the audience applauded

good back-story, and good acting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

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.

Young White House staffer Carla Town is murdered in the White House. D.C. homicide Detective Regis (Wesley Snipes) is assigned the case. Secret Service Director Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali) is resistant and assigns agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane) to handle Regis. Detective Stengel (Dennis Miller) is assisting. The janitor is set up as the initiate suspect while Regis catches an assailant bugging his home. Secret service is hiding the evidence and the girl's relationship with President Jack Neil (Ronny Cox)'s son Kyle (Tate Donovan). There is a North Korean hostage crisis and General Clark Tully (Harris Yulin) is pushing to act. Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda) is National Security Adviser and Kitty Neil (Diane Baker) is the first lady.This starts off as a pretty interesting paranoid conspiracy thriller. Everybody is a suspect and there is lot of tension. Somewhere along the line, the movie goes over the top. It's probably when the DC cop investigating the White House murder becomes a wanted criminal without raising any flags. There are shootouts galore and I can't wrap my mind about how nobody could figure out something is going on. Then there is the secret tunnel into the White House. The movie pushes too far away from believability and it fizzles out. The explosive third act just feels weak, silly and formulaic.

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.

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.