Lakeview Terrace

Synopsis

In Lakeview Terrace, a young couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) has just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their intolerable next-door neighbor (Samuel L. Jackson), who disapproves of their interracial relationship and aims to make that known.

Review

This film should be called Crazy Eyes. Samuel L. Jackson (Jumper) had the crazy eye for the majority of the movie. He didn’t even need to open his mouth to say what he was thinking. His eyes spoke a thousand words. Lakeview Terrace is very intense at times and will have you guessing if there is some type of twist or not. All I know is Samuel’s crazy eye stares had me cracking up. It’s a trademark of his performance—and an essential part of what makes this film entertaining and sometimes a little funny.

Officer Abel Turner (Samuel) is an LAPD police officer that is also a ‘crack-the-whip’ type of father, but takes good care of his kids since their mother died. He’s elected himself the neighborhood watchdog as he literally foot-steps it throughout his neat and tidy suburbia plan. Some folks in his neighborhood think it’s great that a cop is their neighbor, but I’m absolutely sure the new young couple, Chris (Patrick Wilson, Passengers) and Lisa (Kerry Washington, I think I love My Wife) Mattson beg to differ. Ole’ Angry Abel becomes annoyingly aggressive to his next-door neighbors who are a lovely interracial couple. Abel uses no tact. OKAY? He truly takes a dim view of their relationship. I’m talking the kind of overt and subtle racism that you usually see the other way around in movies.

There are some extremely strong moments of alpha male personality going on in this flick. If movies about race or bigotry bother you, then Lakeview Terrace is not the film for you. Race is talked about in a way that I’ve heard and seen in real life. The couple breaks some issues down in their own way from what they’ve experienced in their marriage as an interracial couple and Samuel, besides being aggressive, and missing some screws, brings up race in his own way. Frankly, he is way over-the-top. Actually, he’s a straight up crazy-eyed [crass]hole.

Sort of like this, minus the Jheri curl:

The racial insults and sly remarks by Samuel's character just makes you want to pop him in the eye. Abel really knows how to utilize his physical features—his sly grin, posture, and those crazy eyes—to really have you talking about what you'd do if you had an intimidating neighbor like him. Abel was so over the top, it was almost unbelievable. I stress ALMOST.

The back-story as to why Abel is the angry black man takes forever to even get to. Half of the movie is over before we even find out the source of his loony ways. It’s actually a somewhat believable reason, but what's so funny is he's cool with his other multicultural neighbors but ”oh heck to the naw” when it comes to a white man with a "chocolate drop" (to quote Able). They gots to go!

Because of poor casting, interracial couples often looked forced (See Mirrors). This causes the movie to start to seem a little unbelievable. When you can’t imagine the characters loving and caring for each other, you don’t care who gets shot, gets stabbed or can’t get out of the car that falls in the lake. You don’t care for the other person. I’m happy to say this movie does have good chemistry between Chris and Lisa. Their marriage is a typical one with their loving moments, disagreements and teamwork. I like how they spent time on the characters and addressed real-world issues with a mixed couple, but the scenes weren’t at all preachy or stretched out.

Lakeview has its classic moments when the good people do dumb things, one being going to an afternoon barbecue at Angry Abel’s house KNOWING he can't stand their ebony and ivory butts. I do applaud having guts, but some battles just aren't worth winning when it comes to dealing with lunatics with crazy eyes.

I know the scene is not from this movie but Sam is crazy in this movie, y’all!

Samuel has some layers to his character. As a father, he is so intense I had to close my eyes because I was scared to see what he’d say or do. Funny thing is, he’s a fictitious father, but I was thinking…”ohhhhhh, his kids are in trouble.” Samuel’s kids (Regine Nehy and Jaishon Fisher) are cute and truly come off as if they are brother and sister. They add to the overall dynamic of the film. They’re likable and funny. The teenage daughter acts like a usual teenage girl who feels like she is misunderstood by pops the angry black man. I think it was ON once Samuel and his youngins saw Chris and Lisa hot, wet and butt naked doing the nasteeeey all up in their pool.

Some of you may not remember these movies from WAYYY back in the early nineties, but Lakeview has a cross fill of Pacific Heights starring Michael Keaton as the neighbor/tenant from hell and Unlawful Entry starring Ray Liotta as an unsavory crazy cop. Samuel's character bites some of Keaton's and Liotta's mannerisms. Lakeview is a pretty entertaining film with just enough juice behind it for a matinee. You definitely have to see it if you're a Samuel fan. His crazy eyes are funny. I missed a free screening for it and had to pay $10.00 and wasn’t upset by the cost at the end of the film. The ending could have been a little bit better—it’s a little predictable and it’s been done many times in movies, prime-time television and on my soap operas. But what are you going to do?

Yeah yeah this is a scene from The Negotiator but look at the eyes, people!

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)