The Presidio (1988) is a mismatched cop whodunit with a better-than-usual cast which includes Sean Connery, Mark Harmon and Meg Ryan. Connery is the Provost Martial at The Presidio, a very old fort in the Northwest corner of San Francisco. Mark Harmon used to work for him as an MP. When Harmon roughed up an officer while arresting him for drunk and disorderly, Connery took the officer's side, and Harmon left the Army and became a city cop. When a female MP and two SFPD officers are murdered, it is a multi-jurisdictional investigation, and the two enemies must work together. To make things even more difficult, Harmon starts dating Connery's daughter.

Sometimes, viewers bring something which greatly increases their enjoyment of a film, and that was the case with me and this film. I am a big Connery fan, and this part feels like it was written for him. I also like Meg Ryan. The biggest thing to me, however, is the location. I spend a lot of time where this film was shot. In an early scene, they mention Fort Point, which is a very old fort under the south end of the Golden Gate. The murder takes place at an officer's club on the Presidio, a building I drive by frequently. The ensuing car chase, where the officers are killed, starts at the Arquello Gate, which is at the south end of the Presidio, and is the gate I most often use, as it is a nearly direct route to Wing Lee's Chinese Restaurant and Bakery, our usual lunch when we are in "The City." There are also two scenes in the veteran's cemetery at the North edge of the Presidio. In fact, I not only recognized all of the areas in the film, I knew most of the buildings. The Presidio is now mostly a national park, as is Fort Point. So, to me, watching the film is a wonderful experience.

For those with no predisposition to enjoy it, it is probably a competent but lackluster genre effort. There is nothing particularly remarkable about the plot or the ending, which, in fact, is predictable.

IMDb readers say 5.7.

Meg  Ryan shows her breasts from the side in a dark sex scene, but only in the region 2 DVD. Don NOT get the Region 1 version, from which the nudity has been cut. Here's a region two link from an American importer. (Click on pic)