tonypeacock-1 Surprisingly entertaining early eighties thriller that has more plot twists than an episode of Murder, She Wrote which at times I thought I was watching. It has that made for television feel. Maybe it is because the film is nearly forty years old? It has a stellar cast including William Hurt (not the late John Hurt) as lawyer Ned Racine, Kathleen Turner (Matty Walker - apparently!) in her film debut and Ted Danson with a pre-Three Men and a Baby hairstyle. The plot is very reminiscent of film noir genre. Matty is a female vamp who entraps Ned in a murder/inheritance case with copious amounts of naked shenanigans to make up the screenplay! As well as the copulation a Florida heatwave is behind the film's title. On reading the production team credits I noticed that the music was scored by legendary James Bond composer John Barry. I noticed some strings from the Moonraker score in there. At the time of the film's release in 1981 it was some thirty or forty years since the height of film noir releases. The sex scenes are tame in today's social media driven society but I can imagine they were considered quite 'steamy' at the time. Turner who I have only feint eighties recollections in Romancing The Stone makes a splendid screen debut. A film that is worthy of its quite high ratings.

gavin6942 In the midst of a searing Florida heat wave, a woman (Kathleen Turner) convinces her lover (William Hurt), a small-town lawyer, to murder her rich husband (Richard Crenna).This film gets you very quickly with its raw sexuality. And yet, although the nudity is rather extreme, it never seems gratuitous. Which is weird. But hey, I guess sometimes it really does matter.One of the best parts of this film, besides the mystery and intrigue, is Ted Danson. I wish he showed up in the movie earlier. But you cannot always get what you want. Sometimes instead of Ted Danson, you get William Hurt's genitals flapping in the breeze.

jmillerdp The problem with this neo-noir is that, since it so exactly follows the femme fatale formula of classic film noir, you know exactly what's going to happen from beginning to end. How William Hurt's character can't is mind bending! You really want to just yell at the screen at him! Sheesh.Since the plot is a lost cause, what else to consider is the filmmaking. Lawrence Kasdan stymies himself by writing the aforementioned script as he did. So, his direction is only going to be able to do so much, and it isn't enough. John Barry's film score is the clear highlight! It is excellent and atmospheric. But, everything else is very routine.***** (5 Out of 10 Stars)

mrb1980 Most of the attention for "Body Heat" in 1981 was understandably directed toward Kathleen Turner's spectacular debut as the manipulating and conniving Matty Walker. However, the entire main cast (J. A. Preston, William Hurt, Kim Zimmer, Richard Crenna, Mickey Rourke and Ted Danson) are just as good.The plot is a remake of the old "Double Indemnity" plot from 1944 with a few added twists. Matty Walker meets incompetent Florida attorney Ned Racine (Hurt) and convinces him to kill her wealthy, ruthless husband Edmund (Richard Crenna). Arsonist Teddy Lewis (Rourke) provides an incendiary device to Racine in order to destroy evidence after the murder. Assistant District Attorney Peter Lowenstein (Danson) and detective Oscar Grace (Preston) investigate Edmund Walker's murder and find that an unidentified party (Matty Walker) is providing evidence to implicate Racine in the killing. In the final part of the movie, Matty Walker appears to have been killed in an explosion, but Racine eventually discovers that she has switched identities with and killed old friend Mary Ann Simpson (Zimmer) and has disappeared with the Walker estate money to an unidentified tropic island. Yes, it was really Simpson's body left behind, and Walker gets away with it! Yes, Turner was luminous and breathtaking in her first theatrical movie. Her sensuous manner with underlying evil undertones really makes this film click. The other actors do fine jobs, too. Hurt could have overplayed his dumb attorney role, but is just perfect; Crenna plays a really unlikeable shady businessman; Preston is an idealistic police detective; Rourke is enjoyably slimy as a professional criminal; and Danson provides spark as a public attorney who is friends with Racine and tries to help him, even when the evidence begins to mount.This film has a wonderfully "natural" feel, in which everyone is sweating and miserable during a steamy Florida heat wave. The characters talk like normal people do, wear normal clothes, and have the weaknesses that we all have. The music score, especially during the closing credits, is top-notch. It's a very realistic movie, and I'm still as impressed as I was 32 years ago when I saw it in a theater. It's timeless, and it's still a wonderful film.