One of the complaints critics have about "Mindcage" is that it takes from the greats and fails to reach the same level. Spectrum Culture's Miyako Pleines summarized, "A movie about a copycat killer can't resist being a copycat itself, often relying on tired tropes from better films," while Fran Hoepfner of TheWrap gave her review the subheading "clichéd serial-killer tale aspires to follow in the footsteps of 'Silence of the Lambs' and TV's 'Hannibal' but goes nowhere."
The film marks one of the rare occasions Martin Lawrence has ventured away from comedy, which is a fresh take for fans. Does he stick the landing, though? As AV Club's Brent Simon argues, "Malkovich and Martin Lawrence aren't enough to elevate director Mauro Borrelli's throwback to 1990s serial killer films." Thankfully, Lawrence will be back to what he's good at when he reunites with Will Smith in "Bad Boys 4," which is set for release on June 14.
Check out "Mindcage" now on Netflix.
