Civic Doodie?

Have gun, will racial profile!

Have you heard of this one now?

I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it, but...

"CIVIC DUTY, a psychological thriller in the tradition of “Rear Window,” takes a controversial look at the fear and prejudice that runs rampant in our post 9/11 world, by telling the story of Terry Allen (Peter Krause) who begins to suspect that his new neighbor, a single Islamic grad student is involved in a terrorist conspiracy. He becomes obsessed with this notion, contacts local law enforcement and even the FBI, but decides to take matters into his own hand."

This film has been around since last April, when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's also been screened at the Cairo International Film Festival. Appears to be going wide in May.

Based on this review from Tribeca, there's a chance this may be one of those open-ended films in which we never know if the Arab next door turns out to be guilty or not. But based on the liberal sprinkling of words like "paranoia," "obsession" and "tolerance" in the available write-ups on this, I'm guessing the out-of-work "generic white-collar guy" turns out to have a racist screw loose. Remember Falling Down? Something along those lines, guaranteed.

According to a viewer at IMDB who thinks it's a good thing, the film is indeed "politically correct" and "anyone who is concerned with Arabs rights or even justice in [the] world would love this movie."

Admittedly, the Rear Window premise with a terrorist twist is a dynamite idea. And had it looked anything like the poster, had the filmmakers played it straight -- demonstrating how terrorists are living among us -- this film would already be out and a smash hit.

Yes, "the prejudice runs rampant" in American these days. Mostly coming from Hollywood.