Stay in Your Lane

While it's not for everyone, Tyler Perry has carved out a nice career niche for himself. His comedies are generally well received by a core audience, as are his sitcoms. But there is a tendency among performers to want to break free of their labels, to become something else.

That's the only explanation I can think of for Perry's decision to become the new Alex Cross in the film "Alex Cross." Based on the successful book series from James Patterson, "Alex Cross" is a re-boot/origin story meant to serve as the kick-off to a new series of films.

In the late 1990s, Morgan Freeman originated the character on screen with the excellent thriller "Kiss the Girls." After a mediocre follow up, "Along Came a Spider," that was the end of Cross on the big screen. Until last Friday that is.

This sort of reminds me of the saga with Jack Ryan, a character made famous from Tom Clancy's novels. Many forget that Alec Baldwin originated the role on screen in "The Hunt for Red October," but it was Harrison Ford — in "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger" — that is best remembered as Ryan. A few years after Ford's last run, Hollywood attempted to re-boot the series in "The Sum of All Fears" with Ben Affleck in the Ryan role. Now, it's trying to re-boot it again with Jeremy Renner in the lead role.

I actually liked "The Sum of All Fears," but that wasn't the popular opinion and the re-boot went off the rails. I am sure that there will be some who like what Perry brings to the role of Alex Cross, too, but I see this re-boot as similarly flying off the rails.

To me, Perry doesn't seem at home in the role, and it doesn't seem like the right use of his talents. The movie is uneven, uninspiring, and uninteresting. It's a miss fire that happened because it doesn't feel like it matches the performer to the role. Perry the action star just might not be in the cards.