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William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston ... see more see more... , Mickey Rourke , Kim Zimmer , Jane Hallaren , Lanna Saunders , Carola McGuinness , Michael Ryan , Larry Marko , Lynn Hallowell , Deborah Lucchessi , Meg Kasdan , Thom Sharp , Robert Traynor

Lawrence Kasdan's first directorial effort is a throwback to the early days of film noir. The scene is a beastly hot Florida coastal town, where naive attorney Ned (William Hurt) is entranced by the a... read more read more...lluring Matty (Kathleen Turner in her film debut). Ned is manipulated into killing Matty's much older husband (Richard Crenna), the plan being that Ned's knowledge of legal matters will enable both conspirators to escape scott-free. This might have been the case, had not Matty been infinitely craftier than the cloddish Ned. Just when it seems as though the film has run out of plot twists, we're handed yet another surprise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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75% liked it

9,002 ratings

Critics

97% liked it

36 critics

R, 1 hr. 53 min.

Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan

Release Date: August 28, 1981

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DVD Release Date: November 18, 1997

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Stats: 589 reviews

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Body Heat Mickey Rourke Kathleen Turner Paradise Ned meets Edmund Walker Kathleen Turner "You mean, it's all mine?" Kathleen Turner Kathleen Turner A Chance Meeting Body Heat
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Flixster Reviews (589)

  • jennifxu
    May 26, 2012
    jennifxu
    Oh my goodness it is so Dramatic wit a capital D, but in a good, film noirish, sweat-dripping-off-the-body kind of way.
  • pier007
    September 27, 2011
    pier007
    Perfectly woven erotic thriller, made from the same cloth of noir classics "The postman always rings twice" and "Double indemnity". Sensuality fill its air thanks to great writing, John Barry's jazzy score and the debutant Kathleen Turner's presence. Destiny and greed always step... read more on a murderous pact between lovers.
  • blkbomb
    July 23, 2011
    blkbomb
    Ned: You better take me up on this quick. In about 45 minutes, I'm going to give up and go away. 

    I'd been told Body Heat was a fantastic movie, but before watching it for myself I had my doubts. First, I was never a big Kathleen Turner fan. Also, it just didn't look like a movi... read moree that could entertain me for two hours. I'm glad to say I was wrong. Kathleen Turner turned in an amazing performance as Matty Walker and the movie was not lacking in entertainment and suspense. It had it all. It was an erotic, suspenseful crime-thriller.

    Watching Turner and Hurt on the screen together was real joy. This was Turner's first role and Hurt's second, but they looked like veterans on the screen. Their chemistry was spot on perfect and left you satisfied with their relationship. Ted Danson turned in a nice little supporting role as Ned's(Willaim Hurt) best friend. Although he wasn't on screen all that much, when he was, he played his role really well.

    The story seems pretty straight forward and I thought the movie was going to go the length without a twist. I thought it was going to be a what you see is what you get movie. That however isn't the case in the end. The film didn't cheat with it's twist though. It makes sense and if you think back, you can see how this could have happened. It's a real testament to both the filmmaker and to both Hurt and Turner. 

    Lawrence Kasden, in his film debut also, weaves a very compelling and believable noir. Hurt and Turner look so authentic together that you think their relationship is real. The way they look at each other. The way they talk to each other. The way they touch each other. It all looks so genuine and realistic, that I almost forgot I was watching a movie altogether. 

    Body Heat is a masterpiece in every single conceivable way.  It is influenced by the film noir's of the 40's and 50's and that influence is easily seen. Even in a 1980's setting the 40 and 50's influences don't seem out of place. Everything works so well together. The dialogue, settings, music, performances, and even the way the smoldering heat of Florida is used. It all fits together in the most perfect way to make an amazing film experience.
  • ajv2688
    January 10, 2011
    ajv2688
    A fantastic erotic thriller with great actors and a great mystery, I really liked it, and I highly recommend it.
  • BEACHBUNNI
    November 27, 2010
    BEACHBUNNI
    William Hurt plays lawyer Ned Racine who allows his lust and greed to destroy his life, it shows the building relationship between the two lovers, Ned Racine and the married femme-fatale Matty Walker,(kathleen turner).
    this movie is about a conniving woman(matty) who uses her s... read moreexuality to get what she wants,her ability to manipulate her gullible lover to murder her husband so she can inherit his entire fortune...has a surprise ending~!
  • fb619846742
    September 13, 2010
    fb619846742
    A well-crafted 80's noir thriller that takes a few pages out of classic 30's/40's films and creates something that is as cleverly seductive as it is intoxicating from an atmospheric perspective. While there are instances where the melodrama weighs this film down (the scene with H... read moreurt breaking into the house is especially cringe-worthy), the way this whole thing is scripted is impossible not to admire. For the most part, Hurt plays his sleazy character skillfully and shows his many sides effectively. Turner is undeniably a presence who you could argue steals the whole thing due to her innocent looks and obvious insecurity. Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are also memorable in small bits. The most well put-together aspect of this whole thing is, unsurprisingly, a twist ending that you can sense is coming but you can't completely nail down. The result is something satisfying. Not a masterpiece, but certainly an impressive film debut from director Lawrence Kasdan, and an even better one from Turner herself.
  • ythelastman89
    March 30, 2010
    ythelastman89
    By all means, Body Heat is a better movie than Double Indemnity. Itâ??s a challenge to remake a classic and even harder to re-imagine an entire genre, but somehow this manages to so flawlessly. Itâ??s almost tragic that Lawrence Kasdan made his masterpiece as a first time directo... read morer. The film is so beautiful looking and dynamic, that you almost wonder how they got it that way. When I think of Neo-Noir, this is one of the first that comes to mind. Itâ??s a classic story of femme fatales, manipulation, money and death.

    What really makes you fall in love with the story is the acting, even more so than the plot. William Hurt and Kathleen Turner play very archetypal roles, yet do it with such grace that you feel like itâ??s being delivered for the first time. They make extremely sleazy characters come off as sympathetic and relatable. The love story is so twisted, but so much fun at the same time. It truly warrants its title.

    I love movies that take forgotten concepts and make them new again, most of the time making even more of an impact than their influences. I think next to Chinatown, it is the best homage to the Film Noir genre.
  • movieguru12
    January 3, 2010
    movieguru12
    A very good suspenseful sexy thriller. Kathleen Turner's acting in this was fantastic and William Hurt's acting was very good as well. I enjoyed it alot! :)
  • harrycaul
    November 22, 2009
    harrycaul
    "You better take me up on this quick or else in about forty-five minutes I'm gonna get up and walk away"

    Of course it's impossible to watch this without thinking of Double Indemnity, though Lawrence Kasdan's movie has too many brilliant ideas of its own - that inge... read morenious final twist among them - to be dismissed as a mere rip-off or an affectionate pastiche of classic noir. In fact, unconstrained by Forties censorship and the Hayes Code's stipulation that crime must not be seen to pay, Body Heat actually improves upon Billy Wilder's masterpiece in a couple of key respects. While cleverly letting the Florida climate create most of his steamy atmosphere for him, Kasdan is able to present a more explicit - and therefore more credible - portrait of a good man driven to murder by obsessive lust. For a first film, Kasdan's direction is supremely confident and the cast list (William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Mickey Rourke, Ted Danson) reads like a Who's Who of people who were going places in the early Eighties.
  • kiriyamakazou
    August 4, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    Excellent 80's film noir where the only real negative is that sometimes the dated 80's feel clashes with the archaic 30s/40s touches. The dialogue is as sizzling hot as the setting. Lines roll off the stars tongues in a very natural but artistic way. Hurt plays a very real everym... read morean. He's seduced by a femme fatale, but thinks he is in control. His character gains our sympathy without ever asking for it. It's nice to see Rourke in his younger days and Turner is super sexy, not just in her looks. It's perfectly understandable how Hurt falls for her. It's a good little thriller even if some of the turns are too concerned with paying tribute to the genre.

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
February 8, 2008
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Lawrence Kasdan's 1981 noir fable is highly derivative in its overall conception, but it finds some freshness in its details. Full Review

Richard Corliss
February 8, 2008
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

Though Lawrence Kasdan's film is set in today's South Florida, its characters move through an atmosphere that suggests the confluences of decor and demeanor in a 1940s film noir. Full Review

Janet Maslin
May 20, 2003
Janet Maslin, New York Times

While Body Heat involves murder, fraud, a weak hero led astray and a seductive, double-dealing broad, it also incorporates something new: a sexual explicitness that the old films could only hint at. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Body Heat is good enough to make film noir play like we hadn't seen it before. Full Review

February 8, 2008
Film4

Steamy, explicit and highly-charged film noir reworked with an 1980s gloss. Full Review

Ian Nathan
February 8, 2008
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine

Still regarded as one of the steamiest movie's of all time, Body Heat is a fantastic exponenet of how noir has developed. Full Review

February 8, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

An excellent crime drama in the style of Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, and Dashiell Hammett. Full Review

Chuck O'Leary
November 13, 2006
Chuck O'Leary, FulvueDrive-in.com

Suspenseful and supersexy. Full Review

John J. Puccio
October 20, 2006
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

...builds slowly, then grabs you and never lets go. Full Review

Christopher Null
September 28, 2006
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

The setup is classic noir that follows the rigid three-act screenplay structure that only a Hollywood newcomer could stringently abide by, and here it works Full Review

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    • Matty Walker: You aren't too bright. I like that in a man.
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Body Heat Trivia

  • The classic film "Double Indemnity" directed by Billy Wilder was loosely remade in the 1980s, Name the film:  Answer »
  • what movie would you find the line.... you're not very bright, are you?, i like that in a man.?  Answer »
  • In which 80's movie Kathleen Turner seduced William Hurt to make him kill her husband?  Answer »
  • Who turned down the leads in American Gigolo, Body Heat, The Bounty, Hannibal, and Romancing the Stone?  Answer »
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