Every Friday we talk about new movie releases on the Takeaway. “Alex Cross” stars Tyler Perry in his first non-Tyler Perry role, and “Paranormal Activity 4,” supposedly brings the low budget horror franchise to a close.
Our Movie Date team, Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer are here, as usual. In addition to hosting the podcast, Rafer is film critic for Newsday and Kristen is culture producer for the Takeaway.
“It’s exactly what you expect,” Kristen says of Paranormal Activity 4. “There are very little special effects in these movies at all, that’s kind of their whole schtick,” Rafer says. “To their credit, it mostly works – they get a lot of mileage out of some very low-budget thrills.”
Meanwhile in “Alex Cross,” we see Tyler Perry in a very different part from that of Medea, reprising the role that Morgan Freeman played in “Along Came a Spider” and “Kiss the Girls.”
“Tyler Perry is no Morgan Freeman,” Rafer says. “Perry just blunders his way through this film. He doesn’t come off as smart.”
Kristen disagrees about “Alex Cross” though. “You don’t go in there because you want some sort of genius,” she says. “It’s just good fun.”
For more of Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer, subscribe to the Movie Date podcast at their Facebook page.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.