User reviews

A female protagonist detective (Mary / Melissa Roxburgh / Manifest) is teaming up with a veteran detective (Jake / Martin Lawrence / Bad Boys) to chase what seem to be a copy-cat killer from one of Jake's old cases. As the investigation goes deeper, more and more eerie details from the past are slowly unveiled, leading up to an unexpected ending. The main, and maybe only, person that can help them is the original killer himself ("The Artist" / John Malkovitch / Being John Malkovitch) which Mary must go into a deep psychological relationship with, in order to get him to shed light on their investigation.

Sounds familiar? Maybe because you've seen movies such as "Silence of the Lambs" or other detective dramas that following similar line. The difference here is that the production quality of "Mindcage" is pisspoor, Lionsgate managed to produce a movie at a Hallmark TV level. The special effects are as if done by a child, the foot chases are laughable and the green-screen (view outside the windows of the car, for example) are almost insulting to the viewer.

That low production quality and lack of good direction, recording and editing, makes the decent main actors performance look childish and amateuristic. The other performances are even worse, not even one of them landing a believable role, the worst offender being the facility's manager (Dr. Loesch / Neb Chupin) which is apparently a network engineer turned actor- somehow I was not surprised to learn that.

You know if you're an actor that is about to play a violinist, you might take a couple of lessons just so it looks good on screen, or if you are going to play a cop, visit a police-station for a day or two so that your demeanor is correct? Well, none of that here, the actors are as if they are pulled from their beds, being dressed with a $50 wardrobe and $10 makeup from Walmart and lights, camera, action...

The low production quality also distracts from the story and it being a bit out-there (no spoilers here- but just to say there is a twist somewhere in there) makes it a bit hard to follow the movie at times, but I made an extra effort to stick around to the end, and if you manage to ignore all the faults of this movie it is not completely un-enjoyable. It's just that there are so many movies better than this one out there to spend your time on.

I hope Melissa Roxburgh lands a better gig next time because she has the quality of a leading actress but with movies like this it is hard lash out a good performance. Guide: No nudity, no sexual situations, but several dead bodies and hints of physical harm. Exact score: 48 / 100.

Serial killer movies is quite difficult to make. Much like horror movies, they are constructed around cliche. The key is character build up and craftmanship. Mindcage is full of cliche and none of craftmanship and character build up.

At times the movie seem to be over the top constructed around the cliches, and at that at beginner level, i.e. The red herrings are too obvious, and theses are crucial to mystery movies.

The movie also lacks fluency, i.e. The scenes are mechanically put together in segments with disturbedly incoherency.

Actorwise the selection is poorly made, especially the supporting roles. The husband of the lead character and the prison psychologist is a joke. Martin Lawrence will never be able to pull of a serious character/movie. Malkovitch tries his best, but delivers his standard unsettling character. Knepper is good as the sheriff and is always watchable.

It is not a terrible movie as such, but could have been done better by working the script more and used other actors. The movie uses some tricks to make it different from other serial killer movies. I cannot reveal them here since it would spoil the movie, but I would have used these tricks more and created fusion of horror/serial killer/mystery movie.

All in all, it is not a terrible movie, I have seen much worse. The movie is just flat. IMDB rates it, to this date, 4,1/10 and that is quite correct.

I mean I could look it up but I just don't have the energy or the care. This plot is so bad it's actually kind of funny. I knew from the first minute this movie would be a pile of poop. But I like B movies.

Lionsgate man, why? I mean I guess Jon and Martin needed some cash or something, but at least use a workable script. I can't wait to see the score on this movie in a few weeks. My guess is it's sub 4.

I liked he creativity a little, but overall it's just so bad and poorly done it can't be redeemable. I did like the lead female character.

Watch this movie if you want to chuckle but make sure you're at least 2-3 wines deep. 3/10 just because I laughed a lot and the plot is so bad. So bad 😂

Much like this line at the beginning of the movie, "Just because he's a priest don't mean he can't lie Mary" and then nothing ever became of it, the rest of the movie was infuriatingly bad. Bad script, bad acting, actors I wanted so badly to do well as I admire them from other titles.

I knew even from the first time that Jake and Mary drive together, and that fake as hand on the steering wheel and driving scene, that this movie was going to be bad. The doctor doing the autopsy who had no idea what to do with his hands - I'll hold them here so I look like a great actor, sheesh!

Anyway, I'm not sure what else to say except for, don't bother watching it, I suffered for you so you don't have to lol. This hideous mashup copycat of well known titles is just dreadful.

This movie is a cheap ripoff of SOTL complete with laughably bad script and bad acting all around. I kinda knew this going in but I watched it because I thought it would be good for a laugh, kinda like when I watch a Nick Cage movie. But unfortunately this movie is basically just a dud and not even a So bad it's good movie. Even John Malkovich does a rather humdrum job of portraying a crazed serial killer. The entire project is so amateurishly done that its hard to believe it ever got finished. Any producer should have put this thing out of it's misery early on as it comes across like a high school project by clueless wannabe actors and production people. A very disappointing dumb waste of time.

Love the concept,love this genre. That's where it starts and well ends.

We tried to watch it twice,it landed up being background noise and then we decided to find literally anything else to watch.

This movie has A grade actors but thats all.

The lead actress was not a great choice for this role.

It's comes across as her reading her lines rather than becoming the character. She is like an amber Heard choice pretty face no depth.

It was badly written I felt bad for the actors having to act out those lines.

If they got better writers and a better leading lady it would be an awesome movie. Its meh.

This is a genuinely creepy and mysterious movie and it maintains that atmosphere throughout, but stops just short of being oppressive. John malkovich is the main attraction, and he's very good per usual. The supporting cast are also strong. The suspense is high in this one, and there are a few twists and turns you may or may not find predictable. There is also some good action and intensity to keep you engaged in the proceedings. The ending leaves more questions than answers, though, so some may find that frustrating. In this case, it worked for me. It's not a masterpiece, but still a very good movie.

This is a rip off of 'The Silence of the Lambs', pure and simple.

I have no idea how a film maker can be so blatant in stealing someone else's idea.

The acting is good, even the script isn't bad, but at each turn the scenes lifted from Silence, music riffing off Red Dragon and Hannibal, are actually grating.

I've seen worse films, and yet very few more difficult to watch because it feels like the audience is participating in this theft of another's work. It's a shame, because had the writer chosen to come up with ideas of their own to move the plot along, it might have been a half decent thriller.

This movie was a decent watch. Me and my girl enjoyed it after dinner. Searching through Tubi I saw Martin Lawrence on the cover, and the date was 2022. I didn't know he did a movie this recent. So I had to check it out. It's not golden globe or Oscar material but it was a pretty good movie to watch overall. The ending plot twist caught us off guard which gave the movie some extra points. It did have some parts in it they could've left out, but they wasn't horrible. I'm really shocked that the reviews I read was bashing this movie. I've definitely seen worse movies in the theaters that ppl hyped up. So on a late night "Netflix and Chill" night put this on.

I don't understand the bad reviews, it is a decent thriller that has you guessing all along untill the end. The cast is pretty good, sure it wont win any oscars and it feels a bit similar to movies like silence of the lambs in some ways, but still different.

I like these kind of movies that has you guessing from start to finish. The lead female character played well, as did John Malkovich and Martin Lawrence. Id say it's a good watch if you have an hour ½ and want to watch a thriller.

Give it a try and dont let the negative reviews sway you of, I will give it a 7 star rating, it is better than I thought it would be after I first saw the low rating.

Straight out of the gate, this movie isn't worth watching at all, and was even worse than I expected! It might even be considered insulting. This is a poor take on one of Hannibal's stories, with a dumb twist even Shyamalan would be embarrassed to include.

The high quality production of the visual elements employed on the Trailers (the impressive looking Angels) are the only remarkable part of the movie.

Sadly, the movie is riddled with problems.. from the terrible casting of every part, flat dialogue, poor audio quality, slow pacing, to rushed scene transitions. Then the content and execution leave a lot to be desired. And the "revelation" is so late in the game, you can't even muster the energy to care. It is quite ironic to open IMDB and check the movie's description, only to find the words "when a copycat strikes".

Would not recommend anyone waste their time on this.

This is such a blatant rip off of silence of the lambs that it doesn't even try to hide it. They should've just name the two characters Clarice and Hannibal and got it over with. With that being said, it's not a terrible movie by any stretch but so many parallels to SOTL that's it's hard to ignore and enjoy.

John Malkovitch is excellent as always, but I'm surprised that he took the role knowing about the rip off. In the movie they are chasing a copy cat killer which is interesting because this is a copy cat movie.

They even trick the serial killer into leaving his cell so they can go in and investigate just like they did to Lecter in SOTL.

Only John Malkovich is worth mentioning in this bad, very bad, copycating. Thoroughly unconvincing, badly written and amateurish! I have read that Lawrence gained some weight for this !? Why oh why he bothered. He is especially unconvincing along with the female leading role. I had a notion from the very beginning of the movie that everything will collapse at some time. Crumbling started even before. The story unfolding is hilarious, plot childish like everything else. Do actors have regrets for taking part in flicks like this or the money is good consolation for taking part in this ridicule!?

Ah man, this was simply in a word....bad. The two lead actors had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever which is surprising watching Martin Lawrence in some of his previous films with Steve Zahn, Danny DeVito and of course Will Smith, where the chemistry was always spot on. I've never heard or even seen that lady who played his partner who was nothing more than a Clarice Starling surrogate in anything else worth watching, who had a much meatier script and way more screen time than Martin and still couldn't pull off making this watchable. I turned it off five times before even finishing because the story was so flat. It had vibes of Silence of Lambs in which Malcolvich is the supposedly Hannibal Lecter surrogate....not and a slight vibe of Seven because of the way methodical ways the serial killers left his victims. Overall this serial killer film is barely watchable only because it's mundane and has been done a whole lot better before. What was Martin thinking......ouch.

Martin fan here. I'll also candidly admit, we watched to see if he could pull off a strictly serious role because we didn't remember any movie in which he previously did so... NOPE. It was just, strange. Not sure if it was the acting, script or chemistry or a combination but just.. NO. Secondly, there were so many scenes that just screamed careless. Driving while the car was obviously in park... ect. Did even they TRY? All in all, the had an interesting premise (albeit a ripoff in large chunks) that given to the right team could have been interesting. The twist at the end was cute. Husband fell asleep and I sat there.. SOUR.

There is absolute zero connection between Melissa Roxburgh vs Martin Lawrence & the rest of the crew. This destroyed all my enthusiasm to watch this hunt for a serial killer. There is no magic at all in her acting, as already noticed how she also ruined my pleasure in watching almost four seasons of Manifest.

Besides this terrible fact, the story feels like a copycat by itself. Sorry, normally I like John Malkovich very much, but here he can not even come close to for instance Anthony Hopkins, who played also a mindplaying monster, helping a detective from his cell, in the hunt for another serial killer who copies The Artist's killings.

My take: Mindcage is a well made, interesting, good film. Unsettling when it should to be, mostly strong performances, and an overall good mystery. However, the plot twist is extremely overhyped. Many are describing this movie as having a "great" plot twist. Maybe it's just me, but when I hear that, I assume it's also going to be a satisfying twist. Having watched this film earlier today, I can say that I am slightly disappointed. The most satisfying plot twists are ones that the film builds up to for most of the movie, and this one is only presented in the last 15 minutes. The twist is pretty cool, don't get me wrong, but I cannot say that I am completely satisfied.

My score: 7/10.

A classic detective thriller with a demonic edge, this film manages to keep the suspense running till the very end. With one of the most dramatic and scary personal chase sequences ever brought to the big or small screen, this film has it all, including a strong cast (John Malkovich and Martin Lawrence in a surprisingly convincing non comedic role.)

Now available on Netflix and Tubi, if you have a spare evening, watch this movie. Some great lines, a truly chilling storyline and believable characters played by a superb cast, all add up to make this a movie well worth a look. Recommended: 8/10.

This movie grabbed my attention from the trailer. Usually, I watch movies on my laptop while traveling, often pausing and coming back to them later, so bear that in mind. The plot kept me guessing, in a good way, taking turns I didn't see coming and leaving me pondering long after it ended.

I've watched several movies in this genre, and always like when the lead detective role is played by a Woman. Melissa Roxburgh, portraying Detective Mary, delivered a compelling performance as a haunted detective, which resonated with me partly because I'm a big fan of the "Manifest" TV series. Overall, it was worth watching.

The movie itself copy the Seven and Silence of the Lambs formula, but with a far worst cast and an extremely low budget for the Fx's.

So, first acting is bad keeping in mind who the main characters are here. The only who make an OK job is John Malkovich. All the others are pretty bad here.

Second, the script is interesting till it become obvious. The Twist is Ok, but not credible. So, it's just a bit dissapointing.

Last, Fx's are the worst I've seen in a long time. It's soap Opera level. Looks like they couldn't even shot an action scene decently.

So, even all it's flaws, it is quite entertaining if your are looking for the new version of The Silence of the Dambs.

This tries so hard to be every good thriller ever made wrapped into 1 and the acting is HORRENDOUS. The flashbacks are laughable. A copy cat serial killer is on the loose and a new pretty detective is partnered with an older black detective who lost his partner in a gruesome way and he's now jaded. The line "she's not ready" just so typical. It rips off Seven, Silence of the Lambs, copycat and it does it horribly. It's just bad. Really bad. Even John Malkovich couldn't save this movie. Skip this one. I watched it for free and I feel like I got ripped off, so save yourself the $ and your time. It's THAT bad.

I'm sure Melissa Roxburgh is a lovely gal and all; but she seems to only have two facial expressions and one tone of voice. It's like watching a puppet made from paper and a popsicle stick frankly; gave up watching Manifest cuz I just felt annoyed every time she came on screen.

I tried to push through this, as I usually like Malkovitch; but he kinda phoned this one in, truth be told. Not sure if the writers even bothered to pick up the phone (so to speak); as they seem to have just copied and pasted Silence of the Lambs really.

I didn't go into this expecting much; yet they managed to leave me disappointed nonetheless.