Alex Cross From Lionsgate Home Entertainment On Feb. 5

In Hollywood jargon it is a “reboot.”   An existing film franchise or well-known character is given a new spin; new look, etc. for audiences to “rediscover.”   

There is no doubt that Morgan Freeman did an excellent job as crime novelist James Patterson’s intellectual detective/investigator Alex Cross in Along Came a Spider in 2001 and before that, Kiss the Girls (1997).   He’s a great actor, but he’s now 75-years old and perhaps a little long in the tooth for an action thriller … at least that’s the conventional wisdom.

So on Feb. 5 it will be “reboot” time courtesy of Lionsgate Gate Home Entertainment as a younger Alex Cross — played this time by none other than playwright/screenwriter, director, producer and actor Tyler Perry — makes the move to home entertainment in director Rob Cohen’s film of the same name, Alex Cross.

The ARR for Blu-ray and DVD editions (complete with UltraViolet) is 109 days and the box office take was $25.4 million.

Alex Cross must be a common name, as opposed to, say, Sherlock Holmes.   The Alex Cross that readers are familiar with and the one that Morgan Freeman presented on screen is nowhere to be found here.   

Tyler Perry and Edward Burns in Alex Cross, Feb. 5

Instead, filmmaker Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, xXx, Stealth, etc.) has served-up a traditional “buddy” film (think: Bad Boys, 48 Hours, Rush Hour, etc.).  Alex Cross, as played by Tyler Perry, is a younger version (fits with the “reboot”), a family man (kid on the way) and a police lieutenant in Detroit … and teamed (the “buddy”) with Tommy Kane (Edward Burns).   

They are after Picasso — who is also known as the Four Roses Killer — there is no mystery (from the audience POV) as to who the whack job is … it’s Matthew Fox.   He’s a sadistic SOB and when Cross and Kane get too close he turns his particular brand of violence on them.

The long and short of it … Alex Cross is an action film, which will do just fine on Blu-ray and DVD come Feb. 5.

As to bonus goodies, there is commentary from filmmaker Rob Cohen, deleted scenes and the featurette titled “The Psychologist and the Butcher: Adapting and Filming Alex Cross.”

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report