Drums up the odd moment of effective mild suspense before succumbing to standard genre shenanigans
Comment
10/06/08
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
47
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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 critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticLakeview Terrace is a serviceable enough popcorn exercise in a few floundering Angelenos who can't just get along.
09/19/08
Top CriticHaving an angry Samuel L Jackson as your nasty neighbour would be anybody's idea of bad news. Tense and terrifying, this is a smart thriller.
12/05/08
The neighborhood bully with a badge and a smile.
09/15/08
Very much another gleaming surface Hollywood entertainment, but LaBute has once again managed to find something squirming and icky -- and horrifyingly truthful -- inside.
09/18/08
But this cop, played with wicked finesse by Jackson while the script allows, deserves the chance to strut his hour in the smoke-free sun.
12/05/08
Simmering acceleration from the grey area of implication to the black and white reality of acute humiliation.
09/15/08
A tense and mostly satisfying take on race relations and the deep-seeded hatred some try to suppress, Lakeview Terrace realistically depicts such a heated scenario by giving equal voice to both sides.
09/18/08
A polished, self-conscious heir to such unapologetic grindhouse race-baiters as 1977's 'Fight for Your Life'...
10/24/08
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
It's too bad the movie's moderately intriguing qualities are buried under the final half-hour's avalanche of predictability.
09/18/08
Like the fires creeping toward the Lakeview Terrace neighborhood, the film soon gets out of control and flies off the deep end.
10/08/08
Labute's reputation rests in large part on his penchant for provocation and his facility in inverting cliches, and both are on full display in Lakeview Terrace.
09/19/08
From certain angles, Lakeview Terrace may look neurotic or even reactionary, but I found it bracingly tactless, particularly because interracial couples are still something of a taboo in modern Hollywood.
12/05/08
Top CriticLakeview Terrace winds itself into a predictable tale, but the performances set this one apart from the genre pack.
09/19/08
A glossy "bad cop" thriller that achieves only a banal, surface-level recreation of Neil LaBute's old cage-rattling proclivities.
09/24/08
Such a hammer-on-anvil approach that it's clear LaBute and his writers place little trust in subtlety and damn near none in off-message complexity.
10/07/08
A nasty neighbor movie that fails to engage us.
09/20/08
Aside from the uneven pacing, it's a thought-provoking film and pretty entertaining. I just don't think it needed to be a thriller. It just seemed like an excuse to start people talking.
09/21/08
Lakeview Terrace may smack of cheap exploitation, but it’s pretty great exploitation.
09/19/08
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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