- Overview
- Review
- Trailers & Videos
- Cast & Crew
- TV Listings
Body Heat Trailer 1 - Trailer
Unable to load clip
The selected clip is currently unabled to be loaded.
More Clips
Body Heat - Official Trailer
01:33 —Body Heat
Body Heat
Find out which episode of the HBO hit reigns supreme.
Here's who we stan in The Bachelorette mansion
My News
Sign up and add shows to get the latest updates about your favorite shows - Start Now
Popular Shows
- 1.Jeopardy!
- 2.The 100
- 3.America's Got Talent
- 4.Dateline NBC
- 5.Keeping Up with the Kardashians
- 6.The Bachelorette
- 7.Riverdale
Popular Movies
- 1.Into The Blue
- 2.John Wick
- 3.Memorial Day
- 4.Star Wars
- 5.Avengers: Infinity War
- 6.The Lion King
- 7.Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Popular Celebrities
- 1.Kathryn Newton
- 2.Tyler Perry
- 3.Kevin Costner
- 4.Morgan Freeman
- 5.Jane Levy
- 6.Keanu Reeves
- 7.John Wayne
Latest Stories
- 1.The 100's Eliza Taylor Talks Josephine's Intentions for Bellamy
- 2.Game of Thrones Season 8 Complete Coverage
- 3.Game of Thrones Star Kit Harington Checked Into Rehab Before Finale
- 4.The Bachelorette Sent Cam Home Because He Wore a Hoodie With a Sport Coat
- 5.Netflix Will 'Rethink' Filming in Georgia If 'Heartbeat' Abortion Law Goes Into Effect
- 6.All TV's Biggest Hits Are Over. What Now?
- 7.Jessica Jones' Final Season Gets Intense Teaser, Premiere Date on Netflix
The Heat | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Feig |
Produced by | |
Written by | Katie Dippold |
Starring | |
Music by | Michael Andrews |
Cinematography | Robert Yeoman |
Edited by | |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
117 minutes[1] | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $43 million[2] |
Box office | $229.9 million[2] |
The Heat is a 2013 American buddy copaction comedy film directed by Paul Feig and written by Katie Dippold. It stars Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rapaport, and Jane Curtin. The film centers on FBISpecial Agent Sarah Ashburn and Boston Detective Shannon Mullins, who must take down a mobster in Boston.
The film was released in the United States on June 28, 2013. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the chemistry, and performances of Bullock and McCarthy,[3] and was a success at the box office, grossing $229 million worldwide against a $43 million budget.
- 3Production
- 4Release
- 5Reception
Plot[edit]
FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is an expert and effective investigator in New York City, but is despised by allied agents for her egotistical and vicious personality. When her manager assigns her to a mission in Boston, she meets detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), a skilled but loudmouth, bloodthirsty, sadistic, hot headed cop who is part of the Boston Police Department. Ashburn's ruthless philosophy clashes with Mullin's nefarious style of law work, proved during their attempt to interrogate local drug dealer Rojas (Spoken Reasons) who was captured by Mullins. Under pressure from her employer Hale (Demián Bichir), Ashburn reluctantly agrees to work with Mullins.
Ashburn and Mullins tail a local nightclub manager named Hank LeSoire (Adam Ray) to his business known as Club Ekko and place a bug on his phone to get information on a drug lord named Simon Larkin. As they leave the club, Ashburn and Mullins are confronted by DEA agents Craig (Dan Bakkedahl) and Adam (Taran Killam), who've been working the Larkin case for months and are worried that their case will be compromised. Ashburn and Mullins discover a surveillance video in the DEA agents' van showing Mullins' brother, Jason (Michael Rapaport), apparently connected to Larkin's organization. Jason was recently released from prison, having been put there by Mullins to keep him off the streets and out of trouble.
Ashburn convinces Mullins to go to her parents' home to ask Jason for information on Larkin. On their arrival, it becomes apparent that Mullins' parents (Michael B. Tucci and Jane Curtin), particularly her mother and three brothers, Peter (Joey McIntyre), Mark (Bill Burr) and Michael (Nathan Corddry) two of whom have girlfriends, Gina (Jessica Chaffin) and Beth (Jamie Denbo) still resent Mullins for her involvement in Jason's incarceration. However, Jason does not have any ill feelings toward his sister, and tips her off about the body of a murdered drug dealer by the name of Sal Netalie in an abandoned car. Chemicals on the victim's shoes lead Ashburn and Mullins to an abandoned paint factory, where they witness a drug dealer being murdered by Julian Vincent (Michael McDonald), vicious criminal and second-in-command of Larkin's organization. They apprehend Julian but are unable to extract any substantial information regarding Larkin's whereabouts, even with Mullins going so far as to play Russian Roulette with Julian's testicles.
The pair spend the evening bonding in a bar, where a drunk Ashburn reveals that her foster child past may be partly to blame for her attitude. After a night of raucous drinking and partying, Ashburn wakes up the following morning to discover that, in her drunkenness, she has given her car keys to Wayne (Steve Bannos), one of the bar patrons. After unsuccessfully pleading for the keys, Ashburn and Mullins watch as the patron starts the car and is killed by a bomb. They discover that Julian has escaped from custody and means to harm Mullins' family, so Mullins moves her family into a motel. Jason leaves, intending to join the Larkin organization in an attempt to help Mullins solve the case. Jason gives her a tip about a drug shipment coming into Boston Harbor. Despite Mullins' reluctance, Ashburn gets the FBI to take down the shipment. The FBI finds that the ship is actually an innocent pleasure cruise ship. Jason was being tested by Larkin, who shoots Jason for informing the FBI about the supposed drug shipment. Jason escapes death but falls into a coma. A falling out occurs between Mullins and Ashburn, with Mullins vowing to bring her brother's attacker to justice. They then reconcile when they arrest several drug dealers as a way of gaining leads to Larkin's whereabouts, including Rojas.
Ashburn and Mullins go to equip themselves with assault weapons from Mullins' extensive personal arsenal, and infiltrate one of Larkin's warehouses. Despite taking out several of Larkin's men with a hand grenade, the two officers are captured and bound. Julian is about to torture them with knives when he gets called away by Larkin. Before Julian leaves, he stabs Ashburn in the leg and leaves the knife in the wound. Mullins removes the knife from Ashburn's leg and uses it to cut the rope binding her hands. Before she can finish freeing herself and Ashburn, they are discovered by Craig and Adam. Craig begins to untie the two women, but is shot and killed by Adam. Ashburn and Mullins learn that Adam is actually Larkin, who has been working his own case from inside the DEA for several months. Julian returns and Larkin orders him to kill Ashburn and Mullins while he goes to the hospital to kill Jason. After Larkin leaves, Mullins manages to finish freeing herself and Ashburn incapacitates Julian with a head butt, after Mullins had stabbed him in the leg. Mullins and Ashburn race to the hospital to save Jason.
Upon their arrival, Mullins rushes to find Jason. Ashburn, hindered by the stab wound in her leg, lags behind, unable to move quickly. Mullins learns that, due to the foul language she and her family exhibit, the doctor moved Jason to another room in the hospital; she finds Jason's room, only to be disarmed by Larkin. He is about to kill Jason when Ashburn, having had to crawl to the room, subdues Larkin by shooting him in the genitals (much to Mullins' surprise, as she would never actually do so; scaring Julian earlier was only a way of making him talk). With Larkin captured, Ashburn requests to stay in the FBI's Boston field office, having developed a strong friendship with Mullins. Jason is shown having fully recovered from his coma. The film ends with Mullins receiving a commendation from the Boston Police Department. Members of her family are present and they cheer Mullins, now having reconciled with her. Ashburn later gets a call from Mullins to look in her year book. Mullins had signed the back of Ashburn's yearbook with the words, 'Foster kid, now you have a sister', showing the strong friendship that Mullins felt for a previously unpopular Ashburn.
As a surprise, Mullins brings to Ashburn the cat that she had found in Ashburn's neighbor's house, believing it was hers. Earlier, when Mullins saw a photo of Ashburn with the neighbor's cat, Ashburn had lied and said it was her cat which had gone missing in New York. Mullins quickly deduces that it was not Ashburn's and the package is sent to freight transport.
Cast[edit]
- Sandra Bullock as Special Agent Sarah Ashburn
- Melissa McCarthy as Detective Shannon Mullins
- Marlon Wayans as Special Agent Levy
- Demián Bichir as Hale
- Michael Rapaport as Jason Mullins
- Dan Bakkedahl as Special Agent Garrett Craig
- Taran Killam as Special Agent Adam / Simon Larkin
- Michael McDonald as Julian Vincent
- Spoken Reasons as Terrell Rojas
- Jane Curtin as Mrs. Mullins
- Michael B. Tucci as Mr. Mullins
- Joey McIntyre as Peter Mullins
- Bill Burr as Mark Mullins
- Nathan Corddry as Michael Mullins
- Jessica Chaffin as Gina
- Jamie Denbo as Beth
- Thomas F. Wilson as Captain Woods
- Adam Ray as Hank LeSoire
- Kaitlin Olson as Tatiana Krumova
- Tony Hale as The John
- Andy Buckley as Robin
- Ben Falcone as Blue-Collar Man
- John Ross Bowie as FBI Officer
- Chris Gethard as Himself
- Steve Bannos as Wayne
- Zach Woods as Paramedic
- Katie Dippold as ER Nurse
- Mitch Silpa as Dealer
- Paul Feig as Doctor
Production[edit]
The Heat is screenwriter Katie Dippold's feature film debut.[4] Dippold wrote the spec script on the side while fulfilling writing duties on Parks and Recreation and ultimately sold it to producer Peter Chernin for $600,000 prior to even being presented to prospective bidders.[5] Inspired by the buddy cop film genre, primarily examples such as Running Scared (1986) and Lethal Weapon (1987), Dippold set out to write a film in which the leads were portrayed by women.[6] As Dippold explains, '[In] Running Scared, they go down to the Caribbean and there's this montage of them on scooters, and there's a different hot girl on the back every time it cuts back to the scooter. And it just felt like, I don't want to be the girl on the back of the scooter. I want to be the awesome cop doing this stuff.'[7]
Despite the success of Bridesmaids (2011), studio executives were still uncertain of an action film with a female-led cast. 'There were people suspicious of this attempt, who thought girls won't want to see a cop action movie and guys won't want to see two girls holding guns and we'd cancel out our potential audience,' said producer Jenno Topping. 'But we really believed, at the end of the day, it wouldn't be about gender as much as it would be about delivering a courageous action comedy with some heart to it.'[8]
—Paul Feig, explaining what drew him to the film[9]
On May 19, 2012, director Paul Feig and actresses Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy signed on to the film after previously struggling to close deals due to scheduling and payment conflicts.[10] At this time, the film was called The Untitled Female Buddy Cop Comedy.[9]
Principal photography for The Heat began on July 5, 2012 at Dudley Square in Boston, Massachusetts.[11]
Music[edit]
The soundtrack is composed by Michael Andrews who previously scored Feig's Bridesmaids and Unaccompanied Minors (2006).[12] A soundtrack album containing songs featured in the film was released on June 25, 2013 by Lakeshore Records.[13] Of these songs, the album includes a brand new track entitled 'Rock This' by Santigold.[14] Describing why he chose the songs featured in the film, Feig said, 'My favorite part of filmmaking is finding the perfect music to complement what's happening on screen. And I wanted The Heat to feel like a party. I wanted the audience to have fun. And since I have to watch a movie hundreds of times as I'm making it, I wanted to use music that I wouldn't get tired of. Every song in this film is a desert island song for me. I will never get sick of them.'[15]
Release[edit]
While originally intended to be released on April 5, 2013, Fox pushed back the release date to June 28, 2013.[16] The film held its world premiere in New York City on June 23, 2013.[17]
Marketing[edit]
The first official full-length trailer of the film was released on October 27, 2012.[18]
Home media[edit]
The Heat was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 15, 2013. The Blu-ray features an unrated version of the film, along with several audio commentaries: one with McCarthy and director Feig; one with the actors who portray the Mullins family; and one with the original Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew.[19]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Heat earned $39.1 million in North American markets during its opening weekend.[20] The film went on to gross $159.6 million in the domestic market and $70.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $229.9 million, against a production budget of $43 million.[2]Deadline Hollywood calculated the film made a net profit of $61.8 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[21]
Critical response[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 65%, based on 172 reviews with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, 'The Heat is predictable, but Melissa McCarthy is reliably funny and Sandra Bullock proves a capable foil.'[22] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating 'mixed or average reviews'.[23] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of 'A-' on an A+ to F scale.[24]
Cast Of Body Heat Movie 2016
Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle calls the film both formulaic and inspired 'the inspiration is in the combining of these two actresses.'[25]Keith Uhlich of Time Out gives a mixed review and says Bullock and McCarthy deserve better, and also criticizes the trailer for giving the bad impression that this was a less funny film.[26]
Accolades[edit]
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Actress Most in Need of a New Agent | Melissa McCarthy | Nominated |
American Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Actress - Film | Sandra Bullock | Nominated |
Melissa McCarthy | Won | ||
Funniest Motion Picture | Nominated | ||
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Summer Movie Star: Female | Sandra Bullock | Won |
Melissa McCarthy | Nominated | ||
Choice Movie Chemistry | Sandra Bullock Melissa McCarthy | Won | |
Choice Summer Movie Comedy | Nominated | ||
Choice Movie: Hissy Fit | Melissa McCarthy | Nominated | |
Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Actress in a Comedy | Nominated | |
Sandra Bullock | Nominated | ||
Best Comedy Movie | Nominated | ||
Golden Trailer Awards | Don LaFontaine Award for Best Voice Over | 20th Century Fox | Nominated |
Best Comedy TV Spot | 20th Century Fox Open Road Entertainment | Nominated | |
MTV Movie Awards | Best Comedic Performance | Melissa McCarthy | Nominated |
People's Choice Awards | Favorite Comedic Movie | Won | |
Favorite Comedic Movie Actress | Melissa McCarthy | Nominated | |
Sandra Bullock | Won | ||
Favorite Movie Duo | Sandra Bullock Melissa McCarthy | Nominated | |
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association | Best Film-Comedy | Nominated | |
Women Film Critics Circle | Best Comedic Actress | Melissa McCarthy | Won |
Canceled sequel and proposed spin-off[edit]
Shortly after the film's release, director Feig announced that the film would be followed by a sequel.[27][28] In October 2013, Bullock stated that she won't come back for the sequel and the project itself was put on hold.[29][30] Instead, the sequel was reportedly being replaced by a spin-off film that will center around Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin's characters Beth and Gina from the first film.[31][32]
Body Heat Movie Online
References[edit]
- ^'THE HEAT (15)'. British Board of Film Classification. April 26, 2013. Archived from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
- ^ abc'The Heat (2013)'. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Ryan, Tim (June 28, 2013). 'Critics Consensus: White House Down Is Predictable Action Fluff'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^Fleming, Jr., Mike (April 3, 2013). ''The Heat' Scribe Katie Dippold Makes 7-Figure Sale To Chernin Entertainment'. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Zakarin, Jordan (June 27, 2013). 'How To Become Rich And Successful By Playing 'GoldenEye' On N64'. BuzzFeed. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Rosen, Christopher (June 27, 2013). 'Katie Dippold On 'The Heat' & How Concussions Helped Her Write The Summer's Funniest Action-Comedy'. The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Czajkowski, Elise (June 27, 2013). 'Talking to Katie Dippold About 'The Heat', Female Camaraderie, and Lots of Swearing'. Split Sider. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Kohen, Yael (April 3, 2013). 'It's Kind of a Funny Story'. Marie Claire. p. 3. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^ abRosen, Christopher (June 24, 2013). 'Paul Feig On 'The Heat' & Post-'Bridesmaids' Hollywood: 'We're Not Advancing As Much As We Should''. The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Sneider, Jeff (May 19, 2012). 'Bullock, McCarthy tapped for cop pic'. Variety. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^Mark Shanahan; Meredith Goldstein (July 6, 2012). ''The Heat' with Sandra Bullock begins filming in Dudley Square'. The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^'Michael Andrews Scoring Paul Feig's 'The Heat''. Film Music Reporter. October 10, 2013. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ^''The Heat' Soundtrack Details'. Film Music Reporter. May 27, 2013. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ^Rahman, Ray (June 24, 2013). 'Hear Santigold's 'Rock This' for the Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy comedy 'The Heat'- EXCLUSIVE'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ^'THE HEAT Soundtrack to be Released 6/25'. BWWMoviesWorld. June 6, 2013. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ^Han, Angle (January 29, 2013). 'Paul Feig's 'The Heat' Moves to Summer'. /Film. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^'Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy Hit NYC for 'The Heat' Premiere'. ABC News Radio. KMBZ. June 24, 2013. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ^''The Heat' Trailer: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy Star as Awkward Police Duo'. The Hollywood Reporter. November 16, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- ^'News: Heat, The (US - DVD R1 | BD RA)'. DVDActive. ServInt. September 4, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ^Subers, Ray (June 30, 2013). 'Weekend Report: 'Monsters' Repeats, 'Heat' Sets Fire to 'White House''. IMDB. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- ^D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 18, 2016). ''Ghostbusters': How Its $46M Opening Creates A Quandary – Weekend Box Office Postmortem'. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
- ^'The Heat (2013)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ^'The Heat reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
- ^'CinemaScore'. cinemascore.com.
- ^http://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/The-Heat-review-Action-comedy-buddy-pic-in-1-4626185.php?t=2e845ab6c847b02379
- ^https://www.timeout.com/us/film/the-heat-movie-review
- ^Bradford, Evans. 'There's Already a Sequel for 'The Heat' in the Works', SplitSider, Retrieved on April 23, 2013.
- ^MovieInsider'The Heat 2', 04-03-2013.
- ^Rosen, Christopher. 'Sandra Bullock Says She's Not Doing A Sequel To 'The Heat', Huffington Post Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- ^Lang, Brent. 'Sandra Bullock Says She's Not Doing A Sequel To 'The Heat': I've Done Two Horrible Ones Already', The Wrap Retrieved October 1, 2013.
- ^Puchko, Kristy. 'Forget The Heat 2 - A Spinoff Is In The Works', Cinema Blend Retrieved November 15, 2013.
- ^Felming, Mike. 'Paul Feig Hatches 'The Heat' Spinoff, Focusing On Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin's Characters From Melissa McCarthy-Sandra Bullock Comedy', Deadline Retrieved November 15, 2013.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Heat (film). |
- The Heat on IMDb
- The Heat at Box Office Mojo
- The Heat at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Heat at Metacritic
- O'Hehir, Andrew. '“The Heat”: Police misconduct as feminism.' Salon. June 28, 2013.
- The Heat at The Journalist
And yet if bad modern noir can play like a parody, good noir still has the power to seduce. Yes, Lawrence Kasdan's “Body Heat” (1981) is aware of the films that inspired it--especially Billy Wilder's “Double Indemnity” (1944). But it has a power that transcends its sources. It exploits the personal style of its stars to insinuate itself; Kael is unfair to Turner, who in her debut role played a woman so sexually confident that we can believe her lover (William Hurt) could be dazed into doing almost anything for her. The moment we believe that, the movie stops being an exercise and starts working. (I think the moment occurs in the scene where she leads Hurt by her hand in that manner a man is least inclined to argue with.)
Women are rarely allowed to be bold and devious in the movies; most directors are men, and they see women as goals, prizes, enemies, lovers and friends, but rarely as protagonists. Turner's entrance in “Body Heat” announces that she is the film's center of power. It is a hot, humid night in Florida. Hurt, playing a cocky but lazy lawyer named Ned Racine, is strolling on a pier where an exhausted band is listlessly playing. He is behind the seated audience. We can see straight down the center aisle to the bandstand. All is dark and red and orange. Suddenly a woman in white stands up, turns around and walks straight toward him. This is Matty Walker. To see her is to need her.
Turner in her first movie role was an intriguing original. Slender, with hair down to her shoulders, she evoked aspects of Barbara Stanwyck and Lauren Bacall. But the voice, with its elusive hint of a Latin accent, was challenging. She had “angry eyes,” the critic David Thomson observed. And a slight overbite (later corrected, I think) gave a playful edge to her challenging dialogue (“You're not too smart, are you?” she says soon after meeting him. “I like that in a man.”)
Hurt had been in one movie before “Body Heat” (Ken Russell's “Altered States” in 1980). He was still unfamiliar: a tall, already balding, indolently handsome man with a certain lazy arrogance to his speech, as if amused by his own intelligence. “Body Heat” is a movie about a woman who gets a man to commit murder for her. It is important that the man not be a dummy; he needs to be smart enough to think of the plan himself. One of the brilliant touches of Kasdan's screenplay is the way he makes Ned Racine think he is the initiator of Matty Walker's plans.
Few movies have done a better job of evoking the weather. Heat, body heat, is a convention of pornography, where performers routinely complain about how warm they are (as if lovemaking could cool them off, instead of making them hotter). Although air conditioning was not unknown in South Florida in 1981, the characters here are constantly in heat; there is a scene where Ned comes home, takes off his shirt and stands in front of the open refrigerator. The film opens with an inn burning in the distance (“Somebody's torched it to clear the lot,” Ned says. “Probably one of my clients.”) There are other fires. There is the use of the color red. There is the sense that heat inflames passion and encourages madness.
When released the first installment of in May of 2017, it seemed possible that the two records would add up to a grand statement, but is essentially the mirror image of its predecessor. Both records clock in at a swift 32 minutes, lasting no more than nine songs -- brief even by the standards of '60s or '70s country, when it was common to release two or three records a year. From a room volume 1 download.
In this heat, Matty seems cool. Early in the film there is a justly famous scene where Matty brings Ned home from a bar, allegedly to listen to her wind chimes, and then asks him to leave. He leaves, then returns, and looks through a window next to her front door. She stands inside, dressed in red, calmly returning his gaze. He picks up a chair and throws it through the window, and in the next shot they are embracing. Knowing what we know about Matty, look once again at her expression as she looks back at him. She looks as confident and absorbed as a child who has pushed a button and is waiting for a video game to respond.
Cast Of Body Heat Movie Free
Kasdan, born in 1949, worked in ad agencies before moving to Hollywood to write screenplays. His more personal work languished in desk drawers while his first credits were two of the biggest blockbusters of all time, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” George Lucas acted as executive producer on this directorial debut to reassure Warner Bros. that it would come in on time and be releasable. It was; David Chute wrote in Film Comment that it was “perhaps the most stunning debut movie ever” (which raises the question of “Citizen Kane,” but never mind). Kasdan's subsequent career has alternated between action pieces written for others (“Return of the Jedi,” aspects of “The Bodyguard”) and quirky, smart films directed by himself (“The Accidental Tourist,” “I Love You To Death,” and the brilliant, overlooked “Grand Canyon” in 1991).
In “Body Heat,” Kasdan's original screenplay surrounds the characters with good, well-written performances in supporting roles; he creates a real world of police stations, diners, law offices and restaurants, away from which Matty has seduced Ned into her own twisted scenario. The best supporting work in the movie is by Mickey Rourke, in his breakthrough role, as Ned's friend, a professional arsonist. Richard Crenna is Matty's husband. “He's small, and mean, and weak,” she tells Ned, but when we see him he is not small or weak. Ted Danson and J.A. Preston are a D.A. and a cop, Ned's friends, who are drawn reluctantly into suspecting him of murder (Danson's sense of timing and nuance are perfect in a night scene where he essentially briefs his friend Ned on the case against him).
“Kasdan has modern characters talking jive talk as if they'd been boning up on Chandler novels,” Kael wrote, “and he doesn't seem to know if he wants laughs or not.” But isn't it almost essential for noir characters to talk in a certain heightened style, and isn't it possible for us to smile in recognition? On the night they first make love, Ned tells Matty, “Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.” She says, “This is a blouse and skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.” And he says, “You shouldn't wear that body.” Chandleresque? Yes. Works in this movie? Yes.
And there is some dialogue that unblinkingly confronts the enormity of the crime that Ned and Matty are contemplating. In many movies, the killers use self-justification and rationalization to talk themselves into murder. There is a chilling scene in “Body Heat” where Ned flatly tells Matty: “That man is gonna die for no reason but . . . we want him to.”
The plot and its double-crosses are of course part of the pleasure, although watching the film again last night, aware of its secrets, I found the final payoff less rewarding than the diabolical setup. The closing scenes are obligatory (and the final beach scene is perfunctory and unconvincing). The last scene that works as drama is the one where Ned suggests to Matty that she go get the glasses in the boathouse, and then she pauses on the lawn to tell him, “Ned, whatever you think--I really do love you.”
Does she? That's what makes the movie so intriguing. Does he love her, for that matter? Or is he swept away by sexual intoxication--body heat? You watch the movie the first time from his point of view, and the second time from hers. Every scene plays two ways. “Body Heat” is good enough to make film noir play like we hadn't seen it before.
I will not give away too much of this movie's plot. However, I will say that Lawrence Kasdan is a genius! Not only was he instrumental in creating Star Wars and Indiana Jones (He Also Reimagined Star Wars 30 Years Later), but he created his own genre piece with the film noir! I was amazed and loved the film. Every character had their place and they more than held their own! Seeing a young Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke only enthralled me more into the story. The Hall of Famer Richard Crenna only solidified the greatness of the story. J.A. Preston's solid supporting role was one of the best written in the film. Kasdan said in the Body Heat Documentary: 'He's the one character in the movie who has a code that he absolutely lives by.' The waitress who manages the diner was a scene stealer. The performances in this film rocked all around! Five Stars way high for this film. Buy it and you won't be disappointed. I'm the 477th person to review this fine film.
By the way, I don't want to leave out William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. They had such an incredible chemistry together. Turner shines in this film and as a man I can only wonder what would happen to me if I encountered so sexy and sultry a woman. I too would become weak. Men are helpless when a beautiful woman walks into the room.
A. Nathaniel Wallace, Jr.