Lakeview Terrace
Screen Gems | Release Date: September 19, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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 ReaderJ.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
EmpireKim 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 ChronicleMick LaSalle
A conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
A pretty provocative film, that is until it implodes into standard formulaic Hollywood crap. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Lakeview Terrace holds your interest, though the bad faith on all sides makes it something of an endurance test. 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
60
VarietyDennis Harvey
Delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama before succumbing to thriller convention. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony 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 VoiceScott 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
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
In pandering to Hollywood standards about how stories like this should unfold, LaBute has lost his edge. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael 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 InquirerSteven 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 TimesRobert 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 TodayClaudia 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 StonePeter 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
The New York TimesA.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
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Tediously predictable thriller. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyGregory Kirschling
Jackson is the best thing here. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott 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
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula 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
Portland OregonianM. 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
40
The Hollywood ReporterSura 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
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Boilerplate stuff through and through. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The same boring routine gets played out again. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael 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
Miami HeraldRene 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
25
Boston GlobeWesley 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
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Joyless and airless suspense thriller. Read full review
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