This dramatic thriller from director Neil LaBute follows Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) as they settle into their Los Angeles dream house — only to be harassed by their off-kilter cop neighbor, officer Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson). Turner disapproves of the couple’s interracial relationship and is determined to drive them away, but as the harassment turns violent, the newlyweds have no choice but to fight back.

I saw Lakeview Terrace last weekend and didn’t like it. And I really wanted it to be a good movie, for the plain fact that Samuel L. Jackson was the star. I was even expecting a good movie. And while switching the role of racist antagonist and making him black seemed a novel idea, the implementation was not very satisfying. Especially when none of the characters were very likeable.

Sure, Abel Turner is a badass, the clear star of the movie. He plays a single father-slash-LAPD beat cop who takes his caring a little too far. But his motivation for hating Chris is weak, and falls flat on its face. Things happen. People cheat. So what if it’s with someone of a different race? Jackson’s performance was confusing, as one moment he’s putting on a cool-dude face, and the next, hatin’ on the white guy. It’s the plain-as-day attitude that you get from Jackson that never lets you be sure where Turner stands, but it’s so overdone you just can’t commit yourself to caring.

Chris Mattison is kind of a jerk, hiding his smoking habit from his wife, trying to be some macho badass when it comes to Abel—but only in a half-assed way. Poor guy gets “attacked” at a bachelor party, too. And while he seems to care for his wife (I assume on paper it says that somewhere) you don’t really feel the love between him and Lisa. Not like you did with McAdams and Gossling in The Notebook.

And Lisa Mattison. Oh, Lisa, Lisa. There’s not much character to you, except instead of having a reasonable discussion with your husband, you stop taking the pill so you two can have a kid, start a family.

I can’t blame Wilson’s or Washington’s performance on their lack of talent. There just wasn’t much to the characters. Any of them, really. It looks like just one or two traits defined them, with no room for any character development.

Director and playwright Neil LaBute takes a great idea and turns it into a bland, predictable hollywood “thriller,” which becomes so over the top that you can’t help but laugh at Jackson’s folly by the end of the movie. Making it worse is the pacing of the movie, which can be described best as follows:

Abel does something crazy —— boring —— Abel does something crazy —— boring —— Abel does something crazy —— rinse, repeat

It’s kind of like any bad 80′s horror movie. Someone gets killed —— boring —— someone gets killed —— repeat —— killer “dies.”

But I hope in this case, and for Samuel L. Jackson’s sake, the “killer” stays dead.