I saw
Street Kings with Malaya last weekend, and we enjoyed it. Not a great movie, but a serviceable cop thriller, in the morally ambiguous, post-modern mode of films like
Training Day. I'll post a review later this week, but what I wanted to mention today is a trailer we saw before the film. It wasn't a good trailer -- in fact, I'll go out of my way to avoid seeing the movie it promoted -- but it did put some ideas into my head, and they're still resonating three days later. So I'm hoping that by blogging about it I can stop thinking about it, and start never thinking about it again.
The trailer is for the ignominious and forgettably-named
Lakeview Terrace. The title was so boring that I hadn't paid it a second of attention before seeing this trailer, and despite the trailer making an impression on me, the name didn't. I had to go to The Movie Box's trailer page and search on "Samuel" to find the film. The
trailer is here, though I don't recommend you watch it. Personally, I wish I could unsee it, but as we all know...
that's not quite possible.
It's not a gross or ugly trailer, it's the film it's promoting that struck me so poorly. The scenario and plot, which the trailer completely gives away, is simple. A married couple moves into a new home in a nice suburban neighborhood, and they immediately begin feuding with their insane next door neighbor, played by Samuel L. Jackson. The twist, if you can call it that, is that he's a cop. So they're in their dream home, but they've got a neighbor who's got blinding search lights on the side of his house, who breaks into their garage and slashes the tires on their car, who uses a chainsaw to cut down the trees they plant for privacy, etc. All while they're helpless to fight back since he's a cop and his cop buddies will back him up.
It doesn't sound that bad from the text description, but if you watch the trailer, try to figure who they're hoping will buy a ticket to this. Sam Jackson's got fans, but as
Snakes on a Plane demonstrated, not enough to "open" a major motion picture. I like him as an actor, but he has to be in a certain type of Bad Ass Motherfucker role, not a pot-bellied suburban dad with anger issues. Since none of the other actors are notable, that leaves the plot, and that's what really sinks the film. It's sort of a thriller, but is anyone really going to drop their $9 to watch neighbors feud in a non-comedy? Jackson's not a murdering maniac, he's just an asshole, and the inequality in power between the feuding parties makes it seem very unfun to me.
These sort of "affluent couple terrorized in their own home" films can work, but they need to include sex and weird characters, and go over the top with life or death stakes;
Fatal Attraction,
Hand that Rocks the Cradle, etc. If Jackson were seducing the neighbor's wife, or befriending their kid in order to murder him and make it look like an accident, or hiding some horrible secret, it might be enticing. But no, he's just an average guy who is a nightmare neighbor, but since he's a cop he can get away with everything.
I don't think suburban husbands feuding over their property line is quite the draw the film's financiers seem to imagine it will be, and especially not when the couple seems to be the ones the audience is led to identify with, and they're basically helpless and have their lives ruined by a corrupt cop. Plus Jackson's character has a wife and kids in the film, so you can't even root for the aggrieved couple to blow him away or just get him fired, since then you're putting his family and children out on the street because their dad's a nut.
The movie's basically the preamble to
a case on Judge Judy. It's a dramatized documentary about a petty struggle that everyone loses. Everyone including the audience, who are left depressed as they drive home and pray their next new neighbor isn't a psycho cop who could destroy their home lives with impunity. And wish they could unsee the last 2 hours of their lives.
Labels: movie trailers
