Wow! You've NEVER seen anything like "Body Heat"! Seriously, this is one move that's bound to grow on you. William Hurt plays an incompetent lawyer who befriends sultry Kathleen Turner, and the two of them scheme to get rid of her rich husband (Richard Crenna). The movie's setting is absolutely perfect. It's in Florida amid a heat wave, and everyone is constantly sweating. Of course, this steaminess (in multiple senses) only adds to the chemistry between Hurt and Turner. To be certain, Kathleen Turner looks like a cross between Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Montgomery (could there be a sexier combo?).

Obviously, the movie is intended as a tribute to film noir, and it certainly succeeds. Of course, cinema from the old days wasn't allowed to show what "Body Heat" does. I dare you not to feel sexually aroused while watching it. Lawrence Kasdan made a fine directorial debut here, and went on to cast Hurt in "The Big Chill" and "I Love You to Death". It's a perfect movie in every way.

Also starring Ted Danson, Kim Zimmer and A.J. Preston.

This story begins with a lawyer, Ned (William Hurt),who seems to think mostly with his second brain. When he meets Matty (Kathleen Turner),he immediately learns she is married but he doesn't care as his second brain is doing all his thinking. Soon the pair are engaged in a very passionate affair and over time he decides to kill the husband so he can have her AND she can have the husband's money. However, after he does the evil deed, it becomes more and more clear that Matty planned all of this long before she met him. And, he isn't sure what her plans are now...but they might not include him.

In so many ways, this film is like a sleazier reworking of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity", which is itself a reworking of the Émile Zola novel, Thérèse Raquin. The main difference is that this film is more sexually explicit...though not as much as I had expected. In fact. For years I avoided the film because I thought it was just a soft core porno movie...which it turned out not to be. Yes, there's quite a bit of skin...but the story itself and the acting are quite good and so there's much more to the story. Well worth seeing...but certainly a rather adult story, so I wouldn't recommend you watch it with your mother-in-law OR Father O'Malley.

By the way, I must be getting old. I didn't care much about the nudity in the film and instead I kept thinking "I have lived in Florida for two decades and why don't the folks in this film have air conditioning.... EVERYBODY in Florida has air conditioning. Plus, Matty is supposed to be rich....so why no air conditioning?!".

BODY HEAT is all about the mood. It's a film that makes you shuffle and sweat as you watch, set as it is in the searing Florida heat. In all other respects, it's a classic film noir that harks back to the movies of yesteryear in which a mismatched couple embark on a torrid affair. What follows involves murder, double-crossing and more passionate embraces than you can shake a stick at.

While I found this film mildly enjoyable, I felt throughout that I'd already seen it in the same year's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. In addition, I thought the Nicholson film was better: more characterisation for a start, and a more engaging plot. Try as I might, I just couldn't warm to either William Hurt or Kathleen Turner in this film, although the always underrated Richard Crenna puts in a nice turn as Turner's husband.

There's some good plotting here, some well directed scenes and decent twists, but I never got emotionally involved with what I was watching. And that's what it always comes down to, for me; my enjoyment of a movie depends on how far I can get involved in it. With BODY HEAT, I never forgot I was watching a film.