The solution to getting more rates is if we ALL rate from the 'newest reviews' list! Forget rating ...
The solution to getting more rates is if we ALL rate from the 'newest reviews' list! Forget rating back. Ciao clearly dont want you to do that any more
Member since:13.05.2008
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When you watch Samuel L Jackson movies you know what you're going to get from the worlds coolest actor. He's as cinematic as they come and after the success of The Incredibles (2004), Jackson surpassed Harrison Ford as the highest ever grossing movie star - in excess of $3 billion in his career. He is quite simply dynamite on screen and, like Will Smith, can pretty much carry any movie; including Snakes on a Plane (which is not as bad as they say guys), an actor that will take on pretty much any script, a genuine movie star, embraced by all colours of the cinema audience.
Lakeside Terrace is the area of Los Angeles where Rodney king got his beating in 1991, here a fictional middle-class cul-de sac, but the film very much about those simmering themes of racial tension and aspiration in California. His character of Officer Abel Turner here is effectively a continuation of his white hating role in Die Hard 3, Jackson very good at playing the brooding black man resentful of people of other colours, his real life upbringing in the sixties very much a black radical one, once kidnapping his school board of trustees in a college protest when he got involved with Martin
Luther King groups back in the 60s. He really is American cinemas simmering black voice of oppression and reconciliation.
-The Cast-
Samuel L. Jackson ... Abel Turner Patrick Wilson ... Chris Mattson Kerry Washington ... Lisa Mattson Ron Glass ... Harold Perreau Justin Chambers ... Donnie Eaton Jay Hernandez ... Javier Villarreal Regine Nehy ... Celia Turner Jaishon Fisher ... Marcus Turner
-The Plot-
Jackson plays Abel Turner, a time served LAPD officer who has his own way of dealing with the bad guys on his beat, already catching the eye of internal affairs. But it's his new neighbours he wants to shake down, multi racial professional couple Chris and Lisa Mattson, moving in a cross the terrace. Lisa (Kerry Washington) and her very white boy husband Chris (Patrick Wilson) are childless and Lisa is hoping to start a family in their starter home. Abel does have kids, Celia (Regine Nehy) and Marcus (Jaishon Fisher), but mom no longer around, the source of Abel's undercurrent of anger in his job and down time.
It soon becomes clear to Chris and Lisa that Abel doesn't like black and white being together, which triggers not only your normal boundary and neighbour disputes but racial fault lines. But Abel is a cop and so his threats more serious, the young couple soon rowing with each other just as much as Chris fails in his manly duties to resolve the issue, Abel's intention. He wants them to leave the cul-de-sac.
When Chris finds his tyres have been slashed and his residence air conditioning tampered with events take a sinister turn and its no longer about territory, Abel right in their face and clearly having a breakdown of sorts, all this around a scrub fire raging in the nearby suburbs and closing in fast on Lakeview Terrace as the tension rears up even more between the two camps like the nearing flames.
-The Conclusion-
Let's face it we will watch pretty much anything SLJ does and that includes this, which really isn't much and only something because he's on board. Saying that it has followed on from 'Crash' and tried to tackle sensitive race issues that fester in Los Angeles like no other place on Earth. By making Chris very white in character, uncomfortable in that way white people can be around black people, it allows the film to explore that racial dynamic, SLJ character a likewise exaggerated angry black guy to grow the contrast.
Making Lisa black but very white and conservative in her attitudes makes her the perfect foil to start the war, but the tension less racial and more about the resentment black people often feel toward whites in America because they appear to have more.
It's no Crash, guys, but its ok, but without the principal white guy being a big name star like Samuel L Jackson is it doesn't quite work as well. The white man is shown as feeble and unable to protect his girl and so the film becomes all about SLJ. Now there's nothing wrong with that but the whole thing loses its edge and point then. Michael Madsen would have made a great neighbour, SLJ clearly picking the actor he's up against so to slaughter him on screen in an unfair fight, this role just as much about his simmering race anger from the 60s as it is about director Neil Labutes friendly film. The forest fire metaphor doesn't really work either (presumably burning racial tension sweeping across the city) and the quality of writing doesn't try hard enough to exploit the message of the film on that sensitive ground.
= = = = Special Features = = = =
-Audio commentary-
Director Neil Labute bores us with his layered track. Some movies just don't deserve audio commentaries.
-Deleted Scenes-
-Welcome to Lakeside Terrace: behind the scenes-
A truly pointless behind the scenes chat with cast and crew.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Imdb.com scores it 6.3 out of 10.0 (13,662) RuN-TiMe 110 minutes Any 2 films for 2 nights for a fiver at Blockbusters... = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Summary: SLJ doing his thang!
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Advantages: Good story, Nice acting, Strong values and messages, Abel's character Disadvantages: Limited filming location, some may be disapointed and find it a little boring.
blackmagicstar4 28.07.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of LakeviewTerrace (DVD)
Sep 9th, 2009
(Sep 11th, 2009)
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