Rating: 
Summary: Near perfect movie of love, lust and deception
Review: One of my all time favorites with great screenwriting and excellent performances by William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. The DVD is a revelation compared to the VHS version I own. The details in darkly lit scenes really jump out in the DVD, they were mostly lost on the VHS version. Also the colors were much better on the DVD. It was suprising to see how much of a gray tone was present in colors in the VHS version. The DVD version had much stronger colors in the sunlit scenes and in the darker scenes colors that had been almost non-existent on VHS showed up nicely on the DVD. Movies with a lot of special effects seem to get the attention of people reviewing DVDs but this film really shows the potential of DVDs. If you like this movie buy the DVD version, even if you have the video tape, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: A most appropriate title!
Review: This is a great mystery. You already know "who done it", the question is "who else is going to be done in and by whom?". A fascinating plot twist at the end. This was Kathleen Turner's film debut and its other major players had yet to achieve major stardom: William Hurt, Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke. Body Heat, set in steamy Florida, is so well acted, directed and photographed that you'll feel like fanning yourself -- and that's before Hurt and Turner turn up the heat!
Rating:
Summary: For years, my favorite film...
Review: This is a perfect movie. There are no loose ends, the audience is always kept guessing and the score is beautiful and sensual. Most people in love scenes look like they're acting, but not in this movie and that's peculiar because one of them is pretending (in the movie) to love the other, or at least be madly attracted to them. The twists, turns and end are just seamless, everything makes sense at the end and I love it for being so well made. Perfect entertainment, very sexy too. This is the best neo film noir I can think of and film noir is my favorite genre of cinema.
Rating: 
Summary: Very atmospheric movie, an inch short of brilliant
Review: Definitely worth a place in any respectable home video library, this film builds up the atmosphere of an adulterous relationship in a swelteringy hot Florida summer in terrific style. Murder seems just the sort of thing that would appeal to the sleazy, sex-hungry, armpit-stained lawyer played by William Hurt. The gradual tracking down of Hurt by the police is also convincing. However, the flim doesn't quite merit five stars, because the ending is a bit corny.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This movie deserved a sequel when the leads were still young and hot enough to pull it off. Great tension, dialogue, atmosphere, supporting cast, quirks (Ned Racine runs for his health, then finishes the run with a cigarette), and of course, KATHLEEN. baby, baby, baby, what I wouldn't have done for you then. . . .
Rating:
Summary: fine neo-noir
Review: This is one of my favorite neo-noir thrillers. Gorgeous music and photography, fine acting, a good story that hammers the slow-witted protagonist in the last half of the film. And the ending rocks. A must see.
Rating:
Summary: A towering film noir!
Review: Body heat meant the reinassance of the film noir in the eighties. Kasdan made his best picture to date. He's a very intelligemt film maker ; and employed the craft of one of the two greatest sex symbols of the eighties the talented and beauty Kathleen Turner who altogether with Theresa Russell completed the sexy duo.
Turner made reached the peak of the perfection the role of femme fatale ; the spider woman , who cleverly makes her web , waiting for a private eye who falls in love with her.She's married and as you well suppose is very unhappy with her husband (Richard Crenna) ; the plot is superbly built from start to finnish ; the locations the heat we can feel it even outside the screen . The art direction ; the sliding camera and the enlightment are first rate. Search for Mickey Rourke in a cameo.
If you ask me about the best film noir of this decade ; this would head the list ; the others would be in order of importance : The postman rings always twice , Blood simple , Bad timing and the Black widow.
A must in your collection!
Rating:
Summary: The Video Breakthrough
Review: Body Heat made a lot of money on the bases of THAT poster and the fact that people could buy VCRs and rent films for the first time. This and The Evil Dead where big tape sellers making them advents in the rental movie industry.
Selling a steamy film without that much steam is not such a bad thing. Instead of getting under the sheet shots, we end up with an intelligent drama that keeps you tuned to the detective work rather than Turner's body. A lawyer meets a gal who has a rich husband that stays away from the home for long periods, eventually becoming embroidered in an death insurance scam with some twists.
The character development works out with lots of depth for what should have been a B-movie skin flick. The key is the legal aspect that dominates the direction of the movie and most of the dialogue. Double-crossing, deceit and deception become more evident as the film progresses leaving you second-guessing what could become of it. Above all, Turner has probably her best role next to Serial Mom and when sharing the screen with Hurt combines to produce a memorable screen couple that has lasted longer than most critics would care to admit.
In many ways, this is damn near perfect packaging. A poster that gets everybody's attention, Oscar-worthy acting and a story that is actually very good when all is said and done. Although somewhat tamed by other beasts, this little screw job can still claim to have set off the new wave romantic-crime dramas that still hold true today... although many of them are not half as good.
As a note, you may be confused with the poster that Brian De Palma ripped off for his terrible "Body Vision" leaving many people thinking that Body Heat was a load of garbage. Try watching Body Heat next time.
Rating:
Summary: A Return to Film Noir... A Very Fun Little Film
Review: A great, super sensuous retro-noir film that reminded me a lot of Billy Wilder's ultra classic Double Indemnity. This film must have pushed very close to an NC-17 rating, with Kathleen Turner showing a lot of herself in some very racy and memorable scenes. Written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who already had the screenplays of Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark to his credit. The script is loaded with witty dialogue and classic lines. And I loved the setting: a po-dunk Florida town in the early 1980s, still a fairly noirish era to my childhood memory. The main protagonists are baby-boomers, and the story makes for a good metaphor as to what that generation contributed to the institution of the family in their heyday. Finally, the supporting cast, featuring J.A. Preston, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, and Mickey Rourke, were routinely superb.
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING MURDER/ROMANCE/MYSTERY YARN
Review: A noirish mystery from the time when William Hurt was an icon of you-know-what, and soon after, Kate Turner was too? I've never been that impressed by her acting ability, but here her limitations map perfectly onto the role of an insincere woman who pretends to be in love merely to entrap William Hurt into her scheme. From the captivating eroticism, oops romance, to the windchimes, to the sultry background score, to the water condensed on the side of the tub, to every detail of the plot, this film is picture perfect. But the main draw to the film is easily the terrific writing, it actually has a plot (a respite in itself!) and the final few scenes of the movie weave an intriguing web for all the loose ends of the movie. Five minutes before the credits, we're sure the story is over and we're into the wrapup -- after all, we've seen movies like this before -- but then, in one final killer twist, everything is upended, and we see that the there is much more to this plot than we had realized. The clues had been there, but in the end, we discover that we've been as gullible as William Hurt's character, and we're bowled over by the truth that's finally revealed. Very well-thought-out scheme that'll leave you thinking for a while. Get it if you can!
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