THE PRESIDIO (1988)

THE PRESIDIO (1988)

Tagline: THE PRESIDIO ARMY BASE, SAN FRANCISCO. When a landmark of historic tradition becomes the scene of a shocking murder, a military commander and a street-tough cop are forced into action... against the killer, the mysterious past, and each other.

(Action, Crime, Mystery) [R]

Now, are you sure you want to have a fight? Because I'm only gonna use my thumb.

This story takes place around The Presido which was an army base in San Francisco in case the movie's extensive tagline didn’t give that away already. Jay Austin gets involved in an investigation into a murder that happened on the base at the Officer’s Club. Jay is a civilian cop and his jurisdiction crosses over into Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell’s jurisdiction and the two can’t stand each other. To make matters worse Jay has taken an interest in Donna Caldwell, Colonel Caldwell’s daughter. Will they be able to set aside their differences long enough to solve what will become a series of murders?

Acting wise this movie has some really big stars. I like Mark Harmon (SUMMER SCHOOL) so it was cool to see him in this, and he does a fantastic job, even though he was the 10th choice for the role. We also get Sean Connery (HIGHLANDER) who takes on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell. I am not going to say this is his best role, but he’s very solid as always. To round out the main cast we get Meg Ryan (INNERSPACE) who was basically at the beginning of the prime of her career when this came out.

When it comes to chemistry Connery and Harmon work really well together in this in sort of a MEN IN BLACK way. I think the pacing was pretty solid in this, but there are a few spots that drag that really didn’t need to.  As an example, they have a scene in this where Jay chases someone down and then Colonel Caldwell shows up and then they go to talk with another person in a sequence that just all feels like it wasn’t necessary. So overall we end up with about half an hour of this movie that doesn’t move the plot forward and comes across as filler. That isn’t good in a film that is only 97 minutes long. 

On the positive side, this cast is very good, the story is interesting enough and some of the dynamics give us a richer story than we would have gotten with a straight-up mystery. Just the scene with Connery and Jack Warden where Colonel Caldwell is sort of falling apart is almost worth watching this movie at least once. So if you read reviews saying the performances were stiff, I really didn’t get that impression. Were they expecting John Candy to show up and lighten this movie up a bit? It is also set in San Francisco back before it became a hell-hole which always reminds me of when I had a chance to visit in 2015 which thank God was also before it became a hell-hole. I also liked the fact that there is a scene where Colonel Caldwell beats up a dude at a bar with his thumb. I mean, I have been known to thumb-punch a few dudes, but this was impressive. Just kidding. I don’t punch people as a general rule, especially not with my thumbs. 

None of this is to say the movie doesn’t have its issues. While we do get some family drama between Colonel Caldwell, Donna, and Jay, a lot of the dialog is just really not getting us anywhere, and as I said earlier that causes a good chunk of this movie to drag which is made worse by the fact that we are pretty much told who the killer is around 45 minutes into the movie. It’s not supposed to be obvious but it is. The other issue is the mystery itself. It’s just not that clear when it comes to motives or any of it for certain characters. The final act is okay, but I think we could have gotten better.

Overall that lands this movie at a 4 out of 7. It’s pretty solid, but it’s not necessarily a must-watch if you aren’t a hardcore Sean Connery fan. Also, whatever you do, don’t go in expecting A FEW GOOD MEN, because this isn’t that. 

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