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Murder at 1600
Metascore
47 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
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  1. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Russell Smith
    67
    The story, serviceable though it is, still shatters like eggshells under even the lightest scrutiny, and the dialogue is often stale beyond belief.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    As directed by Dwight Little ("Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home," a morph of "The Day of the Dolphin" and "Lassie Come Home"), the tension-to-action sequences unspool efficiently.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    A lot of Murder at 1600 is well -done. Characters are introduced vividly,; there's a sense of realism in the White House scenes, and some of the dialogue by Wayne Beach and David Hodgin hits a nice ironic note. But then the movie kicks into auto - pilot. The last third of the film is a ready-made action movie plug-in.
  4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    63
    This latest entry in the White House genre is polished, but formulaic suspense.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Tom Meek
    60
    Director Dwight Little does a solid job to keep things credible and moving, while the script makes an earnest effort to hide the true villain until the climax.
  6. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    60
    Though it might charitably be described as "a load of old cods", there is a certain entertainment value to Murder At 1600.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    Starring Wesley Snipes as the suave Regis, Murder at 1600 is the modern equivalent of the routine B-picture, diverting in a small potatoes kind of way, though its budget and stars are big league.
  8. Variety
    Reviewed by: Emanuel Levy
    60
    What makes the film involving and enjoyable in its first hour is a thick, multilayered plot, a rare sight in mainstream movies nowadays.
  9. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Wesley Snipes is terrific as the hero.
  10. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Murder at 1600 has velocity and excitement, and that takes it a long way. It stars Wesley Snipes, which takes it a bit farther. And it's also lightweight, cliched and borderline ridiculous, which takes it back a few pegs.
  11. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Barbara Shulgasser
    50
    By the time you get to the end of the movie and our heroes and Regis' cop buddy Dennis Miller must sprint through a series of tunnels beneath the White House racing against evil to save the presidency, if your credulity hasn't been tested you'll probably find your heart racing pleasantly.
  12. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    There's hardly a single aspect of this motion picture that seems more than superficially credible, and if the United States government is really run in the Keystone Cops manner depicted in Wayne Beach and David Hodgin's script, then this country is in a great deal more trouble than anyone suspects.
  13. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    It desperately wants to be a paranoid political thriller, but this cobbled-together collection of corruption-on-Capitol Hill and cop movie cliches is so implausible that it's hard to care about any of the conspiratorial cover-ups and counter cover-ups.
  14. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Paul Malcolm
    40
    The convoluted plot unfolds mechanically and with little atmosphere as if sex and death in the Oval Office would provide enough gravity on its own. That it doesn't is a sign of mediocre filmmaking as well as a measure of just how cynical the times have become.
  15. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    40
    Directed by Dwight Little of "Free Willy 2," and written by onetime high school classmates, Wayne Beach and David Hodgin (Mr. Hodgin died in 1995), Murder at 1600 eagerly invokes other films and stock images without showing much style of its own.
  16. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    40
    The best thing about Murder at 1600? Speed of exposition. Directed by Dwight Little, who made Steven Seagalís "Marked for Death," this thing whizzes from one unbelievable story point to the next. Your suspension of disbelief appreciates the momentum, if nothing else.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: John Krewson
    20
    By violating the law of show-don't-tell, the already shaky Murder At 1600 is lost beyond hope of redemption.
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