Tonight, for our horror on the lens, we have the nineteenth episode of the 2nd season of Friday the 13th: The Series!
In tonight’s episode, Jack takes center stage as he finds himself forced to battle and repeatedly kill an evil from his own past. Nigel Bennett plays quite a frightening villain.
This episode originally aired on April 29th, 1989.
What do George W. Bush, John Kerry, and Paul Giamatti all have in common?
They were all members of the Skull and Bones, which may be an organization that secretly controls the world. Then again, it might also just be an organization for male students at Yale, a place for the sons of the rich and famous to get together, drink, and do whatever else rich kids do when they go to an Ivy League college.
One thing’s for sure — when you’re a member of the Skulls and Bones, you’re a Bonesman for life. If you have any doubt about that, go ahead and watch the 2000 film The Skulls. In The Skulls, Martin Lombard (Christopher McDonald) is such a loyal member of the Skulls that, even though he’s currently a provost at Yale, he’s still willing to break a student’s neck in order to keep him from revealing the society’s secrets.
Seriously, do all Ivy League administrators know how to break necks or just ones that were former members of the Skulls? It just makes me glad that I went to UNT, a good school with absolutely no ivy on the walls. A degree from UNT might not translate into membership into America’s elite but at least you don’t have to worry about being targeted by any dangerous secret societies.
(Unless, of course, you’re a TAM. But that’s another story…)
Anyway, the dead student’s best friend is Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson). We know Luke’s the hero because he doesn’t come from a rich family and he’s attending Yale on a rowing scholarship. Shortly before Will’s death, Luke is invited to join the Skulls and does so because he thinks it will help him court rich art major Chloe (Leslie Bibb). However, after Will death, Luke decides that he has to join so that he can find out the identity of the murderer.
Luke wrongly suspects that the murderer was his new friend and fellow Skull, Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker). What Luke doesn’t know is that the murder was actually ordered by Caleb’s father, Supreme Court candidate Litten Mandrake (Craig T. Nelson). (As a sidenote, has anyone named Litten Mandrake ever not turned out to be evil?) However, as Luke gets closer to the truth, the Skulls arrange for him to be arrested and put into a mental asylum.
Oh, and Martin Lombard starts chasing after him with a gun.
Remember, this is the same Martin Lombard who is a provost at Yale. Now, I’m not saying that it’s out of the question that a Yale provost could chase after a student with a gun. But, at the very least, it seems like a conspiracy as wealthy and powerful as the Skulls could afford to hire less recognizable henchmen.
In fact, watching The Skulls, you can’t help but suspect that this secret conspiracy is not exactly the smartest conspiracy in the word. Not only do they do a terrible job of hiding their existence but they are continually outsmarted by a bunch of undergrads.
Anyway, eventually, it all leads to Luke challenging Caleb to a duel. A mysterious Senator (William Petersen) shows up and says, “Well done, son, well done.”
It’s all kind of stupid.
Wow.
I have to admit that, seeing as how I was only 11 going on 12 back in 1997, I really wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on in the world at the time. But, whatever it was, it must have been something big and scary and it must have left people feeling deeply suspicious of the government. How else do you explain the fact that 1997 not only saw the release of Absolute Power, a film in which the President is a murderer, but Murder at 1600 as well.
Murder at 1600 opens with a White House maid finding the dead body of Carla Town (Mary Moore), an intern whose sole goal in life was apparently to have sex in every single room in the Executive Mansion. (And, before you judge, that happens to be my goal in life as well. So there.) Streetwise homicide detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes) is on the case!
And he’s certainly got a lot of suspects. Could it be the Vice President (Chris Gillett)? Or maybe Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda), the National Security Advisor? Or how about Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), the bald-bef0re-bald-was-cool head of the Secret Service? Or maybe it the President’s son (Tate Donavon)? Or maybe even the President (Ronny Cox) himself!?
Fortunately, Regis is assigned a partner, Secret Service agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane). When Regis first meets her, he’s all, “Oh my God, you’re a woman!” And then Nina’s all, “I also won an Olympic medal for sharp shooting!” And then Regis is like, “I bet that will be a relevant plot point before the film ends!”
Of course, Regis already has a regular partner, as well. His name is Detective Stengel and he’s played by Dennis Miller, which just seems strange. Stengel basically looks like Dennis Miller, sounds like Dennis Miller, and acts exactly like Dennis Miller, except for the fact that he’s a cop. His jarringly out-of-place presence in this film just adds to Murder at 1600‘s general air of weirdness.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the North Koreans are up to no good and the President is being pressured to take military action. However, he’s being distracted by this whole criminal investigation thing. Will the country survive or did its future die at 1600?
(And why doesn’t the President just send in Team America to take care of the situation? Or maybe James Franco and Seth Rogen. There are way to deal with the North Koreans….)
(By the way, have you noticed how brave everyone online is when it comes to being snarky about the one country in the world that doesn’t have internet access? If Kim Jong Whatevuh ever gets a twitter account, I bet everyone will start following him and asking him for retweets.)
Murder at 1600 is an enjoyably ludicrous thriller. It’s one of those films that you’ll enjoy as long as you don’t take it seriously. Take it seriously and you’ll end up asking question like why the FBI isn’t involved in the investigation and whether or not the solution to the film’s mystery is a bit too convoluted to make any logical sense. However, if you simply decide to enjoy Murder at 1600 for what it is, an extremely pulpy thriller that’s full of nonstop melodrama, overwritten dialogue, and a healthy distrust of the government*, then you’ll find this to be an entertaining thriller.
At the very least, a White House full of potential murderers is probably a lot more realistic than anything that you might see in The American President.
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* Oh, everyone knows the government sucks…
Through the Shattered Lens 