What a beautiful movie!

Sorry, this movie sucks

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

a world where certain modernities have gotten stuck in time.Written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, this film stars William Hurt as Ned Racine, a mediocre attorney in a small southern town who is more famous for one particular legal screw-up - one that figures prominently into the plot - than his small time victories. He gets passionately involved with Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner), beautiful classy wife of rather absentee (always off on business) and somewhat shady businessman Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna) who has implied mob ties. The thing is, what to do about it? They could just run away together, but Matty signed a pre-nup and gets nothing in any divorce, plus she does not want to be poor. This pushes Ned toward a more final solution, a solution that might be made easier considering Walker's mob ties as a smokescreen for any vanishing act Edmund might appear to make.Ned is friends with the local sheriff, Oscar Grace (J.A. Preston) with Ted Danson thrown in before he was the world's most famous Boston bartender in "Cheers". Grace is the voice of the law, Danson's character is the voice of pragmatism.This is an anachronistic southern noir that is supposedly taking place in the time the movie was made - 1981 - but doesn't realize thirty years have passed. All of that sweating, the premium placed on a night breeze, all of that ice on sexy necks and down blouses. 90% of the sex appeal - and atmosphere - would disappear if somebody would just turn on the A.C! Mickey Rourke plays a firebug and one of Ned's clients who - without being told EXACTLY what his attorney is up to, throws Ned's advice back at him - "Any time you try a decent crime you got 50 ways you can mess up. You think of 25 of them and you're a genius. And you ain't no genius". Rourke's character says this because he genuinely likes Ned. Gosh Rourke was a handsome guy just dipped in masculine mojo back in the day.Matty's past is quite mysterious. She talks about being heavy into drugs when she was young and how a lawyer helped her get clean and gave her a job in his office. And then she met Edmund Walker. Too bad the internet and google didn't exist in 1981, because it could have saved old Ned some tragedy. The lack of google is more tragic than the existence of air conditioning that goes unused.The jazzy/bluesy score is by John Barry, the stylistic cinematography by Richard H. Kline (The Boston Strangler (1968)) . I highly recommend this timeless noir.

As neo-noirs go, "Body Heat" stands right up there with the greats. And despite its ultra-sweaty setting, it still manages to maintain an ultra- cool style. All of the pieces in this puzzle fit just so perfectly. William Hurt plays a great patsy, completely in over his head; Kathleen Turner is pitch perfect as the femme fatale (she's got that "bad news" written all over her . . . and that voice!). And between that sweet '80s sax score (like a soap opera "Chinatown") and the incredible tone and setting Lawrence Kasdan kicks off from the get-go, you can just feel the steam coming off of the screen. The plot is twisty enough, but that yearbook scene at the end was one helluva capper. Great movie. 8/10

Ned Racine (William Hurt) is a small seedy lawyer in Florida. It's a searing heatwave. He picks up Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner). She's married to wealthy businessman Edmund (Richard Crenna), and a passionate affair ensues. She wants to leave Edmund but there's a prenup. So they hatch a plot to kill him.The is one sweaty movie. It is one of the best modern noir. It has all the styles of noir from first time director Lawrence Kasdan who also wrote the screenplay. It takes all the components of the old noir genre and adds the explicit sexuality of newcomer Kathleen Turner. It is very effective. It pushes the genre to new heights.

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)