Buddy cop films existed as a genre before, but it was in 1980s when they became popular among big Hollywood studios. Following success of Lethal Weapon, there was an effort to create as exotic pairing of two protagonists as possible, like American and Soviet policeman in Red Heat or alien and human policeman in Alien Nation. Compared with those two, the pairing in The Presidio, 1988 crime thriller directed by Peter Hyams, looked quite mundane.
The plot begins in Presidio, US Army base in San Francisco. Patti Jean Lynch (played by Jennette Goldstein), female military police officer, gets shot to death while investigating possible break-in into officer’s club. The perpetrators escape by car, killing two San Francisco policemen during the chase. The case is investigated by Lynch’s superior, Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell (played by Sean Connery) who, much to his displeasure, finds that the civilian part of investigation is run by San Francisco police inspector Jay Austin (played by Mark Harmon). Two men have history together, since Austin used to serve in US Army as Caldwell’s subordinate before leaving the service, unhappy with the Caldwell’s handling of incident related to drunk commanding officer. Despite previous bad blood and Austin seducing Caldwell’s daughter Donna (played by Meg Ryan), two men begin to work together in order to solve the mystery and find the killers.
Director Peter Hyams is also known as an accomplished cinematographer and in The Presidio, like with all films in latter part of his career, he has put those skills to good use. Film has an impressive look, also aided by San Francisco locations. Hyams excels in action scenes, but their number is, unfortunately, very limited. For most part, audience has to deal with uninspired script by Peter Ferguson which apparently exhausted all of his creativity with the concept of civilian and military investigator having to work together. Film is drowning in cliches, and even the potentially interesting romantic subplot looks like unnecessary distraction without which The Presidio would work quite fine. Script also puts some too obvious hints about identity of the main villain and his henchmen, making revelation at the end anti-climactic. Cast does what it can under circumstances, like Sean Connery that tries to give some depth to the character of jaded professional soldier (who is given immigrant background in order to allow Connery to keep his Scottish accent). Mark Harmon, on the other hand, functions mostly as a pretty face and lacks any “buddy” chemistry with Connery, although his looks can explain easiness with which his character seduces Caldwell’s daughter. Veteran character actor Jack Warden, on the other hand, is wasted in the role of Caldwell’s old friend and Vietnam War comrade. Although watchable, The Presidio is too generic as piece of 1980s Hollywood entertainment to be recommended to anyone except most devout fans of Harmon, who would later have much more success playing somewhat similar role in NCIS television series.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
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