The Presidio
                      
Director: Peter Hyams
Year: 1988
Rating: 5.0
A very conventional thriller that could have been so much better if it didn't play it by the numbers. Much too predictable and then there is the Meg Ryan factor. The following year she was to steal America's heart in When Harry Met Sally, but I would pay money to have her scenes cut out of this film. There is no point to having her character in the film and she is toxic and annoying - and yet of course one of the protagonists takes a look at her and falls in love. I wanted to boot her out of the movie. If the director Peter Hyams had just stuck to the crime and its solution, this could have been a taut solid suspense film. But the script feels tired and obvious - the unnecessary romance because there has to be one, the conflict between father and daughter, the twist that a blind man could see a mile away, the never-ending drunken conversation between two friends on a roof.  But it starts off good and ends good and maybe that is all we should expect.  In its favor is a throwaway performance from Sean Connery but even an "in it for the money" Connery is worth your time. Hyams had directed Connery in the much more satisfying Outland some years previously.



The Presidio is an army base in San Francisco. Two men break into the food storage room and kill an M.P before escaping in a wild car chase through the base and into the city. The crime crosses jurisdictions - the base and the city - and so the city cop Austin (Mark Harmon) and the head of security on the base Caldwell (Connery) have to work together. But of course, they know each other from when Austin was an M.P. and they can't stand one another. Austin is the young impatient one not willing to follow protocol while Caldwell is all about protocol and patience. Connery had similar roles in the Highlander films, The Rock and Rising Sun. He probably didn't even have to read the script - just say it in that Scottish accent and it will sound authentic.



His daughter Donna has come to stay with him for a while - she has Daddy issues and the first time she sees Austin she practically crawls into his pants. The second time she does. Only in a film script would they think she was appealing. She should thank Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal every day. There is corruption on the base and even that is easy to guess who - they broke into the food storage room for more than canned foods. A couple good scenes give the film some zest - a foot chase through Chinatown and a shootout at the end. This would make a fine one-hour TV film - let me just go at it with a pair of scissors. The real romance here is between Connery and Harmon - who needed Meg Ryan.