Body of Evidence

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: January 15, 1993

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

29	METASCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

David Ansen

Body of Evidence won't be remembered for classic plotting or brilliant legal gambits. But give it its due: it holds one's attention. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

A preposterous erotic thriller from the Basic Instinct fingernails-ripped-my-flesh school, Body of Evidence is shamelessly — and, on occasion, amusingly — unadulterated trash. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Body of Evidence is at its most hilarious in the deadly earnestness with which it unfolds its ludicrous plot, populated by paper-thin characters who range from the underdeveloped to the simply inane. BODY is oddly conflicted by the sheer unpleasantness of its depiction of sex. Read full review

Jeff Shannon

It is routine but watchable fare (set in Portland, partially filmed in Olympia), steeped in movie tradition and executed with admirable craftsmanship . . . and enough naked Madonna to make everything else a trivial distraction. [15 Jan 1993, p.3]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Although I have no facts to support my impression, this erotic courtroom thriller looks as if it grew out of Madonna seeing Basic Instinct and saying, “I wanna do one of those." Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

A courtroom drama built around the charge that Madonna's body is a deadly weapon with which she 'fornicated' a man to death, this showcase for the singer-thesp as femme fatale is more silly than erotic. Read full review

Desson Thomson

She (Madonna) really ought to be tried for impersonating Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Or playing a second-rate Hitchcock mystery blonde -- she's even named Rebecca. Read full review

EmpireMark Salisbury

An erotic thriller that's strangely unerotic and devoid of thrills, this is, however, mercifully short at 100 minutes. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Like many other overprepared athletes, the players in Body of Evidence left their best game in the locker room. [15 Jan 1993, p.F1]

Staff (Not Credited)

There's bondage, buggery, and a clothes-ripping chase up the stairs. Apart from that, there's a bit of verbal back-and-forth in court between the DA (Mantegna) and defence about whether she used her body as a lethal weapon to kill her millionaire lover and inherit; a brace of shifty witnesses (Archer and Prochnow); no tension; and Portland, Oregon in the rain. Read full review

Joe Pollack

There is a lot of sex along the way, but I found very little of it exciting, or even sensual. Madonna never seems to be having any fun, nor do her sexual partners, either in action or when they talk about it later. [15 Jan 1993, p.3E]

Vincent Canby

Body of Evidence ranks with the Edsel. It's not going anywhere. As a movie, it looks as if it wanted to be Basic Instinct, though it winds up more like Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS. Read full review

Rita Kempley

A bland, utterly silly, curiously provincial courtroom drama. Read full review

James Berardinelli

In general, thrillers are among the easiest movies to do poorly and the hardest to do well. Body of Evidence takes the easy road, and ends up as a shambles. This is the kind of poor effort that's difficult to forgive. Read full review

Nathan Rabin

Evidence tries to one-up Basic Instinct through the sheer quantity and length of its sex scenes, but it backfires. Read full review

Roger Ebert

I've seen comedies with fewer laughs than Body of Evidence, and this is a movie that isn't even trying to be funny. It's an excruciatingly incompetent entry in the Basic Instinct genre, filled with lines that only a screenwriter could love, and burdened with a plot that confuses mystery with confusion. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Aiming to be this year's Basic Instinct, Body of Evidence never raises a discernible pulse. Read full review