Body Heat

You know guys, I gotta tell you, this movie is great. Everything about this movie is done perfect! It takes thrills, chills and William Hurt and Kathleen Turner is in it. But there is one problem for me. Ted Danson is not comedic but the hell with it. That's okay. Take what's worth watching. You gonna like it.

A haunting film, loosely based on the famous film noir "Double Indemnity". Kathleen Turner makes a fine femme fatale, William Hurt very plausible as the lawyer caught in her flirtatious web. The film manages to really capture a sense of a stiflingly hot Florida, so sultry that, as the detective puts it: "people think the old rules don't apply". The acting is uniformly excellent, the direction tight, the soundtrack memorable. I loved Double Indemnity, but Body Heat is, in its own way, no worse a movie. Enjoy.

Body Heat: 9 out of 10: Many successful movies lose their ability to shock over the years. After hundreds of copy cats Alien isn't as effective as when it first came out. Kramer vs. Kramer certainly isn't the shocking eye opener it once was. Body Heat should suffer the same fate. It doesn't. Despite a hundred direct to video takes on the same story (six of them with the exact same title) the movie still works. In fact it works very well indeed. Writer Lawrence Kasdan had just penned Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back so it is a surprise he chooses noir for his first directing outing. (His next film was The Big Chill so this is one guy hard to pigeonhole) He both updates and in many ways upgrades the noir of the past. By setting the movie in a Podunk Florida town he invokes John D Macdonald the way no Macdonald movie treatment has successfully done. His then unknown actors William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are pitch perfect. This is a movie that really brings some new things to the table as it does some old things very well indeed. Like the best noir you are too involved to even begin to try to guess the next twist and turn. Like Scorsese in Goodfellas or Huston in the Maltese Falcon Kasdan's directing is obviously very good yet his tricks remain hidden from view. Not a wasted shot and your television will sweat from all the heat generated. Highly recommended to all fans of noir or simply fans of movies.

Body Heat is a great film debut for Kasdan. He sets the scene for this film noir drama by carefully playing out his characters and conveniently avoiding some of the fatal clichés involved with these kinds of movies.

The plot of this movie is totally unrealistic. I could not believe in these characters for a minute, even though the actors did a good job, but the problem is with the writing of the movie.