Overlook Entertainment/Screen Gems
Released September 19, 2008
Well... This one was tough. The film had one big problem -- it was inherent in the writing process that the theme of the film would be racism. Once they established that as a theme, they then decided to write a movie. When there is too much attention paid to the theme and it is not something hidden or interwoven as racism was in Crash, then it becomes all too obvious what every major conflict is going to be about. And in Lakeview Terrace, race and racism were the entire driving force behind the film.
It takes a lot for me to not see Samuel L. Jackson in a movie. I even went to see Black Snake Moan although it looked very odd to me (and turned out to be okay, I think I reviewed is sometime before the summer). And Sam was good and had a good character and was a great antagonist in the film. The problem was, it was tough to find a protagonist to be in love with.
Patrick Wilson (Running With Scissors) and Kerry Washington (Little Man) are the married, racially mixed couple who move into a new neighborhood in SoCal right next door to the (if you saw any advertisement or trailer) very easily disturbed Jackson. But neither character was likable. Wilson (Chris Mattson) was a hard nosed dickhead who was mean to his wife and Washington (Lisa Mattson) was obnoxious, secretly malicious and wore horrible glasses throughout. So the viewer was left to make the antagonist (Jackson) the only likable character although he was a major jerk. The lack of likable characters made it tough to root for anyone in this thriller.
A fun movie to gander if you have seen everything else in theaters. Sam Jackson was super badass. If that is all you need, than be my guest and check out this big B film.
2 out of 4
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