Body Heat (1981)
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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 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 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
- Directed By
- Lawrence Kasdan
- Genres
- Mystery & Suspense
- In Theaters
- Aug 28, 1981 Wide
- Studio
- Warner Home Video
Critic Reviews
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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.
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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.
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, Time Out
There's no denying the narrative confidence that brings the film to its unfashionably certain double-whammy conclusion.
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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.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Body Heat is good enough to make film noir play like we hadn't seen it before.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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William Hurt
as Ned Racine
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Kathleen Turner
as Matty Walker
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Richard Crenna
as Edmund Walker
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Ted Danson
as Peter Lowenstein
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J.A. Preston
as Oscar Grace
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Mickey Rourke
as Teddy Lewis
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Kim Zimmer
as Mary Ann Simpson
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Jane Hallaren
as Stella
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Lanna Saunders
as Roz Kraft
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Carola McGuinness
as Heather Kraft
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Michael Ryan
as Miles Hardin
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Larry Marko
as Judge Costanza
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Lynn Hallowell
as Angela
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Deborah Lucchessi
as Beverly
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Meg Kasdan
as Nurse
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Thom Sharp
as Michael Glenn
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Robert Traynor
as Prison Trustee

