Lakeview Terrace
Samuel L Jackson can do one thing really well. He can play angry with the best of them. In the new movie ââŹĹLakeview TerraceââŹÂ he gets to do that all movie long. Jackson plays an LAPD officer with an attitude who thinks he is the keeper of his neighborhood. When a new couple moves in next door, he decides he doesnââŹâ˘t want them there. The couple happens to be interracial (she is black and he is white). The problem is, Jackson was so over the top psycho that I did not buy for one minute that everyone around him did not notice. Was everyone else just blind to crazy? This is probably my biggest problem with the movie.
The movie was directed by Neil LaBute, who broke new ground when he wrote and directed ââŹĹIn the Company of Men (1997). It is safe to say that with Lakeview Terrace, the director did not take any chances, did not break any new ground, and maybe even just phoned it in.
I would have liked to have seen the racial discrimination addressed in a smarter more innovative way, something worthy of my time, something to talk about.Ă Instead, it winds up being an unimaginative clichĂŠ. In the end, the movie turns out to be a thriller sans thrills, sprinkled with a little social commentary sans actual commentary.
