Review of Lakeview Terrace (2008) by Zane T — 25 Jul 2009

What a great missed chance. This could have been a great thriller with a thought provoking social commentary. Instead, it becomes a silly by the numbers cliched Hollywood thriller. Basically, Samuel L.

Jackson, acting more and more like that parody Dave Chapelle did of him, plays a LAPD officer who doesn't like it that his next door neighbors are an interracial couple. White husband/black wife. The new bicker back and forth in a Grumpy Old Men fashion before it turns really violent.

The movie ends with Jackson tussling with Patrick Wilson and his wife, Kerry Washington, as wildires burn in the background. There's a shootout and the movie ends with a dopey final line. What is missed here is a social commentary on interracial married couples especially in a neighborhood where the residents are predominantly white.

There is something said by a resident about having a "black" cop living next door but nothing is done of this. Is Jackson's character a bigot or is he mad because his late wife may have been having an affair with a white man? The movie hints at all these questions, but doesn't have the balls to answer them.

There's too much useless scenes of Jackson and his neighbors duking it out to look at what the other neighbors think of him or what they think of the interracial couple. This could have been a great movie if the filmmakers had dared make the characters more than cardboard characters.