Looking at the intensity with which Matthew Fox throws himself into each role, it’s hard to imagine the actor just sort of joking around – especially when, as in Alex Cross, he’s playing a sociopathic serial killer.

But Fox insists that there are a lot of different ways to enjoy yourself, even if the work you’re doing seems dark, complicated and difficult.

“I guess it comes down to how you define fun,” he told Celebuzz, laughing. “Some people find fun like funny, ha-ha fun… but in the work, I find fun figuring things out and trying to break things down.”

That said, Fox’s idea of a relaxing evening still sounds a little more intense than, say, a bottle of wine and a Lost marathon.

“I’m that guy who every time I come across a Ted Bundy or a Jeffrey Dahmer documentary or interviews, I always watch it,” he reveals. “I’m fascinated by how people rationalize very extreme, socially deviant behavior.

Alex Cross is in theaters now. You can watch the rest of Fox’s interview with Celebuzz below.

In the films that he’s written, directed and starred in, Tyler Perry’s biggest challenge was usually getting support-top hosiery to stay on while he throttled his co-stars as Madea. But in Alex Cross, where he plays a homicide detective and serial killer profiler, Perry recounted that it was just the throttling that kept him on his toes.

“The biggest challenge for me was letting go in the fighting,” he told Celebuzz. “I’m always careful because I’m a nice guy, but that guy lives down inside me, that UFC guy, but I keep him under wraps. So letting go of that was the biggest challenge for me.”

What does his new role mean for the future of Madea?

Despite the 180 Perry makes with Alex Cross, he insists that his iconic matriarch isn’t going anywhere.

“Just like [Alex Cross author] James Patterson has a very loyal audience, so do I, and I like to give them what they want,” he said. “So if they like Madea, Madea will be around. If they love this, this will be around. I don’t think there has to be a choice between one or the other. But as an actor, you should be able to do many different things.”

Meanwhile, one of the “different things” that Perry will apparently not be doing in the near future is returning to the Star Trek movie series, after enjoying a cameo in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 franchise reboot.

“No, we couldn’t work it out – couldn’t work out the timing of it all,” he revealed. “But I spoke to J.J. a few days ago, and I’m very excited for it and for him.”

Alex Cross opened in theaters nationwide Friday, October 19. Watch the film’s theatrical trailer below.

Whether you’re looking for a good scare or plenty of butt-kicking action, this weekend’s box office has got it all.

The fourth installment of the highly-successful Paranormal Activity franchise opens in theaters on Friday, along with Tyler Perry‘s interpretation of Alex Cross, novelist James Patterson’s iconic FBI agent once made famous by Morgan Freeman.

What are these movies all about? Celebuzz is breaking it down.

Paranormal Activity 4 sees the return of Paranormal Activity actress Katie Featherston.

The new installment is set five years after the disappearance of Katie (Featherston), and a suburban family witnesses strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in.

Meanwhile, Alex Cross stars Perry as the titular character, homicide detective and psychologist who is pursuing a serial killer. In the chase, the killer pushes Cross to his psychological limits as he assassinates the officer’s pregnant wife.

Which movie will you go see this weekend? Sound off below.

It was an unenviable task for Tyler Perry to follow no less than Morgan Freeman with his portrayal of Alex Cross, the title character in the latest big-screen interpretation of novelist James Patterson’s iconic FBI agent.

But with more than a decade between the last Cross film, Along Came a Spider, and Rob Cohen’s clumsy new installment, Perry should only endure comparisons between this and his performances in his own highly-successful if often artistically-dubious Madea movies, in which he hams it up as a comically volatile matriarch.

And unfortunately, he doesn’t fare well even in that weighted competition: bereft of the comfort of his own writing, Perry fails to breathe new life into the character, even as co-star Matthew Fox’s scenery chewing eviscerates whatever traces of a script existed for this ham-fisted and mindless thriller.

Where do audiences find Alex Cross at the beginning of the film?

Perhaps obviously younger than Freeman’s version of the character, Perry plays Cross during his stint as a Washington, D.C. homicide detective, where his partners Tommy (Ed Burns) and Monica (Rachel Nichols) are quietly stumbling their way through the early stages of a romantic relationship.

Happily married himself with a baby on the way, Cross still has plenty of time for his wife Maria (Carmen Ejogo), even when his days are filled with the pursuit – often literally – of violent criminals. But when he and his team come across a gruesome murder scene adorned with the artwork of a sociopath they dub Picasso (Fox), Cross finds himself in the killer’s crosshairs.

Sadly, the cat-and-mouse game that emerges between Cross and Picasso is of the variety that only the movies can conceive, which means it comes down to terse phone conversations between the two in which the hero succinctly diagnoses the villain’s psychological neuroses as the villain taunts the hero, threatens his loved ones, and performs some kind of “crazy” self-abuse to himself – simultaneously. As written by Marc Moss (whose previous credit was Along Came a Spider), both characters barely flirt with two dimensions, and the shy away from the richer complexities of their respective obsessions.

That said, Cohen does such a poor job in rendering the visual details of either of their accomplishments, or the world around them, that it’s impossible to develop any sense of compassion or understanding of the characters, much less effective dramatic momentum. Cross’ increasing obsession with finding Picasso offers the promise of a Searchers-style moral quandary – when does the pursuit of justice turn into self-righteous revenge? – and then abandons it in favor of a shockingly conventional, falsely upbeat and shamelessly sequel-minded resolution.

But even just the straightforward depiction of action is so poorly handled – including an incomprehensible fight scene that looks like it was shot by an epileptic – that it’s impossible to be swept along by the visceral thrill of the hunt. If cinematically speaking his films since 1993’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story have seemed like the increasingly desperate attempts for an aging, unwed uncle to relate to his adolescent nieces and nephews, Alex Cross is the cocaine before the intervention – the most misguided effort yet for Cohen to seem hip or relevant in an industry he no longer seems to understand.

Still, there is something promising about this franchise – both in terms of the title character’s potential, and Tyler Perry’s future as a performer in non-Tyler Perry-oriented projects. But nothing in this film properly utilizes or explores either of those assets, and in fact feels even more mindless and derivative than Freeman’s films, not to mention more poorly acted.

Ultimately, Alex Cross is just a bad movie, plain and simple, but the real tragedy would be if it became a bad franchise. That doesn’t mean that Perry and co. shouldn’t make another film; notwithstanding its commercial potential, there are some genuinely interesting ideas to examine in Patterson’s creation. But if audiences are expected to want to watch Cross hunt serial killers for years to come, the experience shouldn’t feel like they themselves are the true victims.

Watch Celebuzz‘ exclusive video interview with stars Ed Burns and Rachel Nichols below.

After successfully playing steadfast, heroic Jack Shepard on Lost for six seasons, Matthew Fox can be forgiven for seeming a little bit like his character in real life – committed, serious and intensely sincere.

But in the new film Alex Cross, he exceeds expectations by transforming himself — mentally and physically — into a serial killer with a pitch-black soul.

Speaking to Celebuzz, Fox says he felt like the character’s look was a natural extension of his personality.

“I thought he looked like a man who does what he does and is intelligent has to build a really intense construct to rationalize his compulsions,” Fox says. “I think to support that construct requires so much energy that he would look like that.”

How did Fox come up with a personality profile for his killer character?

Fox explains that the character was very well-defined in the script, but he spent several months developing those initial details into something even more substantial.

“The guy in the script was pretty flashy and unique,” Fox says. “And then I started asking questions and trying to find out why and how, and that process went on for months until I started to feel like I really understood him.”

Despite the meticulousness of his preparation, Fox insists that looking at the character’s childhood – the events that formed his twisted personality – was less important than his self-justifications as an adult.

“The back story wasn’t important to me as finding out why he does it – what his overriding purpose, his mission statement is,” he reveals. “What would this man in a room by himself tell himself is the reasons for what he does?”

See what Fox’s character tells himself when Alex Cross opens nationwide on October 19. Watch the film’s theatrical trailer below.

When Morgan Freeman played Alex Cross in the films Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider, author James Patterson seemingly hit the casting jackpot in finding a terrific actor to bring his iconic detective to life.

But Patterson says he thinks that actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry (Madea’s Witness Protection) is equal to the task of inhabiting the role, as he’s doing in the new film Alex Cross.

“He’s younger, he’s more physical,” Patterson tells Celebuzz of the film’s leading man. “Alex is a big man. He’s more a man of the people. I think he’s a terrific Alex Cross. And I think it’s great to have had two terrific actors in the part.”

How instrumental was Patterson in picking his new Alex Cross?

Patterson has always exerted a considerable amount of control over the film adaptations of his books. In this case, he enjoyed approval of virtually all parts of the production, although he admits that it’s a good idea to get out of the way once filming actually starts.

“I had a say over the casting, the script and the director choice,” Patterson explains. “And then once it starts rolling, unless something is drastically wrong, you should just stay out of the way.”

As for what inspired the film in the first place – especially after Freeman had played the character so memorably – Patterson says that he simply wanted to continue exploring the character on the silver screen.

“What motivates me is doing something well,” he says. “So it’s trying to make a thriller as good as we can make it, and with this movie, I wanted to make a good movie. And I think we succeeded.”

Alex Cross opens nationwide October 19. Watch the film’s trailer below.

No need to waste time wondering which movies are worth seeing in October – Celebuzz has put together a preview that takes only a minute to watch.

Featuring some of the season’s hottest stars, including Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Tyler Perry and more, the video counts down the Top 5 films to see in the next month.

Lana and Andy Wachowski’s Cloud Atlas leads the pack, an operatic adventure that takes audiences on an incredible journey as an ensemble of characters are reborn and transformed through time and space. (Read our review here.)

What else is there to watch during the month of October?

Matthew McConaughey continues his remarkable hot streak as the co-star of Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, which also features performances by Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron.

And Tyler Perry takes off Madea’s wig and housedress to play the title character in Alex Cross, about an FBI profiler on the hunt for a serial killer played by former Lost star Matthew Fox.

Watch Celebuzz’s Top 5 movies in October in the video above for more details about these and other upcoming films.