Body Heat, 1981. An affair leads to murder. Written & directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Starring William Hurt & Kathleen Turner.
Concept: 4/4 (Great). Noir! Suspense! Crime! Thrills and chills! What could possibly go wrong?
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad). It would have been fine for most 80s movies, but come on, this is supposed to be noir. I demand visual flair!
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Maybe it's unfair to take points off for 80s fashion. It's not their fault that they didn't think, for instance, that William Hurt's mustache was ridiculous. But again, this is noir. There are expectations to be met. The juxtaposition of 80s and 40s style might not have been so obvious back in 1981, but... it has not aged well.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible). The same complaints as the special effects/design point, but amplified a million times.
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). It's polished and crisp in place of grittiness. It's blunt and soft-core porn-y in place of wit and innuendo. There's no mystery. The plot twist supplies the bare minimum necessary for the genre. They don't even have the decency to give us a voice-over narration. And what good there is can hardly be seen through the glare of the 1980s.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.0/4 (Indifferent)
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