Critics Scoreboard
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...
Average Critic Score:
47
(29 sources)
47
(29 sources)
-
100
Chicago Sun-Times
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
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
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
A conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch. Read Full Review » -
70
Film Threat
A pretty provocative film, that is until it implodes into standard formulaic Hollywood crap. Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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
Lakeview Terrace holds your interest, though the bad faith on all sides makes it something of an endurance test. Read Full Review » -
60
Variety
Delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama before succumbing to thriller convention. Read Full Review » -
50
The New Yorker
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
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
In pandering to Hollywood standards about how stories like this should unfold, LaBute has lost his edge. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Tribune
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
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
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
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
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
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50
The New York Times
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
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
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)
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
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40
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40
The Hollywood Reporter
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
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38
Baltimore Sun
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
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
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
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