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.

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.

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*

MURDER AT 1600 came near the end of Wesley Snipes' theatrical career, before he went STV, and it is a decent-enough, Canadian-lensed thriller about the discovery of a young woman's brutally murdered body in the White House. Could the president's bully of a son (Tate Donovan) have killed her? Or are there more sinister forces at work here? For better or worse, the identity of the killer is made plain just past the halfway mark. But that doesn't mean you can't go along for the ride as shadowy assassins try to keep Snipes, as a D.C. detective, and Diane Lane, as a sympathetic Secret Service agent, from uncovering the truth. Snipes is in tip top shape here and is surrounded by several great character actors: Ronny Cox as the president, Harris Yulin as a hawkish general and Alan Alda as a presidential adviser. Daniel Benzali, who some of you might remember from a short-lived TV crime show some years ago, is on hand as a senior Secret Service agent and Dennis Miller has a small role as a fellow D.C. detective. While MURDER AT 1600 is not a first-rate action film -- for one thing, it is chock full of tired plot devices -- it is certainly watchable. And it beats anything Snipes has done since going STV.