The Presidio Reviews

Since I have a weak spot for Sean Connery, Meg Ryan and Peter Hyams' work, I thought I should check this one out. To be honest, Peter Hyams is far from being a great director. I mean, I have seen a whole bunch of his movies and none of them was really that amazing. On the other hand, they were usually pretty fun to watch and his movies are definitely among my guilty pleasures. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was basically a typical Hyams effort. Indeed, the script was pretty weak and pedestrian (especially everything involving Meg Ryan, her relationship with Harmon, with Connery was just pretty lame). It is like the chase at the beginning of the movie : on one hand, it was pretty badass and entertaining but, on the other hand, it was also honestly cheesy and unconvincing. Still, I liked the mood created, Mark Harmon and Sean Connery had a decent chemistry and I was fairly entertained throughout the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, spite of its flaws, I think it must be one of the better movies directed by Peter Hyams and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Seven years after Outland, Peter Hyams and Sean Connery reunited for this lazily scripted mystery thriller. It’s a partnership between director and star that didn’t work in Outland and definitely does not work here as Connery again appears to be sleepwalking his way through the film. It doesn’t help that the writers seem to accept Connery’s weaknesses as an actor, in this case accents, by making his American Lieutenant Colonel an immigrant from Scotland. We are also made to believe that Connery and Jack Warden’s sergeant fought together in Vietnam, when there looks to be a difference of about thirty years between the two (In reality there’s only ten). Major flaws aside, the plot is half decent as a female MP from the Presidio Army base in San Francisco is shot dead during an investigation of a break-in at the base. Amidst horrendous dialogue, Connery Mark Harmon’s cop are sent out to find the killer and Harmon falls in love with Connery’s daughter, Meg Ryan. Well, I say fall in love – they make out once and we a meant to believe they have fallen in love. The film tries really hard to be emotionally engaging, but when it’s three leads are about as engaging as a sack of potatoes, the only thing going for this film is the action, which is rather good. Connery’s bad. Harmon’s very bad. Warden’s hammy. Meg Ryan’s hot.
Avoid.

2/5