Mindcage review: This The Silence of the Lambs knockoff does little to impress

1/5

Story: When a copycat murderer strikes, detectives Jake Doyle (Martin Lawrence) and Mary Kelly (Melissa Roxburgh) seek help from an incarcerated serial killer called The Artist (John Malkovich). Mary and Jake get lured into a diabolical game of cat and mouse, racing against time to stay one step ahead of both criminals.

Review: The film is 96 minutes long, and that is perhaps the best thing about Mindcage. The film aspires to be like Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster's 1991 hit The Silence of the Lambs but fails miserably.

While expectations may not be very high for this B-grade film, one does expect Martin Lawrence to make good choices when picking films. But even he can’t save this film, which might have sounded good on paper but whose end result completely fails to impress.

When a copycat killer strikes and they seem to have reached a dead end, detectives Mary Kelly (Melissa Roxburgh) and Jake Doyle (Martin Lawrence) take the help of an incarcerated serial killer named The Artist (John Malkovich).

While the story has several twists and turns, the poor production value severely harms the thrill, resulting in several cringeworthy moments.

Such little thought (and finances) has been given to the production that even the sound echoes at times. Such basics are expected from even low-budget films, which makes one wonder why the makers overlooked such a basic requirement of filmmaking.

The VFX is so poor that you get to know exactly which scenes were filmed in front of a green screen because the graphics are just that bad!

As far as some of the big reveals go — they are a damp squid and, frankly, embarrassingly ridiculous.

Verdict: The film has little to offer and is one that can easily be skipped and ignored. You can’t help but wonder what an actor like Martin Lawrence was going through when he signed on the dotted line for this film. Give this one a skip unless, maybe, you’re looking for a new drinking game.