Stephen M (harrycaul)

"You better take me up on this quick or else in about forty-five minutes I'm gonna get up and walk away"

Of course it's impossible to watch this without thinking of Double Indemnity, though Lawrence Kasdan's movie has too many brilliant ideas of its own - that ingenious final twist among them - to be dismissed as a mere rip-off or an affectionate pastiche of classic noir. In fact, unconstrained by Forties censorship and the Hayes Code's stipulation that crime must not be seen to pay, Body Heat actually improves upon Billy Wilder's masterpiece in a couple of key respects. While cleverly letting the Florida climate create most of his steamy atmosphere for him, Kasdan is able to present a more explicit - and therefore more credible - portrait of a good man driven to murder by obsessive lust. For a first film, Kasdan's direction is supremely confident and the cast list (William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Mickey Rourke, Ted Danson) reads like a Who's Who of people who were going places in the early Eighties.

"I don't trust this guy. Anyway, set up the ambush!"

Doubtless, a family film that appeals equally to children and grown-ups is probably not the easiest thing in the world to make. It has to be smart enough to amuse the adults without being so clever that it disenchants the kids. Having stumbled upon the winning formula with Toy Story, Pixar has been churning out exactly this kind of movie for the past fifteen years. Unfortunately, Wes Anderson does not strike the right balance here; his movie is much too clever for its own good and there simply isn't enough in it for the kids. I can't recall exactly what I was interested in seeing when I was seven or eight years old but it almost certainly it wasn't knife fights, ugly death scenes and foxes talking about existentialism! Fantastic? Not really. On the plus side, this is exquisitely animated, the voices are excellent and there are one or two surprisingly touching moments along the way. In particular, I thought the fox cubs mesmerised by the train set and the mystical late appearance of the wolf were beautifully done.

The most beautiful, imaginative and ambitious fantasy film ever made. Everyone should see it. Originally commissioned to improve Anglo-American relations at the tail end of WWII!

More of a character study than a thriller, though it does have a lovely twist at the end. Easily the best thing Coppola ever made and undoubtedly Gene Hackman's finest hour. I annoy people by declaring this Harrison Ford's best movie!