Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Ben Larson 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.

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.

lastliberal 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.

Robert J. Maxwell Spoiler here. A beautiful young woman is found murdered in a bathroom at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. (That's the White House.) There is a jurisdictional dispute between the Washington, DC, police force, represented by Wesley Snipes, and the Secret Service, represented by Diane Lane. Before you know it, the pair overcome their natural rivalry and work together. That both are harassed and told to lay off by their superiors is by now a cliché.Suspicion falls on the President's son. Too bad for the President (Ronnie Cox) because now he's got his jewels in a vice. The North Koreans are holding some American hostages, which the Prez wants to negotiate for. Standing against him and in favor of military force are some of the President's chiefs of staff and his adviser, Alan Alda. It is constantly asked of President Cox how, if he can't protect the people in his own residence, he can possibly protect the country? The words in this question make it sound like an insoluble dilemma, whereas the facts of the matter are probably that, yes, somebody can be slaughtered in the White House and the President can still do a good job of protecting the country, as long as he's not sabotaged by his subordinates. It's a kind of bumper-sticker question that, when examined, makes little sense, but to the appealing simplicity of which, many Americans seem attracted. Surrender is not an option, and all that.Well, you ask, did the president's kid kill the beauty? It looks bad. The son admits he slept with her an hour before her death, and a condom has been found with his semen and her fingerprints on it. (Yukk.) However, as Snipes and Lane find out, the entire murder was a ploy to get the president to choose between saving his son by resigning or playing out a hand with no cards left in it. The President is only a few minutes away from announcing his resignation when the dynamic duo of Snipes and Lane, having squirmed their way through the White House maze of underground tunnels, show up and shout, "Mister President, your son is innocent and here is the evidence on this secret tape!" Alan Alda was behind the whole thing. He wanted to go in with Special Forces or whatever it took to free the hostages, so he had the woman murdered and the son framed. Informed of this plot, the President, no namby-pamby after all, socks Alda in the jaw and puts him under arrest.It seems to me that the President himself, having been given information relevant to the murder and deliberately withholding it from the investigators is himself guilty of obstruction of justice, accessory after the fact, first degree broodiness, and parking in a handicapped zone. But no matter. We don't care if Presidents fail in every little observation of the law, as long as they keep their pants zipped. There's an intermediate heavy, a bald guy, whom I find always an irritation. He seems to enjoy being on camera too much. And he has this little shtick that he always does, looking humorless and speaking in a hoarse whisper, and that's that. You want to see what a real heavy can do with his role? Watch anything that John Glover is in.It's an entertaining and distracting movie as long as you don't think about it too much. Action scenes with shoot outs alternate with a plot development filled with intrigue. But there's not much to distinguish this from a dozen other similar movies, except that this one has to do with a murder in the White House. It's as if somebody, maybe a teen-aged Mickey Rooney, suddenly brightened and said, "Let's have a murder mystery, only this one will be in the White House!"