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Lakeview Terrace (2008)
Director: Neil LaBute
Movie review
From Time Out New York
Though the connection is never mentioned explicitly, Lakeview Terrace is named for the Los Angeles district where Rodney King was beaten in 1991—the natural backdrop for this ungainly hybrid of Cape Fear and Crash. A yuppie couple (Wilson and Washington) moves to a diverse block next door to a widowed, vaguely militant police officer (Jackson), who claims to be out to protect the neighborhood but also seems a little hostile toward his neighbors’ interracial marriage. He’ll harass them, but always staying on one side of the law.
Furrowing his brow as if concentrating on a bench press, Jackson walks off with the film. Still, Lakeview Terrace might have been more coherent if his character were simply a man trying to do what he thought was right rather than a loose cannon even by LAPD standards. Neil LaBute didn’t write this film, and it shows; the attempts to tweak racial stereotypes are undermined by the schematics of David Loughery and Howard Korder’s screenplay—or perhaps the Hollywood committee-think imposed upon it. “What we need,” you picture an exec saying, “is a really dumb motivational backstory.” And so it goes that the movie’s careful ambiguities are shot to hell by dollar-book Freud. Lakeview Terrace is gripping, ambitious and, by the time it ends, quite stupid.
Author: Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out New York Issue 677: September 18 - September 24, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- Jack London said...
- Posted on Jun 04 2009 03:52 Cliched and extremely disappointing.
- Report as inappropriate
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- Robert said...
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Posted on Apr 01 2009 14:50
I thought this film was appauling.
I have never wrote review in my life...and here i am making a special exception to the norm only to tell folk not to see this.
This could have been done so much better, the concept and ideas were top..
It just wasn't followed through.
I think this films emptyness is the fault of writers, directors...etc. - Report as inappropriate
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- Steve said...
- Posted on Nov 20 2008 07:07 I really enjoyed it- For once it wasn't the usual middle of the road, predictable drivvel that you come to expect from Hollywood which caters for the lowest common denominator.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Neil LaBute
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Ron Glass, Justin Chambers, Jay Hernandez, Regine Nehy, Jaishon Fisher full cast
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 106 mins
US Release: Sep 19 2008
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