heavily guarded businessman.
Alex and his team arrive at the target’s place of work to protect him, but he assures Alex his security is state of the art. Alex thinks that Picasso is already in the building. While securing the complex, Alex runs into Picasso, who then sets off an explosive and narrowly escapes.
Picasso is livid that Alex foiled his assassination attempt. He sets out to make it personal. (SPOILER ALERT) During a date with his wife, Alex gets a phone call from Picasso who’s perched on a nearby roof with a sniper rifle. Alex begins to psychologically analyze Picasso. He guesses what circumstances might have turned Picasso into a psychopath. This angers Picasso, and he decides to take it out on Alex’s wife who is sitting at their table. Alex realizes what Picasso is about to do and tries to save his wife, but he’s too late. His wife takes a shot and dies in his arms. Devastated, Alex decides to take the law into his own hand to stop Picasso before he murders anybody else. Of course, this is the classic structure of the archetypal police thriller where the police detective is forced to bend the rules to catch the criminal, whose attacks have become personal ones.
ALEX CROSS isn’t a great story. The characters aren’t really believable and the emotion they try to invoke feels forced. The action is exciting and has some intense moments, but it doesn’t make up for characters that lack depth. The content is about as rough as a PG-13 movie can get with some gruesome violence (including torture and cutting off of fingers), sexuality, and foul language. To make things worse, the protagonist chooses vengeance rather than justice. Though it is seen as a bad thing, he still chooses revenge and there are no consequences for his action. This leaves viewers with a humanist worldview with bad ethical ramifications, even though there are a couple minor positive references to Christianity, including prayer and church. MOVIEGUIDE advises extreme caution for ALEX CROSS.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
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Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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