"Catching a serial killer takes a seriously twisted cop."
Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police.
Kevin Kline
Nick Starkey
Susan Sarandon
Christine Starkey
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Bernadette Flynn
Harvey Keitel
Police Commissioner Frank Starkey
Danny Aiello
Captain Vincent Alcoa
Rod Steiger
Mayor Eamon Flynn
Alan Rickman
Ed
Faye Grant
Alison Hawkins
Kenneth Welsh
Roger Culver
Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police.
The January Man initially feels like a thriller, opening with a woman being strangled to death, which segues to the mayor of New York City discussing the murder, the eleventh in as many months committed by a serial killer who uses a blue tape to suffocate his victims, with the police commissioner. That the mayor and the commissioner are played respectively by Rod Steiger and Harvet Keitel only stresses the gravity of the situation. However, the discerning moviegoer will be able to anticipate the true nature of the film as soon as they observe that it follows the Kevin Kline Mustache Principle, according to which Kline always wears facial hair when playing comedic roles, but shaves for serious roles. Nick Starkey (Kline), a brilliant former detective who has been exiled to the fire department because of an oft-mentioned but never-explained scandal. His brother Frank, the aforementioned police commissioner, reinstates him per the mayor's suggestion/order. This is bad news for police captain Alcoa (Danny Aiello). Aiello stands out in the usually thankless job of 'straight man', to the point that his best scene, and arguably the best in the film, is not among those he shares with Steiger and Keitel, or with Kline and Alan Rickman, but the one wherein he reacts with increasing bewilderment when a subordinate attempts to explain why Nick turned down the office that was assigned to him. Rickman plays Ed, a painter/computer whiz. Nick and Ed discover that the location of the buildings where the victims lived, when viewed on a map of Manhattan, form the constellation Virgo. They also realize that all of the rooms in which the murders occurred have windows on the front of the building, and that when the exterior location of the windows are aligned based on the floor they are on, they correlate with eleven notes in the chorus of the song “Calendar Girl”. That the occupant of the apartment is always a woman who is always home alone the night of the attack (the killer acts on dates that are prime numbers) is arguably the least of all the coincidences in the movie, but then The January Man has not the slightest interest in creating a plausible villain, and that in an all-star cast, also including Susan Sarandon and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, the anonymous killer is played by a stunt double, tells us everything we need to know about the importance this character had for the filmmakers.
This is one of those rare films about a serial killer that isn't so much about the killer himself as it is how the law enforcement officer tracks him down and arrests him. And that perspective is always welcome, especially here because it took the gambit of really not focusing on the killer at all. It was a bit like Manhunter in its approach. And the fact that an actor with great comedic timing was cast as the lead and supported by Alan Rickman in a nearly unrecognizable role made it even better. It's a rare gem of a film that stands out from everything else on so many levels. It's also, however, a film that far too many people have forgotten about.
![The January Man (1989) Original Trailer [FHD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/OM_gar5LzNA/hqdefault.webp)
Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who happens to be his business partner, Gittes is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deceit involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. While investigating, Gittes hears a voice from his past that causes him to revisit a traumatic case in Chinatown.
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?
A stroke of good luck turns lethal for Sam Phelan and his wife Leslie when they are faced with a life-changing decision that brings strange and sinister Pyke Kubic to their doorstep. As Pyke leads Sam and Leslie on a tumultuous adventure through the streets of Chicago, each are pulled deeper and deeper into a desperate spiral of deception and violence – all in the name of money.
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
Detectives Jake Doyle and Mary Kelly seek the help of an incarcerated serial killer named The Artist when a copycat killer strikes. While Mary searches for clues in The Artist's brilliant but twisted psyche, she and Jake are lured into a diabolical game of cat and mouse, racing against time to stay one step ahead of The Artist and his copycat.
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
When one of Europe's most lethal terrorists shows up in New York, an elite undercover cop is assigned to take him down by any means necessary.
On an ordinary night, in an ordinary part of town, a beautiful young woman walks into a bar. Her name is Jewel, and before long she is chatting to bartender Randy. The pair leave together, but he ends up getting into a tussle with her criminal boyfriend, who she then shoots dead, later persuading Randy to take the rap for her. But this isn't the end of it, as both Randy's cousin Carl and the detective assigned to the murder case also fall for Jewel's charms and find themselves caught up in the ensuing events. It seems that any man who meets Jewel falls instantly in love with her, and she's going to use this fully to her own advantage, leaving a trail of havoc in her wake. It also seems that she is going to get away with it - that is, until Randy decides to hire a hitman...
When New Orleans Police Detective Danny Fisher stops a brilliant thief from getting away with a multimillion-dollar heist, the thief's girlfriend is accidentally killed. After escaping from prison, the criminal mastermind enacts his revenge, taunting Danny with 12 rounds of near-impossible puzzles and tasks that he must somehow complete to save the life of the woman he loves.