Vecinos en la mira

A young successful interracial couple move into a new home in an exclusive California neighborhood. Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington) are greeted with hostility by their new neighbor, LAPD Sergeant Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), a widower and single father with a son and daughter. Chris and Lisa attempt to be cordial with Abel, inviting him and his family to their home and attending a barbecue Abel throws for some of his fellow officers. Despite this, Abel keeps becoming more disruptive and aggressive to Chris and Lisa. This eventually leads to retaliation on Chris' part and a confrontation with tragic consequences.

This movie despite its racial overtones doesn't break any new ground as a thriller. Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington are a yuppie couple pushed too far and Sam Jackson as Abel is their disturbed neighbor/antagonist who wishes them harm. Definitely nothing new. The acting and script are okay with Sam Jackson's performance easily being the best. The ending is something that can be seen coming a mile away. This film is something you would watch on a slow day if it came on cable.

There's an inherent problem with making a movie of this kind: unless you're a creative genius of your time, these sorts of movies have the potential to turn real generic, REAL fast.

Reminiscent of Denzel Washington from Training Day, we see Samuel L. Jackson play an overly aggressive cop with an agenda, with the movie focusing on the problems he's causing for his new neighbors. A completely realistic situation that can take place anywhere. Problem is, because a movie like this is completely character driven, after you have the nice slow build up to the climax, once the tension snaps, you're relegated to basically a generically default final act of the movie where "the bad guy finally comes out of the proverbial shadows and literally chases the hero." (i.e. Disturbia, The Glass House). It's a shame too because the buildup on this was very good. Samuel L. Jackson was really scary here, he played that bullying, obsessive character perfect. The only acting problems I saw were 2-3 moments from Kerry Washington where her sad face was done poorly, with overly done lip quivers and facial movements (similar to Kirsten Dunst's crying scenes from the Spider-Man movies, except done in a BAD way).

With a movie like this, you pretty much have these possible outcomes:

1) the generic, semi-predictable ending (like we got here). 2) tragic ending with hero dying at the end. 3) an unpredictable twist coming out of left field (this has the potential to be very good or very bad). 4) a Great ending.

Unfortunately we usually get number one, since they wanna give the satisfying, safe, effective, tried and true, Hollywood ending. Most people are content with those types of cop out endings. I'm not.

When i saw the trailer for this movie i immediately compared it to "pacific heights" which stars Michael Keaton and is a favorite movie of mine, i am not a fan of Samuel L Jackson i have never really enjoyed his work and the few movies he has been in lately including "the cleaner" did not help my view on his acting, so going into this movie i was determined i would not like it and i was wrong , the first thing i want to clear up is this isn't like the movie i compared it to, it deals with racism but from the other end which i have never seen before in a movie, And secondly Samule L Jackson does great in this role as a cop with a grudge, the story is more than what you would think and the trailers did not give anything away, it is not a complicated movie with twists but it is a movie that is different from previous films with this type of aim. the fact that i am not a fan of Samuel L Jackson yet i praise him for this role shows how much quality this movie has. Patrick Wilson also does a great job , he is a good actor and its a good warm up role for people to know his face in his next role in "watchmen".

The rest of the cast do a good job in there supporting roles. This by far is not a movie that will win any Oscars but it is a movie that will entertain, i recommend it for a Saturday night in with drinks. A very entertaining thriller with great acting from its two leading actors. I hope my review was help full and if you get the chance to see this take it, because it will not disappoint.

A very well made psycho-thriller that stands at the top of a sub-genre kick-started by Adrian Lyne's FATAL ATTRACTION in 1987. LAKEVIEW TERRACE features Samuel L. Jackson in riveting form as the main antagonist, a character who's not only the neighbour-from-hell but a cop-from-hell too (imagine this guy on the beat with Ray Liotta's character from UNLAWFUL ENTRY!). LAKEVIEW TERRACE sidesteps cliché throughout – arguably until the climax, anyway – and delivers plenty of suspense and thrills in its story of a racist-with-a-twist – this time it's Jackson who's the racist, a guy who hates whites.

Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington are somewhat bland modern actors, but the quality of the scripts drives them to give fairly good turns here. The film belongs to Jackson in the end, though, and he keeps us watching through thick and thin. Realism is often swept aside in these types of production (I'm thinking of you, PACIFIC HEIGHTS) but not so here. Neil LaBute has made some awful films (in fact his one before this was the dire Nicolas Cage remake THE WICKER MAN) but Lakeview Terrace is an unexpected delight – a high-calibre piece of professional filmmaking that never disappoints.

The movie itself might only have gotten 4 to 5 stars from me, weren't it for the cast. And while Patrick Wilson is pretty good in his lead role, Samuel L. Jackson is the one who shines. His performance does truly elevate this movie onto a level it couldn't have reached without him!

His presence is really phenomenal and when he is on screen you can feel his aura. When he delivers his dialogue it's pretty strong, even if the dialogue itself might not be the best, his interpretation of it, makes it stronger. There is one particular dialogue scene, where he is really showing a different side of his character (look for the "Whatever" speech).

Sadly the movie has also quite a few low points, which would be weighing a lot more, if Samuel weren't to play the foe here. Some clichés and the predictability of the whole thing/story. Still worth a watch, if alone (and I can't point that out enough) for Samuel's performance!