Look, there’s no other way to put it; we can all join two and two together and reach roughly the same conclusion for why virtually any erotic thriller that appears on any streaming service will immediately find itself riding a new wave of popularity, but in the case of 1981’s Body Heat, you’d at least think it might have something to do with the film’s artistic merits.
After all, we’re talking about one of the greatest tales of titillation cinema has ever seen, which played no small part in ushering in the boom period that gave rise to some of the other classics to emerge throughout the decade and into the 1990s, but history has shown that’s only one of the reasons why FlixPatrol has declared to the world that Body Heat is back in a big way as one of the top-viewed titles on Max.
It’s a fantastic movie, one that elevated Kathleen Turner from virtual unknown to instant superstar overnight, with the star-studded cast also boasting the late, great William Hurt, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, and a smoldering Mickey Rourke, never mind the fact it holds a Certified Fresh approval rating of 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes more than 40 years on from its release.
A million miles away from being trashy but still hot under the collar from start to finish, Hurt’s lawyer indulges in a steamy affair with Turner’s Matty Walker, who also happens to be the wide of Crenna’s wealthy businessman. Naturally, the obsessed lover hatches a plot to murder the spouse so she can inherit his fortune as a nest egg for their intended new life together, but things hardly go to plan when the double-crosses start mounting up with dangerous abandon.