thesar-2
Welcome
to my 1600th review. Thought this throwback would be appropriate. Ahhh, the 90's. Filled with suspenseful murder mysteries with numerous red herrings. Though it's frustrating now, I still miss the 90's.Yeah, this movie is silly and showed me some happenings that I had to shake my head at, but it was still somewhat of a decent ride. Always love me some Diane Lane and do like Wesley Snipes a lot. Plus, it helps, with the exception of the awful Olympus Has Fallen remake, White House Down, I love movies that involve intrigue around the White House/politics setting. Always reminds me of the fantastic 24 television show.The rundown is a murder does, in fact, happen in the White House and Detective Westley Snipes Regis is trying to dodge a bunch of government cover-ups to solve it. Along for the ride is Secret Service Diane Lane Nina to feed him information and further the plot/suspense. (Note: these are not their names in the movie; I'm just being as silly as the movie.)The movie is not to be taken seriously and if you leave your brain at the door, there is enough action, detective work and even some humorous moments to enjoy. Totally recommended for us 90's movie lovers.***Final thoughts: Remember Sledge Hammer? That hilarious cop TV show from the 80s? Well, there was this one line where Sledge Hammer was given a suspect's address of "1600 Pennsylvania Ave" and he didn't know who that address belonged to. It was a joke in the show that he was so dumb he wouldn't know who lived there. I was a kid then, so I didn't know either and I believe my dad had to explain it to me.Just a tidbit from my childhood that I recall fondly whenever the White House's address is brought up.
edwagreen
Taut thriller with Wesley Snipes investigating a murder at the White House.The picture becomes much more engaging then first realized. There are some very good performances and political intrigue abounds with the discovery that the first family was there when the killing occurred. It also becomes exciting when we find out that the first son is quite a Lothario and his father, the president, could be under suspicion as well.Diane Lane is effective as a CIA operative and we see how crude the latter organization can be.Alan Alda does some scene stealing acting as a presidential adviser with plenty on his mind.It's not "The Manchurian Candidate" but it's an effective film.
Terrell-4
Murder at 1600 starts with all the clever thriller set-ups and intriguing plot grabbers of slick Hollywood at its best. It ends with all the pointless, cliché-ridden thriller hokum of slick Hollywood at its worst. What makes it work as well as it does is the appealing, intelligent performance of Wesley Snipes, an actor whose career has disintegrated into pointless, second-rate macho movies. Most of Murder at 1600 is an exciting ride, and I always enjoy boarding the roller coaster. Finally reaching the destination, however, is a yawn. It's all about the body of a young woman, one of the secretaries, discovered in a White House bathroom. Detective Harlan Regis (Snipes) of the D. C. Police Department is assigned to investigate. The head of the White House Secret Service detail, Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), isn't having any of that. The White House is his turf. Matters get complicated when the murdered woman is identified as the girl friend of the President's son. She might even have been the girlfriend of the President. Regis makes clear he's not going away. Spikings assigns one of his team to work with Regis. She's Agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane), small, highly attractive and, more to the point, smart. She's also a sharp shooter. That's a talent that will come in handy later. But is she assigned to help Regis or to spy on him and report back to Spikings? Will this be an investigation of a murder or a cover-up for a murderer? Or is the murder part of something worse...something like, say, an incursion into North Korea? What we quickly realize is that Benzali and Alan Alda, as National Security Adviser Alvin Jordan, are going to chew the scenery. By the time this complicated, high-potential mystery movie limps to its conclusion, we will have spent most of the time enjoying Wesley Snipe's charm and resourcefulness as he unthreads a conspiracy. Diane Lane's talent as an intelligent sidekick with great legs is not to be sniffed at, either. Of course, Hollywood also gives us a few nearly unkillable hit men who pop up here and there, a convenient tunnel to the White House, explosions, helicopters, car chases, kicks, grunts, the inaccurate idea that the FBI doesn't have jurisdiction over crimes committed on federal property (no big deal, some producer probably said) and a climax in the White House that involves a lot of people, including the President. But that's Hollywood big-ticket show biz. After Murder at 1600 Snipes seems to have decided that he wanted to be one of the big, macho, impervious Hollywood hero types, the kind who star in big-budget flicks aimed for the 16- through 26-year-old crowd...the kind of movies that feature awesome explosions and mano-a-mano fights with evil. Snipes was a good actor once. Don't know what happened, but Snipes personally and professionally seems to have taken the long drop. At any rate, I still enjoy Murder at 1600, and I like Snipes' performance so well I can even get past the last 25 minutes. He was one of several actors who made vivid impressions in the great, odd King of New York. In a sidekick role, he nearly edged Sean Connery off stage center in Rising Sun, and he proved he could handle comedy easily in White Men Can't Jump.
vip_ebriega
My Take: Has the potential of being at least mindlessly exciting, but rarely reaches it. After just releasing the Clint Eastwood vehicle ABSOLUTE POWER, MURDER AT 1600 is released with practically the same plot. A murder happens to take place in the white house, it happens to be a women, there's the cop who believes the case breaks when the case breaks and suspects happen to be the President and his Chief-of-Staffs. MURDER AT 1600 isn't new film, as it is built upon ideas and storyline from other films. The plot is an interesting virtuoso, with some interesting plot twists and revelations, but it doesn't really grab you. It's interesting but not totally engaging.Wesley Snipes however is in fine form as a cop Harlan Regis, a cop who's assigned to investigate a murder that happens to take place at the White House. The Secret Service fails to capture the murderer, but decides that they close the case immediately, dismissing that the murderer is the victim's old boyfriend, but Regis thinks otherwise. Regis, with a little help from Secret Service agent and award-winning sharpshooter Nina Young (Diane Lane, also pretty good), tries to get on top of the case, with suspects that include the president's son (Tate Donovan), the White House staff and President Neil (Ronny Cox) himself.The climax and the conclusion has a few surprises, and there are a number of very good performances, but this is still fairly pedestrian territory. It's not especially exciting, with lack of some action, and the plot gets pretty confusing as it goes. Director Dwight Little isn't quite the professional when it comes to the action scenes. The plot is familiar, but the writers do their best to confuse us to make the plot seem like new material. Where's the fun in that? MURDER AT 1600 is not a bad thriller, and the film promises some few good scenes and a fine lead by Snipes, but with more potential than they got, it could have been better.Rating: **1/2 out of 5.