Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Critic Reviews

Douglas makes smarm a chewy pleasure, but this is a noir in search of a hero we can root for because we actually buy what he's doing.

Despite excellent stunt work and a too-brief appearance by Orlando Jones as an unflappable cop, the movie -- unlike Mr. Douglas's hairdo -- never rises above mediocrity.

Like its title, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is a generic, forgettable courtroom thriller.

Lang's film, the last he made in the U.S., exposed the immorality of the death penalty; Hyams's retread offers only more plot and longer, louder car chases.

A good rule to follow for wannabe gritty thrillers: Lead actors shouldn't remind you of late-night informercial pitchmen.

Noisy and excessive where the original was hushed and restrained, and wholly devoid of mystique...

What you won't be able to figure out is why this laughable yarn didn't go straight to DVD.

There are plenty of reasonable doubts about his mediocre legal thriller remake.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt feels like some throwaway 1980s TV movie, with its implausible premise, dizzying twists, cheesy montages and melodramatic score.

What I can't figure out is how director Peter Hyams can remake a 1956 movie from the great Fritz Lang and not learn anything about suspense, pacing and storytelling in the process.

The leads can't lend either spunk or gravitas to what was already a preposterous yarn 50 years ago.

Hyams takes a perfectly good story and kills it with logic loopholes, inconsistent character behavior, horrendous, headache-inducing cutting, and a number of brainless chase scenes.

grows more preposterous as it unfolds

Conscientiously creepy, but with a finale just too rushed to correlate with what preceded before. Though Metcalfe isn't bad, in commanding viewer attention as well as he does his tool in Desperate's random bulked for booty, housewife gardens.

While the original is perhaps not a faultless classic, it certainly offers more excitement and competence than the star of John Tucker Must Die and the director of A Sound of Thunder can offer.

The result is at times genuinely suspenseful ... and if the final twist doesn't drive you crazy, the cleverness may win you over.

Comes across as more 1980s TV movie than 1950s period piece.

There's fun to be had in a rickety Coney Island rollercoaster manner, and it's not terrible late at night on the couch with a bag of warm popcorn, though it is just too silly and slight for all its bluster.

There's little in this pointless rehash to distract audiences from the pleasure of watching Tamblyn, a fine young actress whose direct, grownup stare belies her baby features.

Preposterous, asinine, poorly edited and downright silly with more unintentional humor than your average courtroom thriller.

I've got no problem with movies that stack up twists like crazy straws. Hyam's script, however, depends on us being dumber than every character in the film-you'd have to reach protozoan levels just to resist wanting to strangle everyone in it.

An undercooked crime flick whose real mystery is why it was made.

Any amateur magician can successfully yank the tablecloth away, but it's only impressive if there's something of value on the table.

For his remake of Fritz Lang's last American film, Peter Hyams retains the German Expressionist's narrative conceit but otherwise ratchets up the sleek car-commercial flashiness.

Can a great surprise at the end make up for all of the earlier flaws? Only if you've got ADD.