Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington,

Directed by: Neil Labute

Sony Pictures

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I'm struggling today to write this review. I had been excited at one point about Lakeview Terrace, the story of a young couple terrorized by a racist cop protecting his turf. I was less excited after learning the film was directed by Neil Labute whose clumsy remake of The Wicker Man still tops the list of the worst films I've seen since starting Joe Loves Crappy Movies, but I was still excited. I had Sam Jackson to hang my hopes on. As the strict, intrusive cop, the movie rests on his abilities to be terrifying and yell at people. Let's not fool ourselves… Nobody does it better.

Still, I struggle. Perhaps because I expected more from the film then a dependably badass Jackson or a by-the-numbers, right vs. wrong thriller. I expected more than what the trailer promised (Is that really so wrong?) and instead spent 2-hours watching the power points of that 2 minute preview play out in slow motion. If you've not seen the trailer stop reading now and see the film. I'd be curious what a fresh set of eyes thought about Lakeview Terrace.

Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington play Chris and Lisa Mattson, a young married couple settling down into their first home. Sam Jackson plays their neighbor Abel, a cop and single father who has become set in his ways when it comes to dealing with the scum of the streets and neighbors he deems unfit. Abel peers through the hedges watching the couple settle in and it quickly becomes clear that the interracial union doesn't sit well with the gruff, old watchdog.

Part of me wishes race weren't an issue but I realize it's THE issue that holds this movie together. Making him a racist makes it easy to hate him. It's something the audience can understand and throw a label of "Bad" onto. Later in the movie as the complexity of the character is revealed that label becomes less certain, and that's the sign of great storytelling. Create a character that's easy to hate blindly and then bring some humanity to him by showing us who he really is.

The explanation finally given for why he is the way he is isn't as well thought out as the performance behind it, but by that point in the film it doesn't really matter. By then we've figured out what kind of movie Lakeview Terrace is and have stopped waiting for something remarkable to happen.

Terrace bounces along at a leisurely pace slowly introducing us to the characters and hitting the tent poles originally presented in the trailer. One neighbor does this, the other neighbor retaliates with that, and so on, and that's fine. In fact, I would say I was enjoying it! Foolishly I thought it was leading towards something.

At one point in the trailer, after Abel's latest instance of crossing the line, Chris exclaims to his wife his plan of revenge. "I'm gonna take away his job, his pension, his house!" and they follow that brilliant threat up with footage of Abel on the job about to break in on what looks to be Chris messing with his life. Wouldn't that have been something? A revenge tale that actually leads towards revenge? Can you imagine!? Sadly, the most aggressive thing Chris does is put up some security lights and tell Abel to "Stay out of my life".

You know, this is the realistic response. This is what any normal person would do, because we're not insane. We don't go out of our way to ruin people's lives because it's complicated and we're lazy and Mad Men is on. Because we've got better things to do. Because revenge is wrong. Take your pick.

That's why we go to the movies, to see people more complicated than us deal with rational problems irrationally. Otherwise we're just watching our selves and no one wants that. I go to movies to escape my mediocrity.

If a filmmaker has integrity though - they go with the realistic approach. In the end it serves the characters in Lakeview Terrace better. Instead of Chris and Lisa taking Abel down, he just crumbles under his own devices in a satisfying blaze of glory. It rounds out the character fine, but does little to help me escape my mediocrity.

Rating: 6 out of 10 - Expectation has been getting in the way lately. I want too much from the movies I'm seeing and it's ruining the experience for me. There's nothing wrong with Lakeview Terrace. It's a perfectly fine "bad cop protecting his city" thriller, but is that enough? Shouldn't it be better than ok? Would it have been better had I not seen the trailer a dozen times and concocted my own adventure based on that? Am I just ruining movies for myself? I need to stop watching trailers and just go into these things blind. I think my movie enjoyment would go up significantly.

Nope. This will be a great one on TV though. It's one of those movies where, it'll be on when you're cleaning up the house or working on some book report and it'll slowly suck you in . Eventually you'll be scrubbing during the commercials or pausing your DVR every fifteen minutes so you can sneak in an extra paragraph on why Romeo and Julliet were never meant to be. I look forward to Lakeview Terrace distracting on a Sunday afternoon, but certainly not on DVD.

I'm feeling green this week so I'm recycling this joke which was first used way back in a movie called Freedomland. Actually, after doing that joke it had long been my dream to do a large poster featuring all of these little Sam Jackson heads, one representing each of his movie roles, saying variations of Mother Fucker. It's just something I thought would look cool and be really funny, but would also take forever to complete.

As time went on I abandoned the project and found other things to distract me, but when Lakeview terrace popped up it felt like a good time to resurrect it. My art is better now than it was then, and as you can see, Jackson has given us some wildly different looking characters in 2008 alone. And he still has two more movies being released this year! Will I ever do the complete chart? Maybe, but more likely a chart of his best 50 characters of all time. Jackson's IMDB credit list is way too long to do completely!

Feast your eyes on Greengo!

This little guy is completely insane but equally awesome. I wrote the guys and told them I must have more Greengo, these clips are too short, and they promised me more was on the way. Now, you go make a puppet and take over the Intenet too.

I hope you guys enjoyed last week's guest comic from Ryan Estrada. You may or may not know this but Ryan had more than a few guest strips go up across the web. Make a quick check to all your favorite webcomics to see who was in on the fun. That's all for now but I'll be back with more soon. If you can't wait, be sure to stop by tonight for where Gordon, Tom and I wrap up this weekend's big releases.