"Murder At The Presidio" is a routine mystery. Lou Diamond Phillips plays James Chandler, a detective who is looking into the murder of a woman on a navy base. When he gets too close, the Army becomes an enemy for him.
Lou Diamond Phillips is very charismatic in the role. Jason Priestley is underused. The story and characters are mostly one-note. You know their every word and action ahead of time.
It's a little more suspenseful then "The Presidio" but that's not saying much.
In the end: If you like LDP, it's worth seeing, but that's it. "Renegades" or "Boulevard" are better choices.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Plot summary
Based on the true story of the only homicide committed on the famed San Francisco Military base. A military Criminal Investigations Officer goes beyond his orders to get to the facts behind what appears to be a robbery-motivated killing. What he finds may well unravel his damaged mental health.—Anon
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Routine Mystery
They should have hired an army consultant
Item 1. I am a former Infantry Officer and was astonished at the number of military mistakes I saw. It detracted from the movie, which in my opinion was weak and showed little imagination,e.g. Lou Phillips was a CID Warrant Officer, but is called "Sir" and / or "Lieutenant" a number of times. W.O's are referred to as "Mr." or "Chief" without exception. The MP Captain treats the CID W.O. with disrespect. Warrant Officers carry a lot of clout. Senior Warrants I knew personally would speak to general officers on a first name basis.
Item 2. The MP Captain had a partial beard...That is a wrong answer. His Captain's Bars were on incorrectly and he had no branch insignia. His beret had a unit crest instead of his rank and in general, his demeanor was unbecoming of an officer.
Item 3. I like Victoria Pratt a lot, but on the cover of the DVD she has the flash on her beret over her right eye instead of her left eye. And when she left the EM club, her blouse was unbuttoned and flopping. No MP would ever walk around like that, especially a female MP. They're working in a traditional man's role and all that I have met are sticklers for professionalism.
Item 4. The Captain and his men abuse the CID WO and then the enlisted guys knock him down and kick him. That is crazy! Assaulting an officer is a Court Martial offense. Give me a break!
Item 5. The Major has a Combat Infantryman's Badge, which is conceivable if he branch transferred from Infantry to the MP's but which only further stretched plausibility.
Item 6. MP's discharging full automatic weapons and killing several people including civilians would have had the FBI all over the place. Why didn't that happen? This movie was a slap in the face of veterans in general, but especially disrespected Warrant Officers and the Military Police Branch in particular. Rating it as a 3 was a gift.
TV bummer
Another reviewer put it best with the title for his review: "made for TV" One of the problems with made-for-TV movies is that some producer or network executive comes up with a concept and then hires by commission the writer and director; and if they are 'professionals' - in TV-industry terms, which has just about nothing to do with film-making, although the two industries do feed on each other for talent - they will slog through a couple weeks production whether they care about the concept or not.
The script here is most to blame - while 'professional' enough so that it's difficult to quote bad lines, it is a completely moronic story, utterly unbelievable - without knowing anything about the 'true story' this hypes itself as being 'based upon', I can guarantee that the one true thing you can say of this film is that it is not based on a true story. People with personal problems do not make good detectives; and one has to get into the story by assuming that every officer and non-com at the Presidio is engaged in a cover-up, or some other form of corruption? And talk about gratuitous - i.e., wholly unnecessary (and exploitatively filmed)- sex scenes! As if these characters had ever shown any real interest in each other in the first place.
However, as with most anything made for television, I was able to have this run in the background while doing something else (cleaning house),so I didn't have to pay much attention to it. That's the only good thing I can say about it.