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      Lakeview Terrace

      PG-13 Released Sep 19, 2008 1 hr. 46 min. Mystery & Thriller Drama List
      45% 166 Reviews Tomatometer 39% 100,000+ Ratings Audience Score An uptight cop (Samuel L. Jackson), the self-appointed watchdog of his neighborhood, strongly disapproves of the interracial newlyweds (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington) who just moved in next door. He becomes increasingly hostile toward the innocent pair, going to great lengths to force them out of their home. The situation changes when the young couple decide to fight back. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Feb 06 Buy Now

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      Lakeview Terrace

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      Lakeview Terrace

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      Critics Consensus

      This thriller about a menacing cop wreaking havoc on his neighbors is tense enough but threatens absurdity when it enters into excessive potboiler territory.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Alec B The movie is obviously a very deliberate provocation (and one that I would argue is completely legitimate) but the issue is that the movie gets sillier and sillier as it goes along. By the end it just goes completely off the rails which undermines the tension. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/24 Full Review Bruno V Filme elegante com nuances incríveis de um verdadeiro cinema. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/24 Full Review Rick H Terrible movie, should have been titled ‘The Crazy N. Next Door'. Easy skip. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 12/11/23 Full Review Dan W This movie gets more irritating and pointless with every minute that goes by. Silly and horribly annoying. Jackson was great but everything else was garbage. A very lazy put together "fighting back against an unreasonable neighbor" concept. I've seen worse neighborhood conflict in an elderly housing community than this. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/14/23 Full Review donnie m 'COULD' have been a good movie but it should be called-HOW STUPID ARE YOU? especially to the husband played by Patrick Wilson Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/23 Full Review Ola G A newlywed interracial couple, Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington), are moving into their first home. Chris's first exchanges with their neighbor, widowed and longtime LAPD police officer and African-American man Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), have somewhat hostile undertones, with Abel making comments about Chris' smoking (which Abel later exposes to Lisa) and listening to hip hop music, and making remarks about his race in his relationship with Lisa. The following night, Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool. Unbeknownst to them, Abel's children, Marcus and Celia, are watching them. Abel arrives home and witnesses the spectacle. Angered, he repositions his house security floodlights to shine into Chris and Lisa's bedroom window, keeping them awake. Abel begins to insinuate to Chris that he disapproves of his marriage and that he wants them to move out of their new neighborhood. One evening, Chris and Lisa hear noises downstairs and find the tires on Chris' car slashed. Suspecting Abel, they call the police, who are unable to do anything because of Abel's status within the LAPD. Chris retaliates by shining his own floodlights into Abel's bedroom. Lisa later reveals she is pregnant, creating conflict with Chris, who does not yet want children. Meanwhile, Abel is suspended without pay for abusing a suspect, inciting more fury within him... Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus reads, "This thriller about a menacing cop wreaking havoc on his neighbors is tense enough but threatens absurdity when it enters into excessive potboiler territory." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a very positive review, awarding it his highest rating of four stars and saying: "Some will find it exciting. Some will find it an opportunity for an examination of conscience. Some will leave feeling vaguely uneasy. Some won't like it and will be absolutely sure why they don't, but their reasons will not agree. Some will hate elements that others can't even see. Some will only see a thriller. I find movies like this alive and provoking, and I'm exhilarated to have my thinking challenged at every step of the way." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also enjoyed the film, saying: "In its overall shape and message, Lakeview Terrace is a conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch. ... The fun of Lakeview Terrace is not in what happens but in how it happens." J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader called the film "one of the toughest racial dramas to come out of Hollywood since the fires died down – much tougher, for instance, than Paul Haggis's hand-wringing Oscar winner Crash." Dennis Harvey of Variety said that Lakeview Terrace "delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama" but "succumbs to thriller convention." Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said that "the first hour of the film ... feels dangerous, necessary, and rife with comic disturbance," but added that "the later stages ... overheat and spill into silliness." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two stars out of four, saying that "the first two-thirds of Lakeview Terrace offer a little more subtlety and complexity than the seemingly straightforward premise would afford, but the climax is loud, dumb, generic, and over-the-top." Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said that "the movie might have something to say about black racism, but the conversations go nowhere, and the clichés of the genre take over." Sura Wood of The Hollywood Reporter said: "[The idea of] a black actor cast as the virulent bigot, with the object of his campaign of harassment the young interracial couple who move in next door, could be viewed as a novel twist. But the film, absent a sense of place and populated by repellent or weak characters, soon devolves into an increasingly foul litany of events." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave it one half of a star out of five, and called the film a "joyless and airless suspense thriller." (via Wikipedia) We have seen this sort of storyline a few times before. Like "Pacific Heights" starring Michael Keaton as the antagonist. "Lakeview Terrace" has a stretched story with not much to get excited about and as mentioned ends up in clichés of the genre. The characters are a bit weak and you struggle to cheer for couple played by Wilson and Washington while Samuel L. Jackson does Samuel L. Jackson as usual. Trivia: The plot was loosely based on real life events in Altadena, California involving an interracial couple, John and Mellaine Hamilton, and Irsie Henry, an African-American Los Angeles police officer. The saga was documented in a series of articles in both the Pasadena Star News and the Pasadena Weekly beginning in 2002. Journalist Andre Coleman received a Los Angeles' Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism for his series of articles in the Weekly. Henry was eventually fired by the LAPD for his actions. (via Wikipedia) Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      This movie is featured in the following articles.

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      Critics Reviews

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      Deborah Ross The Spectator Alas, LaBute loses it entirely in the third and final act, when he yields entirely to genre convention and allows it all to explode into a shoot-out of the utmost silliness. Feb 1, 2018 Full Review Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: C Feb 18, 2012 Full Review Derek Adams Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Until the last fifteen minutes of the film when LaBute ceases to challenge us, but rather aggravates circumstances to the predictable nature of Hollywood potboilers, there’s much to admire. Rated: 3/4 Sep 5, 2023 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Jackson portrays the primary antagonist with a truly gleeful menace. Rated: 5/10 Nov 28, 2020 Full Review Jason Best What's On TV Jackson is much more menacing when he is quietly insinuating than when he reaches for his gun, and Lakeview Terrace is much more disturbing before the film's corrosive racial resentment and hatred spills into actual violence. Nov 15, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An uptight cop (Samuel L. Jackson), the self-appointed watchdog of his neighborhood, strongly disapproves of the interracial newlyweds (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington) who just moved in next door. He becomes increasingly hostile toward the innocent pair, going to great lengths to force them out of their home. The situation changes when the young couple decide to fight back.
      Director
      Neil LaBute
      Executive Producer
      John Cameron, David Loughery, Jeffrey Graup, Joe Pichirallo
      Screenwriter
      David Loughery, Howard Korder
      Distributor
      Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Entertainment
      Production Co
      Overbrook Entertainment
      Rating
      PG-13 (Language|Intense Thematic Material|Sexuality|Some Drug References|Violence)
      Genre
      Mystery & Thriller, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Sep 19, 2008, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jul 1, 2012
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $39.3M
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