Mistaken Identity

Have you ever seen the wrong movie? Well, it happened to me when I watched Murder at 1600 not long ago. For some reason, even though the plots are wildly different, I thought I was getting Murder in the First, a movie starring Kevin Bacon as a convict on trial for his life. Oh well, I had the movie there already. I was going to have to wait for Netflix to send me a "replacement" whether I watched it or not. So why not?

So, Murder at 1600 stars Wesley Snipes as a cop and Diane Lane as a federal agent investigating a murder that has taken place in the White House. Alan Alda, Ronny Cox, and of all random people, Dennis Miller, make appearances. So does chronic whisperer (but good actor) Daniel Benzali (whose face I'll bet you'd know even if you don't recognize him by name).

And it's all just dumb beyond comparison. The liberties taken with security in the White House (hell, in federal buildings in general) are so outrageous as to make the current season of 24 look like a documentary. The plot is just a lattice to hold different action pieces; it seemed the writers knew they weren't capable of delivering a good mystery thriller, so they served up a Big Dumb Action Movie instead.

Stupid as it was, though, some of the action sequences did manage to thrill a bit. In short, I didn't hate the movie. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it either. Sometimes, you see a movie blind like this and discover a wonderful treasure. It's happened to me before. This time, I found only a disposal, C+ piece of fluff.