Can't we all just get along?

Lakeview Terrace is a current cinema movie flick about racism. 'Reverse racism' actually. But you know what idiots think, 'the white people have it coming'

Lakeview Terrace has sparked a lot of controversy. It stars Samuel L Jackson as Abel Turner, an unruly LAPD cop, struggling to raise his two children single-handedly after his wife dies in a car crash. The crash, I might add, was caused by a white man. Therefore he hates white people. When a mixed race couple move in next door, he decides to channel his aggression and hatred away from his work and into his homelife.

The controversy caused is mostly among the white community. They are shocked to see racism 'the other way round'. The white guilt seems to cut so deep that when something so obvious and well-thought out comes along they are taken aback when they are the victims.

The film holds such a good concept, I'm not saying racism is a good concept, but the story could be deep and important, but LaBute's delivery in direction is rather appalling. SLJ is fantastic in this movie, he portrays an out and out villain excellently. There are moments when he attempts to twist and turn your allegiance, played very well, but it feels like LaBute spent too much time convincing SLJ to 'act racist', ignoring the rest of the cast. Patrick 'Nite Owl' Wilson seems to be generally un-offended by Turner's agressive bigotry, and only really seems to get angry when sexism or generally being a bad neighbour comes into play. Again, it could be deliberate on LaBute's part in order to exemplify the unimportance of racism, but it seems that it more exemplifies that it lacks impact, when, in fact, the world is still riddled with racism. I'm aware that at the time of writing, Barack Obama is still president, yes we can etc etc, but I have experienced racism in many parts of my life, mainly when around people from Yorkshire or Lancashire when they are actually full-on racist, and it doesn't feel like it's going away.

I, despite knocking the community that are appalled by this film, still struggle whilst thinking of things to write to avoid bringing up the fact that this film portays racism aimed towards white people. I can admit it isn't something I have seen very often, not outside of comedy and even then, it's not the black Jim Davidson talking, it's intelligent comedians who understand that their fans will not see it as racism. In most cases it isn't, it's observational comedy that just happens to be about the white community, again, not the black Jim Davidson.

Anyway, back to the film. It's opening enthralled me, I was itching to watch the last hour, but it falls at the fence it should break down. Rather than becoming either a superb thriller or drama, it runs towards a hurried ending, by which point you're not sure if you care about the characters anymore. The most important elements of the films plot all occur in the last 15 minutes, and are pushed back by scenes that could be from 'America's Worst Neighbours! A Jerry Springer special' than an intelligent piece about racism.

I'd still say that this movie should be scene, if not just for it's inclusion of 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya', and for the few moments of genuine tension.