Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2009/Anchor Bay Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B-/C+ Extras: C Feature: C
In 1990,
Peter Hyams remade the popular Film Noir Narrow
Margin (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and managed to come up with a
different take on the tale originally filmed by journeyman director Richard
Fleischer (Soylent Green, Mandingo) that balanced suspense and
humor with its pace and production values.
It was not a big hit, but now has a following, so he decided to do it
again with another RKO Film Noir in Beyond
A Reasonable Doubt, originally a 1956 film by master filmmaker Fritz
Lang. Could lightning strike twice?
Michael
Douglas (in his first film with Hyams since their underrated 1983 thriller The Star Chamber) plays a very successful
prosecutor who may just be too lucky and may even be fixing cases to build his
reputation and future. Most seem
convinced except a TV reporter (Jesse Metcalfe) who decides to see if his hunch
is correct. With his reporter friend
(Joel David Moore), he decides to set up circumstantial evidence that will get
him charged and sent to jail, then he’ll turn around and use this to expose the
prosecutor’s guilt. But something more
is wrong and things get worse.
Amber
Tamblyn and Orlando Jones also star in this mixed-result remake that ha some
good moments, but disappoints overall. Douglas does not have enough scenes, Metcalfe is not
always on target and not enough is done to bring out every possibility Douglas
Morrow’s original script offered. At
worse, this is fault, but then you think it will get better, then it goes flat
again. Too bad, because this had
potential and the casting was not bad.
Hyams can
direct, but has not done a feature since A
Sound Of Thunder (2005) was the victim of scandals at Franchise Pictures
and Hyams’ The Musketeer (2001)
became a near cult film and victim of 9/11 happenings. This is actually his first outright thriller
since Narrow Margin and it does not
work. A curio, it is his first HD shoot
and he does not make the transition as expected. It is also not in a 2.35 X 1 scope frame, the
format he thrives in, so see it if you are curious, but expect to have
patience.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 image is a little softer than you might expect, even with the 4K RED
cameras used throughout. The Blu-ray
makes the shots look better than the anamorphically enhanced DVD, but it also
shows flaws that the DVD covers up, like motion blur, some very weak shots and
other inconsistencies that is not the RED in action at its best. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray is a
little richer and better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD, but both are
not up to Hyams’ films at their sonic best, especially as this has more
dialogue than anything else.
Extras in
both formats include two brief pieces (The
Whole Truth – The Making Of Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and Criminal Forensics – The Burden Of Proof)
that should have gone on much longer than they did and a feature-length audio
commentary track by Hyams and Metcalf that is not bad at all. The Blu-ray adds a Digital Copy DVD-Rom so
you can download a low-definition copy of the film on PC and PC portable
devices.
- Nicholas Sheffo
