Murder at 1600 (1997)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Dwight H. Little

Writers (WGA):

Wayne Beach (written by) &
David Hodgin (written by)

Release Date:

18 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

He's a D.C. cop on the outside. She's a Secret Service agent on the inside. Tracking a White House homicide to the First Family's front door.

Plot:

At a time of international incident, the body of a young female staffer is found in a White House wash room...

Plot Keywords:

Secret Service | White House | Investigation | Political | North Korea

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	Det. Harlan Regis
Diane Lane	...	Agent Nina Chance
Daniel Benzali	...	Agent Nick Spikings
Dennis Miller	...	Det. Steve Stengel
Alan Alda	...	National Security Advisor Alvin Jordan
Ronny Cox	...	President Jack Neil
Diane Baker	...	Kitty Neil, First Lady
Tate Donovan	...	Kyle Neil, First Son
Harris Yulin	...	General Clark Tully
Tom Wright	...	Agent Hal Cooper
Nicholas Pryor	...	Paul Moran
Charles Rocket	...	Jeffrey Arthur Groves
Nigel Bennett	...	Agent Burton Cash
Tamara Gorski	...	Ex-Girlfriend in Bar
Douglas O'Keeffe	...	John Kerry, the Assassin

Also Known As:

Murder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

107 min | Argentina:108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | France:Unrated | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

36-42 Maitland Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The 13 July 1996 draft of the script credits 'Wayne Beach' and David Hodgin as writers, with revisions by Steven Maeda, Vince McKewin, and Anthony Peckham. Beach and Hodgin are the only two who received credits.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the shootout at Spiking's house, the bullet hole pattern on the window is different when seen from the inside and outside.

Quotes:

Detective Steve Stengel: This looks...um...handled.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pootie Tang (2001)

Right Off The Hollywood Assembly Line

At least the whodunit puzzle left me guessing. But that's the only redeeming quality of this pretentious mystery, set at the White House. A lone, good guy cop (played by Wesley Snipes) goes up against the rich and powerful. Our hero fights the bullies and the bad guys with courage and daring. It's a tired, stale concept.

The story is chock-full of pretentious, self-important, irritatingly hip characters, most of them conveniently photogenic. The plot contains lots of chases and some fight scenes. It also contains the obligatory in-your-face news media frenzy, and other tiresome film clichés. The dialogue is banal. Example: "Section 6 secure"; "Go. Freeze!". The film's ending is unimaginative and trite.

Color cinematography is adequate, if conventional. Production design is detailed and quite convincing. Acting is average. The nondescript background music is very manipulative.

"Murder At 1600" comes across as your typical big-budget, high profile film right off the Hollywood assembly line. It's got visual pizazz and lots of "action". But the story lacks substance and depth, the characters are stereotyped, and the dialogue is vapid. It's just one more example of how Hollywood throws production megabucks as substandard screenplays.