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Murder at 1600 More at IMDbPro »

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6 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Not Bad for a Friday Night at Home, 16 May 2003

Author: Ralph Michael Stein (riglltesobxs@mailinator.com) from New York, N.Y.

With improbability firmly anchored to impossibility, Honest Dedicated Cop meets Wacko National Security Flacks in "Murder at 1600". The viewer's time passes agreeably. No stress, no strain.

A young woman is found brutally slain in the White House. What else is new? There's no depth to this film, just some fast action and quick takes of D.C. scenery.

Wesley Snipes is a detective with steely resolve and an attitude. Diane Lane is a Secret Service agent, an Olympics gold medalist (not irrelevant to the plot). She's beautiful, very beautiful. They make a great team.

And Alan Alda - he's out of his usual acting persona here. See the film to find out how.

You have to totally suspend disbelief here and accept that not everyone in government is the best and the brightest. But Diane Lane is beautiful, very beautiful.

5/10 (a high rating for this kind of well-crafted but not exactly gripping drama). But Diane Lane is beautiful, very beautiful.

7 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
based on a novel by Margaret Truman, 7 April 2008

Author: rtroy from USA

This film is based on a novel by Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. For some reason, she is not given credit here on IMDb for the work that this film is based on.

As to the movie itself, I would agree that in certain ways it would be somewhat implausible, yet I still find it quite entertaining, and easy to watch any time it pops up on TV, these days in High Def, looking far better then it has in years. I like Wesley Snipes - persistent, a pain in the behind, never willing to give up with so much at stake. And I find that Diane Lane is at her best here - not trying to be attractive, yet amazingly so, showing that she can and ought to be an action adventure type of actor as much as any other type of work that she gets into. And after all the lies and other nonsense that has come out of the Nixon, Reagan and Dubya administrations, maybe this doesn't seem all that impossible after all.

8 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Premise of entire movie wrong, 20 May 2002
Author: marknelson7 from USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I could not get three things out of my head the entire time I watched this movie, therefore ruining it for me.

First, if a Federal employee is murdered on Federal property, it is a Federal crime, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the F.B.I., not the local city police department. This movie would have been much better if the FBI was in charge, and the local city cop, who had no business being there, had to fight against both the Secret Service and the FBI to obtain justice for the person being framed.

Second, the Secret Service agent assigned to help Regis did not realize the First Family was in the White House at the time of the murder until the movie was almost over. Give me a break! Any Secret Service agent assigned to the White House would know exactly where the President was at all times.

Third, what was the motivation of the assisting Secret Service agent to help Regis after she had been told to stop helping him? She stole evidence and killed several people without ever stating her reasons for doing so. How about a little love story at least to make her character somewhat interesting!

Also, it was too bad that Alan Alda's good name had to be soiled with such a bad movie. His character was the only one that was remotely interesting.

10 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Standard fare, but well done., 14 September 2005

Author: kmaclean from Ann Arbor, Michigan

Great performances by Ronny Cox and Wesley Snipes. A standard political thriller, made more interesting by Snipes' character's interest in history. He has made huge models of the DC area in his apartment, and uses them to solve a murder case that threatens to bring down the president. The gorgeous Diane Lane gives a creditable performance as a secret service agent. I liked the fact that the two main characters never have sex. Their relationship suggests it, and I kept waiting for the usual (and boring) bedroom scene. Sex is often used as a gimmick to hold interest in a boring plot and uninteresting characters. You either like the plot and this movie for what it is, or you don't.

You were born to become a chalk outline., 4 February 2012

Author: Ben Larson from Leesburg, FL

I like Wesley Snipes in just about everything he has been in. I am not talking Academy Award stuff here, but just enjoyable action fare that will pass the time without making you groan.

New Jack City, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Blade I, II, III, U.S. Marshalls, and this one all provide action and entertainment. That's what we watch movies for, isn't it? The story about a conspiracy to get rid of a President (Ronnie Cox) who is not a right-wing nut job like Alan Alda is interesting, and there are interesting characters along the way like Diane Lane (Unfaithful, The Perfect Storm), Daniel Benzali ("Murder One"), and Dennis Miller (Bordello of Blood).

You won't go wrong here as Snipes shows the best character yet.

Snipes is great, but what starts as a fine political thriller just ends up with explosions, grunting fights and snipers, 8 December 2008

Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

Good Cast largely wasted..., 25 January 2008

Author: canuckteach from Ontario

Finally caught this on Peachtree-TBS. I have to agree that the screenplay seems like it came off an assembly-line, and there are too many times where the viewers are asked to suspend their belief. Too bad, because the cast is excellent. I'm always glad to see Dennis Miller in a supporting role, and Daniel Benzali has a mesmerizing screen presence (he was the lead attorney on that highly-watchable 'Murder-One' TV show a few years back), but he is largely wasted here, muttering lines such as "You'll tell us if he tries to contact you?". Dan: you're the head of Security at the White House, you're supposed to know what's going' on. (Just ask the guys over at the Bourne Identity franchise).

Also, we have a bumbling gang of Secret Service agents who keep letting their prey escape, the back door being the escapee's avenue of choice. A Tom Clancy novel this ain't.

However, Wesley Snipes IS superb - he almost saves the day here. His Washington homicide cop is the only character that gets a bit of development. Nice chemistry between him and Diane Lane.

And there's action, and some suspense. Despite the wooden story, I found it compelling that a pending conflict with North Korea serves as a background for the unfolding events. So, I watched it and didn't have a bad time... but I still think the character development and pure storytelling in almost any British TV detective show is 'heads n shoulders' above this. *sigh*

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
One of the poorer movies during Snipes' height of fame, 10 May 2012

Author: afilmaday from United Kingdom

I really wanted to like this movie, be invested on either how awesomely 90s it is or how interesting certain aspects were, but it fails. It's not a bad movie, it's a dull movie.

Firstly, we have the sex scene in the Oval Office, which you can tell on how it's conveyed that director Dwight Little thought this was controversially awesome, and to tell us this is a mature movie. (Many 90s films had these shadowed sex scenes to signal this is going to be an intertwining tale of double crossings, sleaze and conspiracies.) We also have Harlan's introduction, using unorthodox methods to disarm a suicidal man with typical smart aleck. (Many 90s films couldn't shake off 80s cop maverick and were used not as a plot point or moment of hilarity like its predecessor, but as a quick ploy for character emphasis, only never to be used again throughout the movie.) Then a bombardment of clichés; Nina revolts against the Secret Service, Chief Spikings is heavily secretive and dismissive towards the detectives and Harlan is a 'man of the streets' with own problems but always gets the job done. Nothing original is presented.

The closest we get to something a little different is Harlan's apartment where we see a miniature recreation of Washington in the 19th Century; he talks to Nina about his father being a "history buff" and through this he too is fascinated by American history but…this goes nowhere! He never talks about history, this trait quickly disperses and no reference is made later. I'm guessing the point is to emphasise his love for the city, but it needn't go to such lengths of making this.

The cigar Harlan had throughout was a cheap, tacky attempt at conveying a hardened, maverick cop of the streets, a man with a problem with authority etc. because he never smokes it! It's not even alight, which you could forgive as Snipes is a non-smoker, but to have it there is really disjointing viewing.

The performances from the surrounding cast weren't particularly memorable; none of them were bad or outwardly irritating but were just there. The closest to any intrigue was Dennis Miller who definitely tried to add humour to the script.

Murder at 1600 is dull and unoriginal. Everything here has been done many times before and whenever its shows any signs of originality, it's quickly discarded for safer choices. A time-filler flick.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Murder at 1600-Presidential Success ***1/2, 26 April 2011

Author: edwagreen from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Fairly watchable but totally routine whodunit., 29 May 2008

Author: vip_ebriega from Philippines

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.

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