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.
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.