Body Heat

Body Heat (1981)

  • 97% of critics liked it
    (36 reviews)

  • 75% of users liked it
    (9,353 ratings)

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 alluring Matty (Kathleen Turner in her film debut). Ned is manipulated into killing Matty's… More

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R,
Directed By
Genres
Mystery & Suspense
In Theaters
Aug 28, 1981 Wide
Warner Home Video

Critic Reviews

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • , Time Out

    There's no denying the narrative confidence that brings the film to its unfashionably certain double-whammy conclusion.

  • 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.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Dean !


    Finally got round to watching this as heard it was a great thriller and Kathleen Turner's first film role. It looks very old and dated more like an early 70's film. It starts far too slow for me with not much happening for the first half of a long run time. Once the pace… More

  • Jennifer X


    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.

  • Pierluigi P


    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.… More

  • Melvin W


    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… More

  • AJ V


    A fantastic erotic thriller with great actors and a great mystery, I really liked it, and I highly recommend it.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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