Drums up the odd moment of effective mild suspense before succumbing to standard genre shenanigans
Comment
10/06/08
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
47
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:70
Rotten:80
Average Rating:5.5/10
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.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jan 29, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $39,263,506
Synopsis: A quick perusal of any of LAKEVIEW TERRACE's promotional materials--its nervy trailer, its foreboding (and painterly) dawn-hued poster featuring Samuel L. Jackson looking less-than-neighborly in... [More]
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Jay Hernandez
Director: Neil LaBute
Reviews for Lakeview Terrace
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticLacking even a Changing Lanes level of insight into America’s racial partition, this old-school, domestic-invasion thriller still has Samuel L Jackson’s twisted enforcer to push the right buttons.
12/05/08
It’s uncomfortable viewing.
12/05/08
Watching this film is like stretching a spring and then letting it go again… and again… gripping and utterly absorbing.
12/05/08
Already an important and controversial American playwright, Neil LaBute is looking to make the same individual mark as a director in films. His most recent effort is an incisive and poignant meditation on race, class and gender relations in America.
09/22/08
By confronting racial issues of many varieties head-on and without flinching, it becomes an explosive work of social commentary
09/16/08
Mr. LaBute has fashioned a suspenseful film out of the peculiar vagaries of the casting, which makes us fear the worst at every turn of the plot.
09/17/08
Lakeview Terrace is well enough made to partly overcome my general distaste for films ... that are unpleasant, yet without catharsis or edification
11/12/08
Lakeside Terrace allows the antagonism to simmer just so, and then, regrettably, lets it boil over in a climax of gunplay and a swathe of Californian brush fires, perhaps the most crashingly symbolic conflagration since Apocalypse Now.
12/05/08
This is a b-grade thriller, but with A-list directing and acting. Jackson turns this routine thriller into something worth going to the theater for.
10/08/08
I found it scary at times and I was tense and I was on the edge of my seat, , but ultimately it did spiral out of control and get a little ridiculous.
11/07/08
The movie is directed by Neil LaBute, whose history suggests he’s comfortable making his audience just uncomfortable enough to make a lasting impression.
11/07/08
This is the kind of movie where every bad guy has his decent side, every hero is merely half-hearted, and the genre beats we except from the story come buried in sidebars of dense characterization and unnecessary sideways subplotting.
09/19/08
Lakeview Terrace is a lot of things you never expected it to be. And most of those things are smart, complicated and provocative in the best way.
09/19/08
While not enough of a straightforward thriller to attract widescale younger audiences, the film is still a very effective showcase for the cool menace that star Samuel L. Jackson can project.
09/15/08
A great trio of actors and a talented writer/director inject Lakeview Terrace with enough unexpected left turns to barely keep it worth recommending.
09/19/08
Neil Labute's examination of the dark fringes of human emotion make Samuel L. Jackson's bulging glare and looming stature unnerving, yet believably sympathetic.
09/27/08
A would-be thriller lacking in suspense, Lakeview Terrace nonetheless commands attention throughout.
09/19/08
Happily, it’s not only a return to form for the one-time Mormon and agent provocateur, it also offers Samuel L Jackson his first decent part in years.
12/05/08
Surprise, surprise. Lakeview Terrace is smarter than its B-movie plot suggests.
09/23/08
Latest News for Lakeview Terrace
January 17, 2009:
Worst case scenario moviemaking, with interracial mating as the cinematic incendiary device of choice, along with Jackson's honed terror tactics that can make you shrivel with the slightest disapproving snarl. 
More...
January 13, 2009:
Interracial mating as the cinematic incendiary device of choice, and it's not white racists that are made to seethe about cross-racial romance, but oddly enough, black folks. Reality check, please.
More...
December 05, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Writers Warm to Madagascar 2; UK Critics Liked Lakeview Terrace
With thirteen new releases in the UK cinemas this weekend, let Rotten Tomatoes help you sort the tinsel from the turkeys. We have animals on the loose in Madagascar: Escape 2... More...
October 20, 2008:
Sam Jackson Talks Lakeview Terrace: Taking The Tough Questions
More...
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