Vintage

People seem to like movies about asshole neighbors.  I am no different.  But, there is much more to this this flick than flicking ashes in your neighbor’s yard.  I found myself watching Lakeview Terrance one spring evening, contemplating old neighbors that have moved, which we wish stayed, and new ones that have arrived, which we wish, well...  Anyway, lets talk about Lakeview Terrace and movie cops for a second.  

It’s a tough job being a cop in the movies; especially, when you live in a pad that is clearly beyond your pay grade.  However, to gripe about such movie trivialities as a cop living in a house probably worth upwards of a several million dollars, is to miss the fun of this neighborhood nightmare film, which pits a well cast Samuel L. Jackson (a CFz hit parade actor) against some other actor and actresses. Here is what happens...

Single father and LAPD officer, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) lives in Lakeview Terrace with his kids, Marcus, and Celia. A couple moves in to the house next door: A white dude Chris and his “chocolate drop” Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington).  Abel is noticeably disturbed to find that they are an interracial item, which is kind of a cool reversal on most standard racism motivated flicks, where the white guy is most always the racist.

Not to fly on racism in general, but to me (and yes, I am a white guy) racism seems a problem all races wrestle with (wow, I know – deep fucking statement).  It seems there is always some race baiting one another for some dumb reason or another and that may be so obvious but it is time for other racist take the stage in film and let the white man have a break.  But, I digress. 

Lakeview Terrace takes on this reverse racism as sort of a unique stage for a neighborhood nightmare sort of drama, which if not for the reverse racism angle, would have rendered Lakeview Terrace a fairly forgettable film in terms of its hackneyed thriller elements.   The two key reasons this flick is not left in the Jack rating is that intriguing reverse racism as well as the always captivating Sammy L.  

Sammy L  is the best actor at pontificating while torturing people.  He has extremely reactive eyes too, which means you don’t need to show what happened in the frame.  You have just show Sammy's eyes looking at something off camera and you get a big dose of anger or whatever emotion he wishes to portray.  It is like he has luminosity dial for his eyes.  I swear they get whiter the more angry he needs to be.  And that anger, builds slowly from inauspicious beginning of the typical neighbor meet and greet.  

As such, Chris readies to leave for work in the morning one day, and there is a blank parking ticket on his windshield, because his fender exceeds the line of the curb; signed "AT," for Abel Turner. When Chris arrives home that night Abel approaches the car and pretends to be a car-jacker, and chides Chris for listening to rap music. Keep in mind, Abel feigned like he had a gun!

Later that week Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool unaware that Abel's children are watching. Abel arrives home to see this spectacle, and is upset. As a result, Abel angles his home security floodlights so they shine into Chris and Lisa's window, keeping them awake, clearly meant to be payback for their pool frolicking.

One scene, Abel's children are playing in their yard, and their ball goes into Chris and Lisa's yard. Lisa works from home, and when they come over to retrieve their ball, Lisa strikes up a friendship with the kids, and asks them to bring their father over for a house-warming party they are having that week. The flood light problems continue and Lisa says she will talk to Abel.

Abel arrives to the house-warming party by himself. He is friendly, but has a noticeable edge. He criticizes Chris and his friends for their liberal tendencies, on things from the global warming to police brutality and drinking with no clear exit strategy from the party. As he leaves, Chris tells Abel that he is taking offense to him, but does not plan to move. That evening, they hear noises downstairs, and find the tires of Chris's car slashed. They suspect Abel, but are unable to do anything about it.

This flick does have some flaws.  Namely, there are moments of Lakeview, which border on the ridiculous and hokey.  Case in point: Chris was sent by his wife to go pound on the door of the Abel's house, who though being a teetotaler the whole film, suddenly agrees to throw a bachelor party or something like it with his obnoxious copy buddies.  But anyway, Chris shows up is manhandled by strippers who “sit” on his face presumably and take advantage of the poor guy.  Later in the film, lo and behold, his wife gets a burned disk with lip stick marks on the label and a smile from neighbor Abel (Hey, I rhymed...).  Like I said, Probably a little too hokey for me.  It felt like a brainstorming plot escalation the result of some screen writing school exercise.  There was no shock in that for me.  

So yes this is a Queen flick for sure, maybe even a king if I was in the right mood.  I think Queen because if you remove Sammy L and the reverse racism set up, you have a very, shall I say, bourgeoisie effort.  A Queen it is.   Now, just what in the hell are the neighbors up to now?