Amazon.com reviews for
Murder at 1600 (1997)

photos

board

trailer

details

Murder at 1600 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The discovery of a dead female staffer in a White House restroom galvanizes a D.C. homicide cop (Wesley Snipes), but the results aren't hard to predict: the crime implicates the Oval Office, the presidential bureaucracy impedes the investigation, and so on. What isn't so predictable is that the whole thing leads to an improbable climax involving secret tunnels created by Abraham Lincoln. (Snipes's character, by the way, is a Civil War buff.) The creaky mystery feels a little anachronistic from the get-go, with some particularly corny and laughable dialogue. The DVD release includes production notes, theatrical trailer, optional French soundtrack, optional French and Spanish subtitles, full-screen and widescreen presentation options, and Dolby sound. --Tom Keogh

Murder at 1600 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: There were two movies about murder and the U.S. presidency released in 1997, and when you compare it to Absolute Power, this one is clearly the lesser of the two. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie, but it does make it a mildly disappointing one, and it illustrates the hazards of crafting a film to fit the persona of its leading man. In this case, you've got Wesley Snipes, a young, savvy man of action, playing a Washington, D.C., police detective assigned to investigate the murder of a woman in the White House. The president's son is a prime suspect, but there's a cover-up underway that forces Snipes to intensify his investigation beyond normal parameters. For a while at least, this makes Murder at 1600 a sharp and interesting film, and while the national security advisor (Alan Alda) seems highly cooperative (but don't be so sure), Snipes meets a secret service member (Diane Lane) who shares his belief in a high-level conspiracy. Unfortunately, that's when the film takes a downward plunge, resorting to a series of thriller clichés including an unlikely chase through secret tunnels beneath the White House. We're not suggesting this couldn't happen, but it's the kind of thing you typically see in movies that have run out of original ideas before they're over. Kinda makes you want to watch Absolute Power again, doesn't it? --Jeff Shannon