9 Films That Would Benefit From Being Remade

The January Man promises a great deal: the script is by by John Patrick Shanley, who’d just won an Oscar for Moonstruck (1987), and the lead is played by Kevin Kline, who’d just won Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

Alas, Shanley’s script is too messy to yield anything other than lightweight results. The movie wants to be funny, dramatic and eccentric – sometimes all at once – but comes across as strained, flat and odd.

Kline plays a Detective turned fireman who’s brought back into the fold when a series of strangulation murders leaves his former colleagues puzzled. Further complicating matters is the fact that Kline’s ex-girlfriend (Susan Sarandon) is now married to his estranged brother (Harvey Keitel), who by the way is also the city’s Police Commissioner.

The fine cast founders in a movie that’s never tense or funny, but in the right hands – Alan Taylor, say, who made the terrific Palookaville – the results could be stimulating. We are not talking Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest here, more Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair.