Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Lakeview Terrace

EMAILPRINTScreen Gems (Sony)

Lakeview Terrace reviews
47
2.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 60 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: David Loughery
Howard Korder

Directed by: Neil LaBute

Release Date:
Theatrical: September 19, 2008
DVD: January 27, 2009

Running Time: 110 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for intense thematic material, violence, sexuality, language and some drug references

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Eva La Rue, and Bitsie Tulloch

In Lakeview Terrace, a young couple has just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their interracial relationship. A stern, single father, this tightly wound LAPD officer has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly harassing to the newlyweds. These persistent intrusions into their lives ultimately turn tragic when the couple decides to fight back. (Sony Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I find movies like this alive and provoking, and I'm exhilarated to have my thinking challenged at every step of the way.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Lakeview Terrace isn't literally about the riots, but it's still one of the toughest racial dramas to come out of Hollywood since the fires died down--much tougher, for instance, than Paul Haggis’s hand-wringing Oscar winner "Crash."

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Kim Newman

As a thriller it's solid three-star tension. As a Samuel L. Jackson showcase it proves a man can only coast through so many motherfuckin' or milquetoastin' turns before having to display his full and overpowering talent.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch.

Read Full Review >
70

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

A pretty provocative film, that is until it implodes into standard formulaic Hollywood crap.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Here's a vote of gratitude for Samuel L. Jackson, who has become a specialist in making mediocre movies far more entertaining than they should be.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Kyle Smith

Lakeview Terrace holds your interest, though the bad faith on all sides makes it something of an endurance test.

Read Full Review >
60

Variety Dennis Harvey

Delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama before succumbing to thriller convention.

Read Full Review >
50

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It's a shame, then, that the later stages of Lakeview Terrace should overheat and spill into silliness. The plot is compromised, not resolved, by the pulling of a gun.

Read Full Review >
50

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Like a lot of better genre fare, Lakeview Terrace uses its predictable premise to mount a stealth attack on the audience's sensibilities.

Read Full Review >
50

ReelViews James Berardinelli

In pandering to Hollywood standards about how stories like this should unfold, LaBute has lost his edge.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

One wishes LaBute, a bleak satirist and, at his best, a crudely compelling dramatist, had taken the script and made it his own sort of twisted comedy instead of a routine thriller

Read Full Review >
50

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Lakeview Terrace's pretense at exploring racial intolerance has been exposed for what it really is: a B-movie copout.

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Jackson modulates Abel's internal turmoil and heated exchanges with enough shades of loneliness, steely generosity and wicked playfulness to give the actor firm control of our fascination and growing unease.

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Claudia Puig

Anyone who has ever had an annoying neighbor will see their worst nightmares fulfilled in the overheated but entertaining Lakeview Terrace.

Read Full Review >
50

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The main problem with this treatise on racial politics undercover as an exercise in suspense is that the director, Neil LaBute, didn't write the script.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Tediously predictable thriller.

Read Full Review >
50

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A passable piece of hackwork, with some adequately suspenseful passages and a few mild shocks near the end. But the psychological dimensions of the story are so risible, and its supposed insights into race and class so wrongheaded and ugly, that irritation trumps enjoyment.

Read Full Review >
42

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Grabs a fistful of hot-button story elements -- race, sex, politics -- and promptly mixes them into the thriller equivalent of tapioca.

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

When a film has to blare its racially and incendiary stance as obviously as Lakeview Terrace, you know it's trying too hard.

Read Full Review >
42

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Ultimately, Lakeview Terrace isn't about race so much as it's about being a man, which has been LaBute's fallback theme from the start.

Read Full Review >
42

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Jackson is the best thing here.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Boilerplate stuff through and through.

Read Full Review >
40

The Hollywood Reporter Sura Wood

The film, absent a sense of place and populated by repellent or weak characters, soon devolves into an increasingly foul litany of events.

Read Full Review >
40

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The same boring routine gets played out again.

Read Full Review >
38

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Starts out mixing social burlesques and melodrama and ends up one more failed thriller about men behaving badly - and stupidly.

Read Full Review >
25

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie might have something to say about black racism, but the conversations go nowhere, and the cliches of the genre take over.

Read Full Review >
25

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The whole thing is so listless and mechanical, watching it is a curiously dispiriting experience. You start hoping someone whips out a bear suit.

Read Full Review >
10

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Joyless and airless suspense thriller.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 2.6 (out of 10) based on 60 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Larry E gave it an8:
It's refreshing to see a "racially based" film that doesn't make the white guy look like the heavy. Samuel Jackson plays the bad guy a bit melodramatically, but it tends to make the picture a little more exciting. It held my attention and I enjoyed it thoroughly, AND, it's only about an hour and a half long which should be the rule for all movies!

Christopher P gave it a2:
Boring beyond belief until the final 16 minutes, when something actually happens (I checked the time on the DVD). It could have been a great film if it skipped all the shallow drama and went straight to the "thriller" film it's supposedly tagged as. I get the feeling this could be a solid 8 if the rest of the movie were as good as those final 16 minutes. But since everything before that is boring, awkward trash, it gets a 2. Frustrating.

Tony B. gave it a5:
Patrick Wilson, one of our more underrated young actors, gives Samuel Jackson a run for the money, and Kerry Washington is fine.

hal b gave it a6:
Ignore the "0" and "1" reviews. This film, although seriously flawed, is not THAT bad. It's a moderately entertaining suspense/thriller for much of it's running time -- but it's seriously compromised by just plain silly plot turns towards the climax... there are certain implausible actions, by one character in particular at the end, that really turn a potentially decent movie into a 'Oh, my, that's a shame' kind of film. Could have been so much better.

Eddie S gave it a0:
'Lakeview Terrace' is one of those movies that play with your nerves and your patience for no reason. A movie where people are not afraid to use gardening tools against eachother but on the other hand they find it very difficult to confront one another without using cliches, stereotypes, and innuendos. You will find yourselves asking "why did he just do/say that?" very often. Yep. It is one of these annoying/stupid movies where people act as if there are no consequences of what they do. It's the story of a (black) police officer that obviously envies his (white) neighbor for his education, money, job, and gorgeous (black) wife - and spends whatever little time he has off the job to make his neighbor's life miserable. The whole movie is nothing more than a contest of manliness that borders with stupidity as the movie progresses. ALL main characters are at war with eachother and every conversation ends up being a serious arguement. From the point where Jackson first meets his neighbor, it is evident that this is going to get nasty - and retarded. Jackson's character is a man that is not afraid to step into a social gathering, act as a smartass - insult everyone, and leave "knowing" he just achieved something grandiose! My advice: Stay clear of this movie.

Jon gave it a0:
Could have been the worst movie ever made. there is no plot, no nothing. terrible characters, and you don't understand why Samuel L jackson is doing anything that he's doing.

Jay H. gave it a6:
Flawed but it is suspenseful. Well produced, fine performances. It's a bit predictable but I was never bored at least. Good score.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use