User reviews

A Military Policeman investigating what looked like a break-in at the Officer's Club at the Presidio in San Francisco is shot down. The same man also shoots an SFPD officer while fleeing the first crime. This makes the whole thing a dual jurisdiction between the Army and the local law enforcement.

Hard enough normally, but in this situation you have a detective played by Mark Harmon who's a former MP who has a bad history with Sean Connery the provost marshal in charge at the Presidio. Though they hate each other's guts they of necessity have to work together.

Sean Connery is one of those players who just being in a film elevates in class. Without him in the thing this would be just a routine police yarn, might have been good enough for a made for TV film and nothing more. Another conflict in the film is Connery with daughter Meg Ryan who takes an interest in Harmon at first to spite dad, but then finds herself falling for him.

Acting honors in this film go to Jack Warden the retired sergeant major who won a Congressional Medal of Honor saving Connery's life in Vietnam. Warden and Connery keep you interested in the film, in finding out just why the MP and the SFPD officer had to die. Without them, I doubt anyone would care.

While this one is no highlight in Sean Connery's or Meg Ryan's career it is better than many people make it be. It's main failing may be that it lacks a certain level of excitement we have come to expect from such films. On the other hand, it arrives at a little bit more depth than most of its contenders - which may have worked against it ...

I haven't seen "The Presidio" for about a decade, so watching it again recently after so many years was almost like watching it for the first time.

Although it's definitely not a top class thriller, more of a low-key crime drama, the final twist in the tale makes it a decent picture. It's got fantastic setting. Peter Hyams, who apart from directing the film also holds a spot as director of photography, shots exteriors stylishly. The slightly cold colours correspond well with Sean Connery's characterisation as a strict man of principles.

In case of Connery it's always as much about the acting as it is about the looks and he looks really good as an MP officer, mostly wearing regular uniforms, prefferably dark blue. If he hadn't succeeded as 007 he would have definitely made a career as a character actor playing officers.

Mark Harmon takes over as an action man from Connery which is a nice change. The chase scene is quite impressive even by today's standards, well done! On the other hand the fight scene with Connery is also well choreographed.

My only complain would be about Meg Ryan's character. She seems too soft, too childish as for a person rised only by a father, who happens to be a rather tough guy, shy of showing emotions. Somehow her character doesn't convince me at all.

In a nutshell: you'll like the film if you like San Francsico and you'll love it if you like Sean Connery. No more, no less.

A break-in at a military base leads to a murder; the perpetrators' escape causes the death of a cop outside the base, so the case will involve both the San Francisco P.D. and the military police. Former MP Jay Austin (Mark Harmon) is now a detective who will butt heads with his old commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell (Sean Connery). They'll argue about methodology, and jurisdiction, and other such things, and Jay will naturally fall in lust with Caldwells' conveniently cute daughter Donna (Meg Ryan).

Although there are some good moments for the main actors - Jack Warden also among them, as Caldwells' longtime friend Ross Maclure - this movie is more entertaining during its murder investigation scenes. It IS played awfully straight, with not much in the way of humour, but then, this is more of a serious thriller than the typical buddy-cop action film. It does also have, however, a ridiculous scene that serves no real purpose to the plot other than to show how bad ass Connery is, as he beats up Rick Zumwalt (as a bully in a bar) with his THUMB. Slickly made, with capable direction by Peter Hyams, who again serves as as his own cinematographer (and does a better job of lighting the proceedings than usual). The location work in SF is excellent, fortunately.

The handsome Harmon is passable as our likable good guy protagonist, but he doesn't have much chemistry with either Connery or Ryan. The supporting cast is solid: Mark Blum, Marvin J. McIntyre, Dana Gladstone, the much too briefly seen Jenette Goldstein, Don Calfa (in a quick cameo), John DiSanti, Robert Lesser, Patrick Kilpatrick, etc., but Connery is the principal reason to watch "The Presidio". His effortlessly strong presence lends itself well to the role of a career military man.

This is easy enough to watch, but also easy enough to forget.

Six out of 10.

This is an enjoyable mystery, crime and action movie, with a good plot. As Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell and Police Detective Jay Austin, Sean Connery and Mark Harman play well off each other, although neither role is outstanding. Meg. Ryan, Jack Warden and the rest of the supporting cast are okay. The script is the weakest part of the film, and seems almost to drag the story along at times. The cinematography is very good, but could have been much better, give the location.

My higher rating for "The Presidio" is because of the film setting, and its historical value in capturing the place and time when the San Francisco Presidio reigned as a renowned Army installation. Many scenes in the film show historical parts of the Presidio then. In 1994, the Presidio was closed as a military base – just six years after this film was made. But thankfully, much of the former Presidio is being preserved as an historical area. In 1996, Congress established a trust to oversee the area. Today much of the Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Park. Part of the area has a combination of commercial and residential lands with parkland and historical sites maintained by the trust and the National Park Service.

When it closed in 1994, the Presidio was the oldest continuously operated military base in the U.S. Visitors today can enjoy the several historic sites around the Presidio. Its National Cemetery is one of only two cemeteries that remain within the city of San Francisco. And the area has great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.

Harmon and Connery turn in decent performances. Meg Ryan is way over the top as spoiled sex-pot provost's daughter. The rest of the cast is only competent, but they aren't being asked to do more. Serviceable location photography of San Francisco, competent editing.

Otherwise this is a completely formulaic buddy-cop action film of the later '80's. Totally predictable plot about diamond smuggling. No complications.

And no sense of humor. The best films of this genre had heavy doses of comedy - 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon. If there's anything supposed to be amusing here, I missed it. Instead we get a pretty unbelievable romance taking up that space.

There's also a barroom brawl that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story whatsoever. Perhaps that was supposed to be amusing. I just felt confused and depressed.

Despite the title, this has very little to do with the famed military base. The film does try to convey a "the Vietnam war is over" salute to the soldiers who fought there, so I guess it gets a point for social conscience. The rest is just a waste of talent, locale, and audience interest.

Sean Connery fans,this is a must. Mark Harmon fans, this is a must. Meg Ryan fans, this is a must. For: a) Sean Connery fans (of which I am one), watching Scotland's favourite son beat up a bully with his thumb is impossible to miss. He's great as a solder, and acts well (as usual). b) Mark Harmon fans, watching him as a coool detective smirking down a barrel of a gun held by a pretty much insane villain is quite amusing AND c) Meg Ryan fans, though she appears in few scenes, she takes over each one with her wild hair and sexy manner. In other words, see it. It's got an element of mystery and and action, and, in my opinion, it's very well acted. Enjoy.

Quite enjoyable action detective. Acting by Sean Connery is excellent, as always, but the weak link of this movie is the other leading character, who looks like a desk clerk for a hairdressing salon, meaning he looks bland and dandy, with no screen presence whatsoever. This is troubling because this "hairdressers desk clerk" leading actor has to play a character that opposes Sean Connery and there just isnt any real chemistry.

The biggest mistake therefore is made in casting for this movie. They should have cast a more macho kinda actor, like Bruce Willis or James Woods and not some whimp. On Imdb's Trivia section I read that initially Kevin Costner was casted as the other leading role. But to great dismay of Sean Connery (he was furious) another actor replaced Kevin Costner at the last minute.

This movie is still quite enjoyable, although it could have been a lot better with a different actor opposing Sean Connery.

The whole movie is about two macho guys (one military, one police) butting heads against each other while trying to solve a murder case. There is some charming budding romance plot with Meg Ryan to be enjoyed as well, although it stays somewhat superficial and hasnt any real merit to the story.

Despite what some people have said about this movie, I must tell you I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sean Connery, as always, gets into his character Lt. Col. Caldwell very well (he should be cast as a military officer more often). Meg Ryan, though limited in screen time, shines as his daughter Donna...they're father-daughter sessions make for some good drama.

Mark Harmon, who for some reason hasn't received many offers to star in big movie roles, plays Jay Austin. He's a cop who used to be an MP at The Presidio, the base at which a murder takes place. Harmon does an excellent job, both as Donna's lover and Caldwell's unwanted partner.

The fact is, the performances are wonderful, the story is fascinating, and the chase scenes create pulse-pounding excitement. If you like action, romance, drama, and a little humor every now and then, I recommend The Presidio.

I found this film to be really boring, dumb, and bad.

It's billed as a crime film, and despite the fact that a crime occurs in the opening minutes, it's actually primarily not a crime film and is more a film about the father-daughter relationship between Meg Ryan and Sean Connery.

But the crime aspect of the story was dumb, and just what the crime was about was never explained. The crime aspect of the story was clearly just an excuse to have a fight scene in a bar, a car chase scene or two, and some shoot 'em up scenes. It's not at all interesting. There's really no kind of whodunnit stuff if that's the kind of thing you're looking for. None of the criminals' characters are developed at all, if that's the kind of thing you're looking for.

The other non-crime aspects of the story were really what this movie was about, and they were incredibly cheesy. This is basically an incredibly boring and bad cheesefest interspliced with some pointless car chases, fist fights, and shoot 'em up action.

I thought it was poorly cast and badly directed, but, in all fairness, it seems as though it would have been impossible to have made a good film out of this horrid screenplay. The story is just dumb and boring.

Mark Harmon was terrible and is not at all believable as a police officer. Meg Ryan was even worse. Some of her cutesy expressions where she tries to seem like a lost puppy are likely to cause cringing. Meg Ryan appears to be posing for the camera most of the time. Even Sean Connery was a little off at times.

This is truly an example of bad cinema. There are plenty of films that I do not like but can see how various other types of people might well enjoy them. But I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone could see anything of value in this film.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one. There is no need for anyone to see this as far as I can tell. There are at least 1,000 other films that you haven't seen yet that are better than this one, and chances are that seeing almost any other film would be a better use of your time.

This story looks like other drama/action movies. The story take place at the Presidio (military base) and is nothing new (a criminal investigation inside military lines) but Meg Ryan, Sean Connery, Mark Harmon plays it so well that the thin story becomes a minimum. Though it isn't a complete love story and have a little attention to it, Mark Harmon and Meg Ryan does it very well. She has a complex since her father (Sean Connery) probably spent more time doing the army instead of his wife (her mother). She cannot concentrate her mind on one man for long. Of course he (Mark Harmon) falls in love with her after a few love scenes, and at a party he get furious when she wants to dance with another gentleman. They come apart. This is when I noticed that this movie was about love. At home she have a little fight with her father over the problem, and as a solution to this she goes back to Mark Harmon's apartment where she apologize. When the story reach top and they solve the puzzle the end comes very quickly, but as they walk away hand in hand I feel like something else has been solved. The love between father and daughter, and of course between daughter and her lover (Mark H.).

See for yourself Meg Ryan is made to be a father's darling.

The role of Provost Marshall at the Presidio was not real stretch for Sean Connery. He just had to continue the role he played in The Untouchables the year before. That is not to say that he wasn't good, but it was a familiar type for him - tough cop and tough father.

This time he was protecting his daughter, played by Meg Ryan in a role that is familiar also, against a San Francisco police detective (and former MP) played by Mark Harmon.

Ryan gave that sweet role that she played in Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. The cute smile and the girlish manner that we all love; not the raw role we saw in In the Cut.

I am a big fan of Harmon in NCIS and I always enjoyed his earlier roles. he does a good job here as well.

There was plenty of action: car chases, running through the streets of San Francisco, and a final gun battle that ends it all.

The main plot of this movie is a detective (Mark Harmon) working with his old military police commanding officer (Sean Connery) to figure out why another mp was murdered on the Presidio military base.

Well this is a heavily character driven film. So much so that the main plot line feels secondary. There is absolutely zero tension created between the protagonists and the and the antagonist. In fact the antagonist is only in the beginning and the end of the movie. Much of the film is focused on the uneasy relationship between Harmon and Connery; romance between Harmon and Connery's daughter (Meg Ryan); father/daughter issues between Connery and Ryan; the military relationship between Connery and his retired military buddy (Jack Warden). So if you're expecting some crazy action thriller this is not that. It is all about character relationships with a crime plot in the background.

I think this movie had the potential to be really good if it had just a few more scenes to build up the characters and story. The love aspect of the movie isn't developed enough for them to be believably in love. A lot of the first half is rushed to me. I really feel this movie was 15 to 20 mins extra film time away from being a 7 to 8 star film. Action was good. The actors played their parts well. The last 20 mins of the film saved it from being a 5 star film. If only they would of gone deeper on a few things. Like developing the love relationship in the film more. Allowing the friction between the main characters investigating the case last a little longer. Maybe a scene or two more dealing with the investigation.

Not a bad watch. Just missing the few pieces that would turn this film into a great film.

Movies like this remind us of what a great actor Sean Connery was, both in action scenes, but especially in conversations. Meg Ryan also shines as the lovable lovestruck daughter.

The plot and setting is original, and there is considerable excitement. However, like many movies from that period, it didn't age well. The story is quite predictable. In addition, the editing is haphazard, often making the audience wonder how we got to a certain situation. It almost seems as if (random) pieces were edited out, and this is probably a result of too many intertwining storylines; the director probably was challenged to not turn this into a three hour saga. More focus would have done the movie good.

If you have seen this sort of film before, than you'll foresee things happening. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just not a good thing either.

The actors are very good, but also not extraordinary (even Mr. Connery had better performances in other movies). The plot moves in the normal speed as you'd expect and the editing isn't bad either, with the exception of a few scenes, especially near the ending. But that's it, it's nothing really special nor ground-breaking happening. What's left is a decent enough picture that you can watch and enjoy, but the experience will be like the movie: Average!

This is not an horrible movie but it's just one of those type of movies that is very formulaic and forgettable to watch.

The movie its weakest element is its writing. The story focuses more on the personal and relational aspects of the characters rather than on the actual thriller plot-line of the movie. The movie often becomes just uninteresting because of that. But on top of that, the actual thriller plot-line of the movie also isn't exactly anything renewing or spectacular. It's quite weak honestly, as mostly shows in the end.

It also doesn't feature exactly the most credible story. The two main characters in the movie, played by Mark Harmon and Sean Connery don't like each other from the start and they actually also share a long history of not liking each other but nevertheless they decide to team up with each other, without being forced to do so.

Not really the director's fault though. As a matter of fact, Peter Hyams is a quite underrated director. Yes OK so most of his latest works such as "A Sound of Thunder" is horrible but he also directed "Capricorn One", "2010" and "Sudden Death", which are all kind of underrated movies within their genre. It is unlikely though that he will ever make a movie like this again, since I don't think a lot of studios are still willing to give Peter Hyams a go with a big movie production, considering all of the box office bombs he directed the last couple of years. His latest movie that is currently in production, "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" will probably also not become a success I would suspect. Sure it stars Michael Douglas but lets also be honest here, Michael Douglas hasn't starred in anything decent ever since the 2000 movie "Traffic".

In this movie it's mostly notable that Peter Hayms started his directing career in the '70's. This movie features some very typical '70's thriller elements. Most notably are its chases. This movie features some real good chase sequences. Also some good old fashioned foot chases. You don't need fast cars, explosions and fancy editing to make a good chase sequence, as this movie shows. Sometimes I really miss some good old fashioned foot chases in most recent productions.

It's also of course nice that the movie features some good and well known actors but it's not like they can uplift the movie to a much higher level. The script is too simplistic, unoriginal and restrained for that. A waste of Sean Connery's and Meg Ryan's talent you could say. Funny thing is that Mark Harmon more or less later would play the same type of role in the hit-series "Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service".

The movie is basically one big waste of a potentially good and interesting concept but the story unfortunately picks some uninteresting approaches to it. The main concept gets for instance much better handled in the Columbo movie "Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light". Not that this movie is completely horrible, it's just so very standard and forgettable all.

5/10

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I've always like this film. I was a huge Sean Connery fan, and this film is no exception. I also think Mark Harmon is a very good fit for his character. Jack Warden is also very good as the Sergeant Major. The film is a good length, not too long and briskly paced. No city anywhere can beat shooting a film on location in San Francisco.

Although its an old movie (we're basically the same age) I still did not know it. The plot is based on an homicide investigation at the Presidio Military Base in San Francisco, by a police officer and the commander of the local Military Police. Both have a past of great differences but things get worse when the cop begins to date the military's daughter against her father's will.

This film is, therefore, a thriller with an interesting story but far from being exceptional or brilliant. Sean Connery is, as usual, charm and elegance. I think he's one of the best actors of the late twentieth century. Flawless in his role, he didn't disappoint in this film. Meg Ryan also got rid of her task competently and gave the public a great performance. Mark Harmon is less known in the movies because he has turned his career to television, but was very well in his role.

This movie is far from famous and may have great difficulty in winning the test of time. However, despite the lack of originality and the feeling that it's very close to television movies, it has an interesting story and, above all, an excellent cast, providing us some pleasant entertainment.

This has to rate as one of the worst films of all time. Not even the great Sean Connery can save it.

This rambling mess tries to combine some bizarre smuggling gang, a murder, old soldiers, a cop with a chip on his shoulder, and an angry, oversexed woman.

The lines are all leaden with clichés, the forced animosity between Mark Harmon and Sean Connery as cop and soldier is just that, forced. The "animal attraction" between Meg Ryan (yes, her eyes are beautiful and so is her hair) and Mark Harmon is totally fabricated, and there is not one minute of this mess that is remotely believable.

Every five minutes the "movie" is going off in a different direction, and you're like, "Huh? What? Why? Where? Who?" On top of the plot less plot, most of the scenes are shot from a distance without any sense of drama, intrigue, nothing. There was an explosion at some point in the film that got a rise out of me, but that was about 75 minutes into it.

Do not waste 90 minutes of your life watching this unintended joke fest unless you enjoy laughing at bad movies (because that's the only enjoyment you'll get out of this).

Anyway, this was a sad excuse for a movie.