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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8044
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Year: 1988
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 18 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround, Mono
- Languages: 6 languages available
- Subtitles: 17 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9 Anamorphic: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Director:
- Peter Hyams
(Capricorn One, D’Artagnan, End of Days, Hanover Street, Narrow Margin, Outland, The Presidio, The Relic, Running Scared, The Star Chamber, Stay Tuned, Sudden Death, Timecop, 2010)
Producers:
- D. Constantine Conte
Screenplay:
- Larry Ferguson
Music:
- Bruce Broughton
Cast:
- Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell: Sean Connery
Jay Austin: Mark Harmon
Donna Caldwell: Meg Ryan
Sgt. Major Ross Maclure: Jack Warden
When I first saw The Presidio aroundten years ago I wasn’t particularly impressed and thought it time for are-viewing now the DVD has been released, but both aspects have proved rathera let-down.
It’s one of those contrived plots where an incident – in this case a murderat The Presidio military ground – brings together two warring parties – in thiscase Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell (Sean Connery) and Police InspectorJay Austin (Mark Harmon) who fell out when the elder one ensured theyounger one was forced out of the military police a few years ago – but theonly way they’ll crack this particular case is by working together and justto add to the predictability, Austin’s in love… with Donna (Meg Ryan),who just so happens to be Connery’s daughter! Zzzzzzzzzzz….
And Jack Warden plays Sgt. Major Ross Maclure, one of those dumbcreatures that just HAS to fight for truth, justice and the American way and allows himself to get shot dead justto help his Vietnam friend Connery. I hate it when characters in films thinkso little of themselves that they’ll just give up their life just like that.
What lets it down, like with48 Hours,is the quality of the picture. Although in the original 2.35:1 widescreenratio, there are dropouts and flecks on the print all over the place and it’snot anamorphic. Thanks to that latter note, some brainiac at Paramount placedthe subtitles at the bottom of the screen, partly in the black bars, so if youwant to read the subtitles AND zoom the picture in to fill a widescreen TV…you can’t! And to think they solved this withAnother 48 Hoursand now they’ve dropped the ball again!
So many DVDs have done this and I really can’t understand their thinking.Do they just not care at all? Even if I had to watch a non-anamorphic picture,it’s less of a bind if they’ll just place the subtitles WITHIN the 16:9picture area.The average bitrate is a middle-of-the-road and fairly steady 5.84Mb/s.
To add insult to injury the only extra, a 2½-minute theatrical trailervoiced by “Mr. Deep Voice” Don La Fontaine, *IS* anamorphic,but cropped to 16:9.
The sound is in a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack for English onlyand, while it has a few good moments, it sounds too muffled at times.The French, German, Italian and Spanish languages are in Dolby Surround,while the Hungarians just get plain mono.
Subtitles come in 17 languages: English (and hard of hearing), Arabic,Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian,Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The disc has amere 18 chapters. It’ll do, but it’s nothing to shout about and the menus arestatic and silent.
Overall, this release is certainly not worth the full £19.99. Time tostart up a budget range for DVDs like this.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.