GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

DeuceWild_77 "The Presidio" was the first released movie for Sir Sean Connery, after he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables", so the expectations were high, because Connery's career finally cemented with the box office revival and critical acclaim for "The Name of the Rose" and "Highlander" (both from '86) and now the much desired Oscar.Unfortunately, this production was plagued with a lot of misfortunes: several re-writes about the main focus on the film; a change of directors (it started as a Tony Scott project) and even the main actors (Connery replaced Lee Marvin after the legendary actor's health got worse and the heartthrob TV star, Mark Harmon was a last minute fill-in for Kevin Costner, who lost interest in the film, which upsetted his "The Untouchables" partner, Connery).Peter Hyams got the job of direct and photograph the film which he did here as a jobber and the end result is a routine and by the numbers crime / thriller / drama with a weak plot full of cliches and some really bad written dialogue, which lacks focus and looks and feels more like a pilot for some passable TV show than a theater released film.Sir Sean Connery plays Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell, the Provost Marshal at the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco, who join forces with Police Inspector Jay Austin (played by Mark Harmon) to solve a case of a murdered Military police woman. As both have an old argument together, they share a dislike for one another and things get even worse when Austin meets and falls in love with the rebellious daughter of Caldwell, Donna (played by Meg Ryan), an emotionally unstable young woman who suffers from daddy's issues. Jack Warden plays Caldwell's best friend and an old comrade of arms and like the 2nd father to Donna.Saying that, "The Presidio" tries to be a crime / thriller film; a 'buddy cop' movie (the 80's popular formula of joining two rather different individuals with clashing personalities) and some family drama in the vein of "Terms of Endearment", but it fails in all the departments.Peter Hyams' direction is pedestrian; the camerawork is nothing special to talk about, so as the boring visuals (what a waste of San Francisco); some scenes are embarrassingly bad staged (such as the preliminary for the sex scene between Meg & Mark in the streets and posteriorly, the full throttle at his house which was too raunchy for a movie like this with the actors trying hard to fake it, due to their lack of on-screen chemistry) and other scenes are even treating the viewers as if they are morons (the plot's exposition at the final revealing).Now, the good aspects about the film: Connery's performance is good and he's always convincing playing an authoritarian figure. Here as a Militay progenitor, his couple of scenes with Meg Ryan (she acted better alongside Connery than Harmon) and especially, the eulogy at the end in the cemetery are "The Presidio"' highlights. Throw in a decent filmed chase in Chinatown, where co-lead Mark Harmon can finally leaves an impression, and nothing more of relevant happens here...In short, "The Presidio" was a rushed production that should have waited more time for a decent screenplay and a more compelling, charismatic and proactive co-lead (Mark Harmon seemed lost and unprepared in the role, but the funny thing is that about 2 decades later, he would dominate the screen in a way similar role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit TV show "NCIS"), which could have enhanced this film out of the potboiler territory.My vote is 6,5, because even if it's a below average film, that doesn't mean it's unwatchable or boring to follow...

sol ***SPOILERS*** Even though the action in the film "The Presidio" takes place within San Francisco's city limits it all centers around something that went on in South Viet Nam back in the late 1960's that later spilled over into the Philippine Islands. It's when lady US Army MP Patti Gene Lynch, Jenette Goldstein, is shot and killed investigating a break-in at the San Francisco's Presidio's military base that her killer takes off and ends up gunning down outside the Presidio grounds a SF policeman who tried to arrest him.With both the military and the SFPD involved tensions arise between the Presidio's Provost Marshall Lt. Col. Alan Cardwell, Sean Connery, and SFPD investigative detective Jay Austin, Mark Harmon, who are put on the case. It turns out that Austin was a member of the Presidio and was busted by Lt. Col.Cardwell over something involving Patti Jean Lynch, one of the two murder victims, and the two have no use for each other. What exactly Austin was busted for is never really explained but it had to do with another member of the Presidio Col Paul Lawrence, Dana Gladstone, who according to Austin Let.Col. Cardwell was covering up for. If this isn't confusing enough in pops Arthur Peale, Mark Blum, who's stolen car was found to be the getaway car in the crime! As it soon turns out Peale was also in "Nam" back in 1968 as a CIA undercover man who was very close to Col. Lawrence! What exactly does all this have to do with MP Patti Jean as well as SF cop getting killed over a break-in at the Presidio's officer club! As it soon turned out it was the delivery of the supply spring water to the club to water the plants there! But what was in the water bottle wasn't just water it was something that men as well as women would kill for and in this case they did!The movie gets even more confusing when were introduced to Medal of Honor winner and the curator of the Presidio's War Museum Sgt.Major Ross Maclure, Jack Warden, who's got a secret he's been hiding since his being back in "Nam" that he's being blackmailed over. Whatever that "secret" is were never told in the movie but it had to be a real whopper since it being made public can very well put the Medal of Honor winner behind bars for life or even in front of a US Army firing squad! We also have the handsome Jay Austin provided with a love interest in the film Let. Col. Cardwell's free spirited and non conformist daughter Donna, Meg Ryan. Donna's been driving her pop nuts for years in holding him responsible for the death of her mom who she claims the by the books and doing it, the housework and groceries, right Maj. Col. Cardwell drove to kill herself when Donna was two years old.***MAJOR SPOILERS*** It's after all the shooting and running in the movie and with the dozen or so bodies finally carted away that actor Sean Connery as the up tight Let.Col. Alan Cardwell had his finest moment. Giving a heart filled speech at the local military cemetery for his good friend and now departed Sgt. Major Maclure Connelly was so good and convincing that for a moment I forget that he was acting and broke into tears along with him and those in attendance at the funeral!P.S Check out the bar room fight that Let. Col. Cardwell has with the taunting and abrasive 270 pound world arm wrestling champ Rich Zumwalt. All it took for Let.Col.Cardwell to put the big guy away by busting him up, along with the bar they were in, was not even his right arm but his right thumb! Like Let.Col. Cardwell told the big lug before he really got to work on him that in using his left thumb it wouldn't be an even fight! I guess what Let. Col. Cardwell meant by that was that he was left-handed.

jc-osms Very ordinary and from this standpoint, dated so-called thriller fronted by big names in stereotypical roles delivering "through the motions" performances. Connery's the biggest star name here and while his character at least boasts Scottish ancestry this time to explain and excuse his accent, he portrays his typical latter-day grizzled old man routine as a tough-as-nails military general who after defining his character by delivering epithets like "I'll have your balls for breakfast" and single-thumbedly (literally) taking out a big-mouthed pub boor, of course melts sufficiently to eventually accept enforced cooperation with maverick cop and previous subordinate Mark Harmon and naturally bridge the generation-gap between him and his rebellious daughter Meg Ryan so that they all end up arm-in-arm at the movie's conclusion, one big happy family to-be, case solved. Harmon does his best sub-Tom Cruise pretty-boy act, mugging at the camera to convey emotion whilst Meg Ryan replays her trademark goofy persona, all sheepish grins and mood swings like some hormonal adolescent teenager. The dialogue is clichéd and clunky, but at least the action sequences, particularly the first extended car - chase are delivered well. Unfortunately director Hyams brings the fairly slow-moving action to an almost complete standstill midway through the piece as emotional crises emerge!!! as Ryan falls out with Connery (naturally), offends and then (naturally) makes up with Harmon, before we encounter the ever so slight twist in the tale prior to a fairly ridiculous shoot-out where Connery and Harmon (naturally) come through unscathed at the finish. San Francisco as a backdrop portrays more character than the actors here, but well-shot as it is, "Vertigo" and "Bullit" this most certainly isn't.

elshikh4 If anybody told me 10 years ago that there is a thriller starring (Sean Connery) and (Meg Ryan) together and I won't be able to bear it to its end 3 times.. Maybe I would call him names, smash at least his face, and destroy his future for good !!!Just kidding. But the makers of this movie weren't ! However they made a movie which impelled me to wonder; what's the secret of that one's silliness ??I'm crazy about the queen of cheerfulness (Ryan) and the original James Bond (Connery). And yes, I'm not a fan of (Mark Harmon). But none of them is the one to blame here.Maybe it's the screenplay which was so tense between being a movie about having peace among one family and in one's soul, or being a bang bang action thriller. Both ways I thought it did an accepted job so you can see (The Presidio) as a mediocre social Film or a mediocre action movie !! But I didn't have a real fun while watching. Mainly because some kind of lame direction from (Peter Hyams), so with the low budget you might think it's a TV movie. And a boring one too !The only thing which survived, and still that original till now, is of course the love scene between (Meg Ryan) and (Mark Harmon) IN THE STREET !! When their love was exploding to the extent that they almost made love on the parked cars ! That's the one and only thing to enjoy in such a languid tasteless movie. But knowing that (Ryan) will end up in the arms of (Harmon) kept eating me all the time to tell you the truth. So here's another reason to dislike the whole thing!P.S : I've never ever commented on a movie without finishing it. So I had to watch the end of (Presidio) at last but in the fourth time. Yes, I was that board to death to find any other more important thing to do !!