Search - Pacific Heights on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1990 DVD Release: 12/28/1999 Format: DVD - Soft-Matted WSE for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 42 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Total Copies: 12 Genres: Thriller, Psychological Thriller

John Schlesinger directed this upscale horror film about a landlord with the ultimate problem tenant. Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) are a middle class couple who lie on their financial statement in order to buy an old Victorian house in San Francisco, planning to renovate it and rent it out. Unfortunately, they select as a tenant Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), a psychotic real estate bargain hunter who plans to drive Patty and Drake into foreclosure proceedings and then buy the house cheap. Carter starts the ball rolling by refusing to pay his rent and driving out a couple who had rented the rear flat by hammering and sawing all night -- and then releasing a tidal wave of cockroaches. What follows is a psychological war between Carter and the Yuppie couple, with Carter succeeding not only in provoking Drake into more extreme means of eviction, but also causing a rift between Drake and Patty. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Michael Keaton - Carter Hayes
Melanie Griffith - Patty Palmer
Matthew Modine - Drake Goodman
Mako - Toshio Watanabe
Dorian Harewood - Dennis Reed
Nobu McCarthy - Mira Watanabe

During the 1990s, a wave of domestic thrillers such as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Disclosure were made that played on common middle-class fears. While Pacific Heights didn't seem exceptional at the time, this Warner DVD release shows that the movie has aged much better than most of the pack. A lot of the credit has to go to director John Schlesinger, who has a knack for slowly building tension and fear into seemingly mundane settings, as he also did in The Marathon Man and The Believers. The DVD's anamorphic widescreen transfer shows off Amir Mokri's moody daytime cinematography and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound audio transfer highlights a creepy sound design and the taut Hans Zimmer score. It would've been interesting to study the choices Schlesinger made on Pacific Heights in further detail but the DVD doesn't come with extras such as audio commentaries or interviews. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide