Opening This Week

Set in Detroit but primarily filmed in Cleveland, Alex Cross pulls a switch and bait doesn’t work, especially since the filmmakers didn’t bother to change the street signs in downtown Cleveland to ensure they’d be consistent with the film’s Detroit-centric script. But the lack of attention to detail is really the least of this film’s problems. Based on the James Patterson series of novels that revolve around brainy detective Alex Cross, the movie suffers from the miscasting of funnyman Tyler Perry, who’s really out of sorts here as the film’s title character. It’s not just that Perry, who's most famous for putting on women’s clothes to the play the crotchety old woman Madea in his own movies, is a crappy actor. He’s not an incompetent; he’s just not right for the role. And the same goes for Edward Burns, who plays his crime-fighting sidekick Tommy. Together the two try to stop a cold-blooded serial killer who goes by the name of Picasso (Matthew Fox) and his plans to take out a Detroit developer. But instead of coming off as a couple of heroes, Alex and Tommy seem more like a couple of crime-fighting clowns. (Niesel)