Dreadfully Boring

Am I Missing Something?

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The only reason this film was enjoyable was because Morgan Freeman is in it and James Patterson wrote the book the script is based on. This film has a lot of flaws which I will discuss but first I must just focus on the few good things to get them out of the way. Morgan Freeman is great in this film. He is very believable as Alex Cross and does a great job of playing a criminal profiler. The reason he plays it so well is due to his retrospective, calm but analytical voice that he uses in all of his films to great effect. His voice gives the impression of great wisdom and endless patience which is what a good detective must have.Freeman's facial expressions, too, are spot on for the scenes he is in and give a gravitas to his performance that only a great actor can give. There are a few little things like he is slightly too old for the character and he has a few lines that fall flat but on the whole I enjoyed his performance.The plot of the movie is good as well and does follow very close to the excellent book it is based on. I have been a fan of the Alex Cross series for a while and this movie does capture the Patterson style of suspense and thrillingness that we expect from anything relating to this series (thrillingness is not a word but screw you it is my review).The Problem with this film is every other actor involved is weak. This film has some very wooden performances and terrible actors who emote nothing and add nothing to the scenes they are in. Dylan Baker is terrible in this film. His character has no emotion what so ever and is just so bland on screen that I find every scene he is in to be BLEH. The problem is that Baker is only good for playing small roles like in Spiderman 3 where he is in it for 30 seconds. When you put him in longer scenes you can tell how much of a poor actor he is. I think it is best to put him in a short cameo or TV show but not a full length film. He just can't act realistically. Monica Potter as Flannigan is just terrible and does nothing for the characters persona at all. The sad thing is that in the book she was a much more interesting character that I really liked and wanted to see her done right on film. Every emotion she does is unconvincing and really makes me feel a bit embarrassed for her. She only has one emotion and that is "dumbfounded curiosity" which gets a bit draining after seeing it 50,000,000 times. I was hoping for something a bit more real from her character and Potter just failed to deliver.Child actors in this are a very mixed bag. On one side you have a young Anton Yelchin playing an okay role as a school boy who is semi important to the plot. On the other hand you have Mika Boorem playing an unconvincing captured kid that is just boring to watch and unconvincing. However this did not ruin the film for me as I do not expect much from child actors as they can all be rubbish in film unless directed diligently. The technical side of things is disappointing. Obviously the music is just stock music that they bought of a company and it completely shows. Its not BAD music it is just very cookie cutter and does some scenes a disservice by being too stilted and not framing a scene in the right light. The colour palet of the film is grey and dull with no imagination and the camera work is so still and undynamic in dynamic scenes that it takes me out of the film a bit.It is a shame but I suppose when you have a small budget of……WAIT $60,000,000!!!!?? WTF??? For $60,000,000 they could have made this movie so much better than it was. They could have spent much more on camera work, lighting, decent actors ETC. Where the $60,000,000 was spent I do not know but it is a shame that probably most of it went into Freemans pay.A GREAT film like Reservoir Dogs was made for $1,200,000 and that was shot better, looked better and had a better supporting cast than this movie. It just goes to show that with a great director the budget of a film can be small but still be enjoyable to watch and brilliant on every other level as well. This film is a decent film with a great plot and storytelling but what lets it down is the supporting cast, the useless music and the drab, colourless cinematography. Unfortunately no matter how much I love Morgan Freeman or the books of James Patterson it will not make me love this movie. I did enjoy this film but the flaws are reflected in the score I have given.

Long before Tyler Perry turned Alex Cross into an action star, the all-star detective was portrayed correctly by the legendary Morgan Freeman. While the first film, Kiss The Girls, was a huge success, it's sequel, Along Came A Spider was a bust, once again due to the fact that the strengths of the character were not utilized properly. The character of Alex Cross was created by Author, James Patterson, and has been responsible for over 20 best selling novels, because he's unlike any other cop in any other mystery series. Cross is a psychologist first, who gets inside the heads of killers. Once he knows what they're thinking and why they're acting the way they are, Cross is usually able to capture them. These stories make for terrific novels, but when transferred to the screen, producers felt that they lack the action movie goers crave. Despite a successful first appearance on screen, the producers felt that with more action and bullets, the sequel would do even better, they were wrong. When a Senator's daughter is abducted from an upscale private school, detectives are at a loss, but call Cross in when evidence and a ransom demand turn up at his house. Cross believes the criminal is using his admiration to cover up the real motives for this crime, and he needs to play into that role, in order to determine what those motives are. This was a terrific novel, but wasn't right for the screen, so much of the story was cut and replaced by the manhunt and police chases. These elements make for a more intense film, but don't do justice to the story. Alex Cross and his abilities are the story and are what make the series unique. Morgan Freeman returned hesitantly to do the sequel and he was right when he said he shouldn't have done it, mainly because it takes away from the brilliance of the first film. The producers of this movie even managed to screw up a terrific surprise ending and that really says it all. Along Came A Spider is not a bad film, it certainly has it's movements and a legendary star, but if you're a fan of the Alex Cross novels, expect to be disappointed.

You Name it he'll deliver, that the kinda of thought comes into my mind whenever i watches Morgan Freeman's Movies. Its really difficult to predict in the whole cast who really was the spider.But nevertheless the plot was perfectly placed as it should be and the movie is worth of money.On the other hand Monica Porter played her part really good, but the movie only deserves to be a one time thriller flick rather than a long run horse.You may find the movie a very predictable and not so different from the movies of the same genre but still Lee put all the efforts to have glued to your seats till the end.

Directed by unknown to most Lee Tamahori, this action thriller will have you sitting at the edge of your seat from start to finish!The plot starts out in a very straight-forward manner: a man with an ambition to become criminal legend kidnaps the daughter of a congressman right out from under the nose of the FBI. He then sends a note and a sneaker of the girl to Detective Alex Cross, hence forcing him out of his self-inflicted isolation, the reasons of which are explained in the opening scene. Along with the FBI agent who was in charge of security at the scene of the crime, he follows the clues laid out by the kidnapper in order to find the girl. And so the story goes. The kidnapper is portrayed by the always formidable Michael Wincott, the best serial villain on that side of the Atlantic. He should have the Best Supporting Role awards piled up in his attic. Alex Cross, whom we remember from "Kiss the Girls", and portrayed by Morgan Freeman, is just the kind of cop you like best: sincere, sympathetic, intelligent, thorough and committed. Monica Potter features as the FBI agent determined to redeem herself after she let the kidnapper escape. This may not be a blockbuster, but this solid and underrated thriller delivers what so few of them have to offer these days: a final plot twist that genuinely surprises. It shall not be revealed here.