Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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...

SimonJack 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.

disdressed12 but nothing special.no suspense or tension,and characters i didn't care about.i also thought the storyline was underdeveloped.for me,there was way too much talking and very little in the way of action or excitement.it's 92 minutes i could have been doing something else.it's not horrible,by any means,but it certainly didn't live up to my expectations.which is a real shame,considering Sean Connery and Mark Harmon are in it.both put in real good performances,but it's the story that lets them down.Meg Ryan also appears but has a very small role.long before it was over,i didn't care what happened to who,and i just wanted it too end.i give The Presidio a 5/10

youaresquishy 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.