Alex Cross

Alex Cross is an interesting exercise in back-engineering, a prequel that takes us back to the days before the psychologist/police profiler was the sage, solemn and inscrutable sleuth that Morgan Freeman ably brought to the screen in two films over a decade ago.

This Cross is cocky, a bit trigger-happy, prone to revenge, a real "action hero." And this Cross is played by Tyler Perry.

But by definition, he's less interesting. When you fill in somebody's back story, you strip away their "loner" mystique. When you focus on the flippant in a film about a frantic hunt for a psychopathic assassin, you diminish the urgency of the hunt and remove the gravitas of the character.