Lanny Flaherty Movies

Following the smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999) and the under-performing follow-up Unbreakable (2000), directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan returns to the summer box office landscape that served as the backdrop for his cinematic breakthrough. In Signs, another paranormal outing for the writer-director, Shyamalan explores the eerie implications of a 500-foot crop circle that mysteriously appears on the Bucks County, PA farm of reverend Graham Hess (Mel Gibson). As Hess and his family (Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin) try to take stock of what the sign means, and how its message incorporates into their faith, they start to get the feeling they are not alone in the fields behind their house. Shyamalan re-teams with producers Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer and Kathleen Kennedy, and produces the project in association with his Blinding Edge Pictures banner and Touchstone Pictures. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Dean Parisot, who won a live-action short Oscar, made his feature directorial debut with this black comedy from a producer team that included Barry Levinson and Lawrence Kasdan. A philandering stepdad is the victim of vengeful Mrs. Lever (Catherine O'Hara), who sends her sons out to scare him to death. Cobra helicopter pilots Dorian (Luke Wilson) and Angus (Jake Busey) accomplish this by strafing the forest at night as the stepdad runs in terror. No one knows that pregnant Burger-Matic cashier Sally (Drew Barrymore) was the stepdad's mistress. However, since Burger-Matic and Cobra headsets share the same radio frequency, the notion surfaces that maybe Burger-Matic workers overheard something; Angus suggests that Dorian take a job at the fast-food joint in order to determine just who knows what. Once on the job, however, the situation gets twisted after Dorian falls hard for Sally. The chain-smoking Mrs. Jackson (Shelley Duvall), Sally's trailer-trash mother, turns up, as does her redneck father, Red (Lanny Flaherty). In an inside film reference, Angus mentions the classic "Lamb to the Slaughter" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This Disney live-action film is a very loose adaptation of Mark Twain's two novels about boyhood friends in Hannibal, MO, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which omits some of the darker themes and undertones in the original books. Television star Jonathan Taylor Thomas (of Home Improvement) is the prankish Tom Sawyer. Tom wants desperately to be friends with the renegade orphan boy Huck Finn (Brad Renfro), who lives on his own on the edge of town. Tom is also smitten with the tomboyish Becky Thatcher (Amy Wright), daughter of the town judge. On an adventure one night, Tom and Huck stumble upon a murder in a graveyard. They see Injun Joe (Eric Schweig) killing the town undertaker to get a map to a treasure. Tom's friend Muff Potter (Michael McShane) is wrongly accused of the crime, but Tom and Huck both know the real killer. Huck has made Tom swear not to reveal the truth and both boys fear that Injun Joe will come after them if they squeal. Tom must choose between his friendship with Huck and his desire to vindicate Muff and get the real killer brought to justice. They try to find the treasure and end up confronting Injun Joe in a cave. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

A frenetic, bloody look at mass murder and the mass media, director Oliver Stone's extremely controversial film divided critics and audiences with its mixture of over-the-top violence and bitter cultural satire. At the center of the film, written by Stone and Quentin Tarantino, among others, are Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), a young couple united by their desire for each other and their common love of violence. Together, they embark on a record-breaking, exceptionally gory killing spree that captivates the sensation-hungry tabloid media. Their fame is ensured by one newsman, Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.), who reports on Mickey and Mallory for his show, American Maniacs. Even the duo's eventual capture by the police only increases their notoriety, as Gale develops a plan for a Super Bowl Sunday interview that Mickey and Mallory twist to their own advantage. Visually overwhelming, Robert Richardson's hyperkinetic cinematography switches between documentary-style black-and-white, surveillance video, garishly colored psychedelia, and even animation in a rapid-fire fashion that mirrors the psychosis of the killers and the media-saturated culture that makes them popular heroes. The film's extreme violence -- numerous edits were required to win an R rating -- became a subject of debate, as some critics asserted that the film irresponsibly glorified its murderers and blamed the filmmakers for potentially inciting copy-cat killings. Defenders argued that the film attacks media obsession with violence and satirizes a sensationalistic, celebrity-obsessed society. Certain to provoke discussion, Natural Born Killers will thoroughly alienate many viewers with its shock tactics, chaotic approach, and disturbing subject matter, while others will value the combination of technical virtuosity and dark commentary on the modern American landscape. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

This Americanized remake of the French classic The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) transports the story's setting from the 16th century Gallic countryside to 19th century Tennessee at the conclusion of the U.S. Civil War. Richard Gere stars as Jack Sommersby, a wealthy landowner who returns to his small cotton farming town of Vine Hill three years after the Civil War's end. The defeated Confederate soldier is ready to resume his past life with his young wife Laurel (Jodie Foster). Thinking her husband long dead, however, Laurel has become engaged to Orin Meecham (Bill Pullman), an arrangement she quickly calls off, enraging and embittering Orin. Soon it becomes evident that his experiences have changed Jack thoroughly. A callous and cruel man widely feared before the war, he is now charming and sensitive, offering financial opportunities to an ex-slave and caring for Laurel and his young son. Jack even persuades the town's citizenry that he can rescue their fortunes by pooling resources and switching Vine Hill's chief crop from cotton to tobacco. Jack's scheme works, but Orin becomes increasingly convinced that Jack is in fact an impostor masquerading as the wealthy Sommersby, a suspicion that the smitten and quickly pregnant Laurel secretly shares. When Jack is arrested and charged with a murder he drunkenly committed years before, the court trial leads to some startling revelations about the past. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Joel and Ethan Coen's third collaboration, the gangster film Miller's Crossing, stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan, the right-hand man of big-city Irish mob boss Leo (Albert Finney). The film opens with Italian mobster Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) and his second in command Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman) informing Leo and Tom that they are going to kill bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) because he has been revealing Caspar's fixed fights to other gamblers. Leo informs Caspar that Bernie pays for protection and is not to be touched. After the Italians leave in a huff, Tom informs Leo that he should give up Bernie. Tom and Leo are both involved with Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), Bernie's sister. After a failed hit on Leo starts a full-scale mob war, Tom reveals to Leo the truth about his relationship with Verna. This leads to a falling-out between the pair. Tom goes to work for Caspar, but in truth, he is still loyal to Leo. Tom figures out how to manipulate all of the situations so that Leo survives, but this may cost Tom his relationship with Verna. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In a wild and surprisingly profound foray into fantasy, Cliff (Bill Cosby) dreams that a Peruvian volcano eruption has polluted the world's water supply, resulting in a epidemic of pregnant men. As a result, Cliff, Elvin (Geoffrey Owens), Martin (Joseph C. Phillips) and Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) waddle around with bloated bellies and suffer spectacular mood-swings--while the women in their lives prove to be insensitive in the extreme. But all this is mere prologue to the episode's riotous climax, in which the malefolk "give birth" to such bizarre progeny as sailboats, sportscars and steak sandwiches! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide