I don't usually give away the plot when reviewing movies, but the storyline of 'Pacific Heights' is so ludicrous that one cannot discuss the film properly without considering its absurdities. Its lead characters are a young couple who acquire a squatter, bad news because they need to rent the basement he is occupying in order to pay their own mortgage. Moreover, the guy is a bit creepy, and soon it appears his aim is not just to live rent free but also to provoke his landlords into legally punishable actions against him, and maybe even to con his way to gaining possession of their entire house. As in all movies of this sort, the villain's ability to destroy the heroes' lives is dependent on his almost supernatural ability to predict their behaviour, and his willingness to endure pain to achieve his goals; the film's execution is unsubtle and the every plot development is heavily signposted; but up to this point, it still holds up as a routine but serviceable thriller. Then things get really bad. The tenant finally vanishes, but not before stealing all the fixtures and fittings (why he does so, and why, if he'd planned to do this, had he bothered to set up all the potential lawsuits he hereby abandons, no-one ever explains). The police finally accept he is crook, but believe they have no way of catching him. So the female hero immediately chases after him herself, her only lead stupidly helps her without meaning to, and she successfully tracks him down within 24 hours. In real life, she would now phone the cops; in Hollywood, she might kill him. In this film, she chooses instead to play a schoolgirl prank on him (now there's a smart thing to do to a psychopath!), and needless to say, he comes back for a laughably violent showdown (fought with D.I.Y. equipment) which ends when he happens to falls onto some conveniently waiting iron spikes. To call such nonsense drivel is to pay it a compliment.<br /><br />As for the cast, Michael Keaton is enigmatically menacing as the tenant, but Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith are largely (I think unintentionally) irritating as the couple he targets as his victims. As for director John Schlesinger, he has made a number of interesting movies; but boy, is this not one of them.