MovieChat Forums > Reasonable Doubt (2014) Discussion > This movie could have been good if... (s...

This movie could have been good if... (spoilers)

posted 11 years ago by HOKfilms
5 replies | jump to latest

This movie could have been good if they just kept the entire movie about the hit n run/Sam Jackson trial. A prosecutor prosecuting an innocent guy for a crime he himself committed then at the end we find out that the guy actually did do it in a twist or something. Or maybe he gets convicted, prosecutor overwhelmed with guilt throws his life away to get him exonerated and then we find out he had done it. That actually sounds pretty interesting.

But as soon as Sam Jackson was cleared, it became a farce. Prosecutor should have left well enough alone, instead he starts following the guy, breaking into police stations (lol) and all this other dumb *beep* And in the end, the guy doesnt get into any trouble even though he did so many illegal things? That was laughable.

Also this movie was horribly written. Why did Jimmy fess up to making the call? That came out of nowhere. We could assume there was a deleted scene where Cooper's character asks Jimmy to do it, to save Jackson and so that he wouldnt have to take or tank the case, but clearly Cooper knows nothing about Jimmy testifying as its a complete surprise when he's called to the stand. WTF.

And I hate when people do stupid things. Youre going to break into the bad guy's house (good idea, mr lawyer and not a professional break in artist, Im sure you'll be good at it) so you have your brother tail the guy so that you know when he'll be back. Good idea, only when Jackson starts heading at least in the general direction of his house you just keep tailing him instead of calling your bro and saying, 'he's on the move,.. dont know where he's heading but it might be home' .. nope, lets just tail him and wait until he pulls up to the drive way. luckily he just went to some abandoned warehouse where I'll just follow him all the way up with no other cars coming and going, I'll be hard to be made. Just stupid.

And a guy has a knife to my wife's throat and I have a gun.. the last thing Im doing him is giving him my loaded gun. This always bothers me about movies. On bad guy holding a hostage demands all guns be lowered. and they do. wtf. Whats the bad guys play if you dont? Shoot the victim? apparently, but whats he going to do after he has no collateral? He'd be done. The last thing he'd want to do is kill the only thing keeping him alive. Id never give the bad guy my gun. Id say 'go ahead, you'll die next'... That reminds me a real robbery of a convenience store where the robber had the owners kid at gun or knife point. Robber said he'd kill the kid and the father said 'go ahead and I'll kill you right after' ... robber just ran away after that.

Sure you run the risk of losing a loved one, but if you give up the gun, youre BOTH dead. That doesnt sound any better.

This movie blew.

I <3 Emily Blunt

[–] smokiman 11 years ago

I agree on most things you mentioned, but I disagree that you should never give a bad guy your gun in a Mexican standoff kind of situation. Especially in the scenario you mentioned, a robbery where the bad guy is threatening someone, logic dictates that you deescalate the situation and let them get away with some cash, instead of risking someone's life. Telling them to just go ahead and kill their hostage is the worst and most stupid thing you can do. The robber just wants to get away, why would he kill his hostage, doesn't make sense. I think your friend was extremely lucky that the bad guy just ran away. In reality, the bad guy wouldn't lower his weapon in most cases, until he feels safe to do so (e.g. near the exit of the store).

Of course in the movie, the situation was different. The DA knew that Davis would most likely kill his wife anyway, so he could have as well tried to shoot Davis, risking his wife's life.

[–] HOKfilms 11 years ago

I agree on most things you mentioned, but I disagree that you should never give a bad guy your gun in a Mexican standoff kind of situation. Especially in the scenario you mentioned, a robbery where the bad guy is threatening someone, logic dictates that you deescalate the situation and let them get away with some cash, instead of risking someone's life. Telling them to just go ahead and kill their hostage is the worst and most stupid thing you can do. The robber just wants to get away, why would he kill his hostage, doesn't make sense. I think your friend was extremely lucky that the bad guy just ran away. In reality, the bad guy wouldn't lower his weapon in most cases, until he feels safe to do so (e.g. near the exit of the store).

Of course in the movie, the situation was different. The DA knew that Davis would most likely kill his wife anyway, so he could have as well tried to shoot Davis, risking his wife's life.

The bad guy is never going to kill the hostage. Thats his only leverage.

I <3 Emily Blunt

[–] DarkRealityX 11 years ago

I liked the movie better than you did (gave it a 7/10—I know it's not great but it entertained me) but you're right about the standoff. If you're at a disadvantage, why give more ground?

Following Davis after the trial was just part of Mitch's struggle with his conscience. Davis implicated him in the hit and run after the trial, and Mitch knew then that if Davis knew he was the driver, there was more to Davis than he let on. His family was in danger at that point either way, so investigating him further was not altogether unwarranted.

You're right about Jimmy. We see Mitch meet Jimmy under the bridge, but they only talk about family at that point. And even if they were brothers—which they aren't—they wouldn't have matching voices. Twins might but I don't think that's a given.

Tailing Davis to the concrete factory was dumb. Another dumb thing you didn't mention: Running through the field. It looked really close from the window, but then when he's running through the field, it looked like half a mile of field. What a stupid scene.

- Dark Reality

[–] shacmasta 11 years ago

I soo agree on the plot hole of jimmy feesing up to making the 911 call. So many plot holes but this one took the cake for some reason. That one left me scratching my head, rewinding the DVD to see if I missed something.

[–] prpaclt 10 years ago

Yeah I just made this post didn't see yours, but this movie would have been a good courtroom drama, if it played from the beginning and later come out during trial investigation that it was actually slj that had beat him and for good reason. I also think a big problem with the movie was they made mitch out to be a bad guy when he was ready to let a man who if convicted that he thought was innocent to do 20 years to life in prison