Mindcage

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.

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.

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.

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.