Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

Absolutely the worst movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Lakeview Terrace is such a relentlessly dull nothing of a movie that I was actually grateful for the censor's inevitable snipping of bad words, blood, and Kerry Washington barfing. Anything to shorten the dreary predictability.I was annoyed at how Samuel L. Jackson just phoned in his performance. Here is a man who, like a small number of actors and actresses in movie history, can command the viewer's attention by doing something as mundane as advertising a credit card, and he turns up more mendacious than menacing. Jackson should never be boring, but here, he does just enough to get a paycheck. Patrick Wilson and Washington are so unappealing that I could not care what happened to them, all before the melodramatic comeuppance of Jackson's violent, controlling LAPD patrolman. Ugh. Even free ugh is still ugh.

Lakeview Terrace is a very poor movie with a dull storyline and an overall uninspired cast.Samuel L. Jackson does a great job and will always be an outstanding actor,but he still wasn't enough to make this movie decent,the only scenes that I really liked were when we got to see his character working for the LAPD,which we saw very little of.Kerry Washington did the best she could with the character she was given,sadly it was a boring character that lacked any interesting personality traits,but I found Patrick Wilson's character very annoying,he wouldn't stick up to Jackson's character and couldn't defend his own household and I found the character unlikeable.Lakeview Terrace is a really slow and mediocre movie that I think people would be better off avoiding.A racist veteran LAPD cop starts a violent campaign of intimidation and harassment against his new neighbours because of their interracial relationship. Best Performance: Samuel L. Jackson Worst Performance: Patrick Wilson

Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is a tough aggressive LAPD officer living with his two kids with lots of rules. Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington) move in next door. Abel isn't happy with the couple, and tension rises.Director Neil LaBute is supposedly putting together a little treatise on racial politics. But it's really just a way to a cheap thriller. The problem is nobody is likable. Nobody is compelling. It's the annoying neighborhood spate that everybody rolls their eyes at while desperately trying to avoid. That's what I feel when I watch this. I like to avoid this if at all possible.

Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is a well-respected LAPD officer and the self-appointed watchdog for his upper class California neighborhood. His wife has died, he has two kids, Marcus (Jaishon Fisher) and Celia (Regine Nehy), whom he heavily protects and disciplines, but his cockiness and overpowering instincts runs far outside the lines of his family. It all starts when an interracial couple moves in next door. They are the white Chris and the black Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), who are young, spry, and hoping to start a family in their first home.Instantaneously, right after their first interaction together, Chris notices that Abel is subtly hostile towards him, making mildly inappropriate, smarmy remarks about his smoking and his fondness of hip-hop music, and even keenly mentions how "black" he seems to act. Abel's disdain for his new neighbors grows when his kids notice both Chris and Lisa having sex in their swimming pool. This is where Abel begins what will become a long line of events in efforts to provoke and intimidate the couple, as well as make them question their decision to live in this neighborhood cul de sac.His first idea is to reposition his bright security lights to shine right in the Mattson's bedroom window. Another step is by being blunt and ostentatious at their housewarming party to not only them, but their guests and friends. As the abuse begins to increase, so does the couples' level of patience, tolerance, and willful kindness. In the meantime, there is an unmanageable wildfire that is slowly consuming much of the wilderness of the area and is slowly approaching this humble residential area.Samuel L. Jackson gives a brave, unsettling performance as Abel, a clearly unstable man and a selective racist. As the film goes on and his acts become increasingly devious and destructive, Jackson only amps up this role and takes it to new heights. He is an actor of two main screen presences, such as the wise-cracking, no-nonsense handyman (Pulp Fiction) and the nuanced, morally devout individual (Black Snake Moan). Here, he blends both of his iconic and recognizable characteristics together to create a character that is taut, provoking, and chilling in a plethora of sequences.He carries the film, along with the other performances that have more than enough room to maneuver and dodge the predictable clichés, such as Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Wilson's Chris is pushed to actions far beyond the normal ones he usually takes, and this is what makes his performances one that works on multiple levels. Writers David Loughery and Howard Korder push their characters past the normal conventions they tend to operate on, and tests them with dilemmas that stem from another person's response to their relationship and life.But is Abel doing this because he a racist or because he likes to test others patience? Is this is a sick little game that's purpose is to act on more levels than one? The film asks questions and provides itself the ability to be looked at with several different lenses, almost assuring that every person who goes to see this film will see something different. Something like that is not often illustrated with mainstream films, but because of Lakeview Terrace's well-written screenplay, more development and leeway is given to the areas usually confined to one general view.This is immensely better, more creative, and more accomplished and enticing than Paul Haggis's Crash, the film that won Best Picture in 2004. Crash was a cookie-cutter film, attempting to establish one big anthology film that would "introduce us" to dense characters, pulling the race card and acting as a pot of water seconds away from over-boiling. Its characters were thin, underdeveloped stereotypes, its screenplay was heavy-handed and formulaic, and its ending was almost complete and tonal banal.Lakeview Terrace centers on a story that could've been added to Crash's line of thin story lines, but like few of the ones from that particular film, has the many levels of complexity and depth that could easily spawn a feature-length film in and of itself. The film progresses along with sharp dialog, character relations and interactions that are devilish and raw, notable suspense as well as stylish art direction, and it is all placed inside a pot where moral issues and questions surround the entire picture.Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Ron Glass, and Jay Hernandez. Directed by: Neil LaBute.