Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009) The Almost Perfect Crime (11,730 – 30 May 2025 – by Claudio Carvalho) The ambitious investigative journalist C.J. Nicholas (Jesse Metcalfe) works with his best friend Corey Finley (David Moore) in a newspaper in Louisianna. He suspects that the DA Mark Hunter (Michael Douglas), who is the favorite to be the next governor, is corrupt and plants evidence to win the cases. He flirts with Hunter’s assistant Ella Crystal (Amber Tamblyn), and one night she sees the award he won in Buffalo, New York. He explains that his documentary about a pregnant hooker projected his name, reason why he is now in Louisianna, and gives a copy to Ella. Nicholas plots a scheme to prove that Hunter tampers with the evidence, and Finley agrees to work with him. When a prostitute is murdered in a park, he learns from his friend, Detective Ben Nickerson (Orlando Jones), the evidence the police have. Three days later, he buys the same items and Finley films the shopping with the newspaper of the day. During the trial, Hunter forges the evidence, and Finley goes home to bring the DVD he made to show in the court. However, his house was invaded and the DVD stolen by Hunter’s accomplice, Lieutenant Merchant (Lawrence P. Beron). Finley heads to the safety box in a bank to bring the backup copy, but Merchant hits his car and kills him. Without the proof, Nicholas is sentenced to death. Now his only chance is Ella investigation of the case while he is in the death row. “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” (2009) is remake of Fritz Lang’s film-noir from 1956. Many viewers, including me, do not like remakes but this one is not bad. It is an update of the plot, with a great performance from Michael Douglas. The performances of Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn and David Moore are also good, despite some bad reviews from haters. In the end, “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” (2009) is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): “Acima de Qualquer Suspeita” (“Ábove Any Suspect”) My Blog: https://maniacosporfilme.wordpress.com/

For whatever reason this movie has been victim of mob violence. If you read the professional reviews you end up wondering if we all watched the same movie. In reality this is an expertly constructed whodunnit, but only in the very last scene it is revealed what exactly was going on. Some reviewers claim that they could see it far in advance. Their foresight is being wasted in their present occupation. Expertly photographed and edited this is a very enjoyable movie. The only weak point I found is the unnecessarily long car chase scene in the middle.

Feel much better than the original and it deserves accolade.

Definitely a long version of a law and order episode. The court decorum is atrocious. They had to stick some romance in to relate to the female audience. A made for tv movie.

In the beginning I would consider it an excellent TV movie. Then the writer and director had for some reason had include a spoiler plot twist at the end. ‘This was completely amateurish and this movie should only be watched by students first learning about film creation. And not what to do.

Kinda cheese acting and dialog at times, but was a decent movie until the extremely stupid plot twist at the end ruins the whole thing

This is Naked Gun levels of seriousness and consistency.

Horror of the reality

Wow. What an excruciatingly bad movie: corny, unrealistic dialogue that sounds like it was written by a high school kid; wooden acting by all; shallow humorous bits that only an idiot would find funny; plot holes you could drive a truck through. The whole thing feels and looks like a 1980's TV movie. A really bad one. I'm amazed that an actor of Michael Douglas's magnitude would participate in a loser like this. But the choices that actors make are often about money vs. time. This flick was probably shot in about 10 days, and I'm sure that Douglas's paycheck was more than worth the minimal effort he put into it. His role is pretty close to a cameo. The two other major players, Jesse Metcalfe and Amber Tamblyn, aside from being substandard actors, are so cute that it's vomit-inducing. I might have given this film 1 1/2 stars because it at least has a modicum of suspense. But the twist at the end is so utterly inexcusable, I knocked it down to a generous one star.

It is engaging, but deeply unrealistic