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Bookmark this pageLakeview Terrace (2008)
Director: Neil LaBute
Movie review
From Time Out London
Neil LaBute’s sheer perversity is almost admirable. Many careers would simply have folded after a catastrophe like his ‘remake’ of ‘The Wicker Man’, but he’s back again as director-for-hire on… get this… a home-invasion paranoid thriller which whisks us back to the early ’90s yuppies-in-peril scenarios. There is a twist, of course, since the nice couple (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington) moving into a new house are of mixed race, which sure does push the buttons of their neighbour, hard-ass LA cop Samuel L Jackson, who’s clearly no fan of integration – not least when it involves rumpy-pumpy in the backyard pool visible from his kids’ bedrooms.Bristling umbrage morphs into intimidation and worse, leaving the victims no recourse to the LAPD, while bush fires close in on the suburb where the Rodney King incident unfolded. Understated symbolism or what? Actually, there are hints of a much better movie, since all is not rainbow-nation fulfilment in the couple’s household. Wilson oozes smug WASP-graduate entitlement and the whole set-up gets us questioning our attitudes since one can’t help pondering the effect of making the bullying neighbour white instead. It’s just that Jackson is stuck in a groove of mouthy self-righteousness which makes the character a cartoon long before the script lumbers towards its formulaic showdown. Still, the yawning chasm between the film’s aspirations to social significance and its cheese-o-licious straight-to-video construction make it a chucklesome guilty pleasure.
Author: Trevor Johnston
Time Out London Issue 1998, Dec 4 - 10, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- Eric in Spain said...
- Posted on Jan 05 2010 06:06 A excellent thriller about "reverse racism" and the neighbour from hell. Well worth watching, 8 out of 10.
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- critique said...
- Posted on Dec 18 2008 12:39 I agree with much of what usman khawaja says. The race theme is intriguing and the Jackson and Wilson characters are among the most memorable of this year`s cinema.
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- miles said...
- Posted on Dec 09 2008 16:21 not bad for a hollywood flick
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- Madison said...
- Posted on Dec 09 2008 12:34 i enjoyed this. Samuel L Jackson plays this role with relish and the plot manages to remain within the realms of plausibility right to the end. wouldnt want to live next to either of them personally
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- PERFECT DAY said...
- Posted on Dec 08 2008 21:10 Avoid this film. It is a load of rubbish. Save your money.
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- usman khawaja said...
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Posted on Dec 08 2008 16:32
brilliant black bigot meets worthy white rival-Superficially this movie resembles both CRASH and unlawful ENTRY ,but in its dark and lively heart it is a rather origonal drama with a twist in the race game ,
it plays its trump card with a somewhat cliched but brilliantly cynical jackson matched superbly by an underplaying wilson as the white liberal neighbour ,
rather then mask the racial debate it provokes it and justifies it intelligently but alas only sporadically ,
it falls prey to its own self created cliches of a law enforcer breaking the law while he is much more cleverer and wiser,as he should be to survive as a negro in LAPD ,
it was rather pathetic to see the script nosedive into a ludicrous angle though the racial banter between the two neighbours in a superbly located LA canyon is still stimulating ,
i wish they had given it another twist and made it great instead of just almost good ,
as it stands it rather purports to a lot of genre stereotypes with wonderful acting and some intelligent dialogue which is leagues ahead of the rest of recentv american cinema ,
it is dramatic and about characters you can identify with from virtual reality rather then a mish mash of knights and fairy godmothers ,
it also has stereotypes but there are moments of pure joy and mockery where the two men talk to each other as if the confrontation is going on in our midst and that is an absolute blessing in the creatively bankrupt cinema of today .
usman khawaja - Report as inappropriate
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- anglo said...
- Posted on Dec 07 2008 14:59 hey mate r u talking about the movie or your face -jay
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- jay said...
- Posted on Dec 07 2008 13:42 funny
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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: 15
Duration: 110 mins
UK Release: Dec 5 2008
US Release: Sep 19 2008
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