The weekend’s near-certain winner, according to Fantasy Moguls’ Steve Mason, will be Neil LaBute‘s Lakeview Terrace (Sony). Given the obviously sour and malignant vibe coming off this film, interest levels can probably be attributed to the drawing power of Samuel L. Jackson‘s attitude schtick.
What else could it be? What could this movie seem to bring to the table that anyone would want to savor?
In the view of N.Y. Press critic Armond White, Lakeview Terrace “is tiresome largely because Jackson’s Belligerent Black Man antics are so predictable. He’s dug a lowdown niche; and movie after movie he keeps shoveling crap over himself. It also raises the leprous itch of director Neil LaBute, whose own predictable shtick is to scratch at society’s sore spots. LaBute is not the credited screenwriter of Lakeview Terrace; yet it carries his stench.
“LaBute isn’t skilled enough to direct an action-thriller that evokes real-world politics. Unable to create tension, he just exacerbates our uneasy social pacts — a stunt that could only be tolerated in a nihilistic age. It’s important to clearly state that Jackson and LaBute’s cynical routines in Lakeview Terrace offend human decency, but I’m brushing their dirt off my shoulder.”