Lukas Haas Movies
Born April 16, 1976, to a painter father and singer/screenwriter mother, actor Lukas Haas was discovered at age four in his West Hollywood, CA, elementary school. Haas' kindergarten principal spotted acting potential in the young student and encouraged his parents to set their sights on a movie career for the boy. They did so and Haas got his first film role in 1983's Testament, in which he played the youngest of the doomed children of post-apocalyptic housewife Jane Alexander. In 1985, Haas got his big break in the title role of Witness (1985), playing an Amish boy who witnesses a murder and must accept the protection of cop Harrison Ford. Haas received positive reviews for his performance in the widely lauded film and went on to further raves -- and an Emmy nomination -- four years later for his TV portrayal of AIDS victim Ryan White in The Ryan White Story. In-between came roles in such high-grade, sensitive teen fare as The Lady in White and The Wizard of Loneliness (both 1988).Haas then disappeared for awhile, making occasional appearances in films such as Rambling Rose (1991), which cast him as a sweet, sexually inquisitive adolescent. 1996 marked the beginning of a new stage in his career, when he appeared in four very different films. No longer the cute little Amish boy in Witness, the now tall, gawky actor showcased his talents in Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You, Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, the coming-of-age Boys (in which he co-starred with Winona Ryder), and Johns, in which he and David Arquette played down-and-out prostitutes in Los Angeles.
In 1998, the indignity of having his scenes deleted from Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line was partially allayed by the praise Haas received for his lead role in David and Lisa, a made-for-TV movie co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. He went on to star as Bunny Hoover in the screen adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, a role which put him in the company of such actors as Albert Finney, Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, and Barbara Hershey.
After a smattering of minor roles -- and a stint in a band with Vincent Gallo -- Haas was very much in demand as an edgy supporting player as he approached his 30th birthday. Festival audiences got a double-dose of the actor in two high-profile 2005 indies: First as the gang kingpin known simply as Pin in the high-school noir Brick, then in a minor but memorable part as a friend to Michael Pitt's doomed rock star in Gus Van Sant's Last Days. Two higher-profile films of wildly different stripes followed: 2006's gritty crime drama Alpha Dog and the Duff sisters' bubblegum flop Material Girls. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Director Lynne Littman has created an effective, understated portrayal of the cost of a nuclear war in human terms, in a film as far removed from the fake hyperbole of action and disaster movies as the natural world is from cartoons. Set in the small California town of Hamlin, the Wetherly family and their everyday concerns open the story. The trivia that fills their secure, ordinary existence disappears when a TV show is interrupted with the announcement that nuclear bombs have exploded in the major cities on the East Coast, and then the entire scene is erased in an increasingly white, blank movie screen -- meant to show that nuclear blasts have been detonated in California as well. Over 1000 people die in the first month from radiation sickness, but the mother in the Wetherly family (Jane Alexander) displays great inner strength as she cares for orphaned children the family has taken under its wing and goes on sustaining those that remain in her own family. At one point, she quietly conveys to her daughter the happiness of intimacy between two adults, knowing her daughter will not live to experience adult love. As these individuals and the children cope with day-to-day existence, there is never any intrusion of overt horrors, the focus remains on the individuals and the way in which they adjust to the inevitable. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Alexander, William Devane, (more)
- 1984
See if you can predict the ending of this one. John Ritter and Cassie Yates are the next-door neighbors of Penny Marshall and Bert Convy. Ritter and Marshall can't stand each other. But presto! Ritters' wife Yates runs off with Marshall's husband Convy. The two spurned spouses meet to bemoan their individual fates. Love Thy Neighbor is a TV-movie comedy with a TV-movie cast and a TV-movie denouement. The only surprise is the absence of a laugh track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this Stephen Cannell-produced pilot for a potential TV detective series, Mac Davis plays an ex-highway patrolman and Joseph Cortese an ex-trucker, related by marriage. Their wives were twin sisters--were, because in addition to all the other "ex" qualifications in their lives, Davis and Cortese are ex-husbands. Still pals after their group divorce, the boys become private eyes. Their first case is to get the goods on a shady tycoon (Robert Culp), who happens to be their former father-in-law. Brothers-in-Law was the first Steven J. Cannell independent production which failed to sell as a series, but it wouldn't be the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In Peter Weir's thriller Witness, Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy, witnesses a murder in the restroom of a Philadelphia bus station. Harrison Ford stars as John Book, the police detective investigating the murder. When Book discovers that the crime was part of a conspiracy involving several officials in his department, he flees Philadelphia to the Amish community where Samuel lives with his widowed mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis). Slowly assimilating himself into the Amish community, Book eventually finds himself falling in love with Rachel in the midst of his investigation. Eventually, the corrupt police track Book down, and he is forced to confront them, while also trying to protect Rachel and Samuel. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, (more)
- 1986
- PG13
A futuristic dystopia is the setting for this tale about good versus evil and a magical space-sphere out to reestablish a civilized society. An orphanage in a bleak and deserted landscape imprisons a large group of youngsters who have divided into good and bad groups. One day, while competing at roller-skate ball, the teams come across a bowling-ball-sized sphere named Bodhi (a Sanskrit word equivalent to "enlightened compassion"). Bodhi communicates with the good kids, but the bad ones cannot understand the sphere's electronic burbles. The nasty Darstar (Adrian Pasdar) steals Bodhi and heads out into the forbidden world beyond the orphanage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Jordan, Jami Gertz, (more)
- 1987
A father's descent into alcoholism is chronicled in this powerful made-for-TV drama. Much of the story centers on the devastating effects that his drinking has on his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Melinda Dillon, (more)
In this supernatural nostalgia piece, a young boy tracks down a murderer with help from the ghosts of a slain little girl and her mother. In a voice-over, grown-up writer Frankie Scarlatti describes the disturbing events that intruded on his idyllic small-town boyhood. Locked in the school cloakroom by some other boys on Halloween 1962, young Frankie (Lukas Haas) encounters the ghost of Melissa Anne Montgomery (Joelle Jacobi), who re-enacts her own death by strangulation just before an unseen adult enters the school and tries to do away with Frankie himself. While recuperating in the care of his widower father (Alex Rocco), Frankie conducts some detective work and learns that Melissa is one of ten children killed over the past decade. Further encounters with the girl's ghost -- and the mournful specter of her mother, the Lady in White (Karen Powell) -- do little to help the boy solve the mystery of who killed the kids. Meanwhile, an innocent black maintenance man becomes the scapegoat on which the police hang the killings. However, thanks to the damning but enigmatic evidence Frankie has discovered, the boy faces imminent danger from the actual killer, who ends up lurking terrifyingly close to home. The sophomore feature from writer/director Frank LaLoggia, who made his name with the low-budget horror film Fear No Evil, Lady in White starred the young Lukas Haas halfway between his appearances in Witness and Rambling Rose. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, (more)
- 1988
- PG13
In this film, based on the novel by John Nichols, young Wendall Olet (Lukas Haas) is sent to live with his Aunt Sybil (Lea Thompson) and Uncle John (Lance Guest) when is father is called on to fight in World War II. Lonely and unhappy, Wendall harbors the delusion that he possesses amazing powers and becomes involved in some family secrets. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, Lea Thompson, (more)
- 1988
Ryan White was the teenaged hemophiliac who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion, then was barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana. All but ostracized by the community, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) engages the services of a high-powered attorney (George C. Scott) to win back her son's basic rights. While the film ends with Ryan triumphing over his human adversaries, no effort is made to sugarcoat the situation. Even after he has been welcomed by another school, we see how the boy is shunned by certain students and their parents; nor is there any glossing over the fact that Ryan's days are numbered, despite the boy's enthusiastic plans for the time he has left (young White died shortly after this TV movie was first telecast in 1989). Despite its inherent sadness, The Ryan White Story is a celebration of an exceptional young human being whose short life touched so many others in a positive, uplifting manner. While Lukas Haas portrays the title character, the real Ryan White appears in the small role of Chad, another hemophiliac AIDS victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG13
This film is a somewhat contrived pairing of two divorcees who are giving it a second go. They're up against considerable odds, however, because the children of each are not too pleased with their new "parent." Jeff Bridges stars as the husband and Alice Krige plays his second wife. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Alice Krige, (more)
Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
- 1991
Jason Robards, who portrayed Abraham Lincoln in a 1964 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois, reprised the role 27 years later in the made-for-TV The Perfect Tribute. The film intertwines two separate plot threads. In one, Lincoln, plagued by the war and the conduct of his generals, prepares to deliver a speech at Gettysburg. In the secondary story, 13-year-old Lukas Haas leaves his Atlanta home to find his brother Campbell Scott, who has been mortally wounded at Gettysburg. Filmed in Georgia, The Perfect Tribute was based on a 1905 story by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews (that's all one person). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rambling Rose is the most part a flashback, related by grown-up Southerner Buddy Hillyer (John Heard). The bulk of the film takes place in 1935, when rambunctious backwoods housekeeper Rose (Laura Dern) virtually invades the Hillyer household. Daddy Hillyer (Robert Duvall), a bed-rock Southern gentleman, welcomes the congenitally amoral but basically goodhearted Rose into his house, carefully fending off her ill-timed romantic advances. But Rose can't help feeling smitten with him; meanwhile, she has also drawn the attentions of 13-year-old Buddy (Lukas Haas). Based on the novel by screenwriter Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose was not the box-office breakthrough that many expected for director Martha Coolidge; though it fizzled financially, the film did manage to secure Oscar nominations for both Dern and her real-life mother Diane Ladd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Dern, Robert Duvall, (more)
Set upon a struggling turn-of-the-century Texas sugar-cane plantation, this brutal and realistic drama centers on the efforts of an aging plantation boss (Robert Duvall), using convicts for workers, to keep his farm afloat. The story is adapted from Horton Foote's cycle of plays The Orphan's Home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Lukas Haas, (more)
- 1992
- PG
Alan (Lukas Haas) is a typically streetwise Brooklyn teenager of the 1940s. Naomi (Vanessa Zaoui) is a French-Jewish refugee of Nazi oppression, recently moved into the apartment above Alan's. Ever since witnessing the murder of her father, Naomi has remained in a catatonic state. Alan's well-meaning efforts to help the girl at first seem to do more harm than good. But eventually the boy's sincerity and hitherto untapped compassion win out, and the two young people form a strong, unbreakable bond. Alan & Naomi is based on a novel by Myron Levoy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, Vanessa Zaoui, (more)
- 1992
Art meets adventure in this made-for-TV movie compiled from episodes of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. First, ten-year-old Indy (Corey Carrier) is visiting Paris with his parents (Lloyd Owen and Ruth de Sosa) in 1908 when they meet a pair of up-and-coming artists with unusual creative perspectives, Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas, though he seems more at home with American expatriate Norman Rockwell. Later, the Jones family is on a safari in Africa when they encounter Teddy Roosevelt, and they help him hunt down a rare specimen of antelope. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Passion for Life was edited from two installments of the TV show: "Paris, September 1908" and "British East Africa, September 1909." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corey Carrier, Lukas Haas, (more)
Steve Martin has one of his best roles in Leap Of Faith as Jonas Nightengale, a high-tech faith healer and revival preacher who takes pride in the money he squeezes out of people, convincing himself that he can't deliver hope, but "I give my people a good show." As the film begins, Nightengale's truck caravan breaks down and his troupe finds itself stranded in the backwater town of Rustwater, Kansas. Nightengale figures that as long as he's there, he might as well set up the rubes and put on a performance. With the aid of his assistant Jane (Debra Winger) (who talks to Nightengale through an earpiece, informing him of the physical problems of certain members of his audience), Nightengale puts on a glorious show and rakes in the money. But the local sheriff Will (Liam Neeson) wants to shut down the show because times are bad in Rustwater and he doesn't think folks should waste their money on a charlatan. Nightengale sends Jane to seduce Will, but the sheriff succeeds in getting Jane to fall in love with him. Nightengale also meets someone, Marva (Lolita Davidovich), a local waitress with a crippled brother. The boy thinks Nightengale can heal him. Nightengale tries to make the child understand that he can't help him, but it turns out that Nightengale knows very little about his own faith powers. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Debra Winger, (more)
- 1994
A young adventurer and his Native American friend go searching for treasure in the Yukon. The bonds of their friendship are tested when they encounter opposition from a hostile tribe and must struggle to escape with their lives. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, Alain Musy, (more)
Boys is a coming-of-age tale about an addled prep school student who nurses a woman back to health after an accident and becomes involved in her cryptic past. John Baker Jr. (Lukas Haas) is a tormented high school senior outcast who's weary of his upper-crust boarding school life and dreads his future as a supermarket chain manager. When he finds Patty Vare (Winona Ryder) unconscious in a field after being thrown from a horse, Baker sees this as an opportunity to break out of his humdrum existence, and he smuggles her into the school to take care of her. The relationship blooms into a somewhat bizarre love affair, as John discovers that Patty is concealing a mysterious secret involving a missing baseball player and a stolen car. Although the film takes a little time to get started, what originates as an analysis of guarded youths making foolish judgments evolves into a celebration of adolescent insurrection. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winona Ryder, Lukas Haas, (more)
- 1996
In this low-budget screwball-mystery, the death of an L.A. woman leads to a surreal murder investigation on the outer fringes of la-la land. When Molly McMannis (Justine Bateman) turns up dead, still impaled with the murder weapon -- a carrot -- the police launch a probe into the colorful world Molly inhabited. The suspects range from her ex-con brother to her roommate to her high-strung friend (Heather Graham). But a more likely culprit lurks among the ranks of a therapy group full of off-the-wall serial killers and the shrinks who coddle them. The fetishistic police detectives -- including sadistic interrogator Angela Pierce (Jill Hennessy) -- prove as disturbing as the people they're investigating. In fact, their unorthodox procedures leave the door open for the killer to strike again. Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Alan, who previously helmed the similarly offbeat Love and Happiness, Kiss and Tell features a who's who of obscure and indie Hollywood talent, including veteran actor Lewis Arquette and his three famous sons. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Howitt, Daniel Craig, (more)
Two male hustlers with different ideals and goals struggle through a tough night in this gritty drama. It's Christmas Eve on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, and John (David Arquette), a male prostitute who works the streets, is desperate. John's birthday is Dec. 25, and he had hoped to spend the day at a fine hotel, ordering room service and feeling like a big shot for a change. To this end, John had lifted $300 from Jimmy The Warlock (Terrence DaShon Howard), a drug dealer, but the night before, John's lucky sneakers were stolen, with his bankroll inside. Now John is back working the streets in hopes that he can raise enough money for a hotel room and to pay back Jimmy. Also working that night is Donner (Lukas Haas), a young hustler who is infatuated with John. While Donner acknowledges his homosexuality, John stubbornly contends that despite his occupation, he's really straight, and he has a girlfriend Mikki (Alanna Ubach), though they spend most of their time arguing. While John can only look to his immediate needs, Donner thinks that they should leave Los Angeles and head to Branson, Missouri, where he's convinced that they can get jobs as lifeguards at Camelot, a theme park. As the night wears on, John and Donner meet several fellow street people, including Crazy Eli (Christopher Gartin) and Homeless John (Keith David), and scare up a few customers, ranging from a harmless closeted businessman (Elliott Gould) to others looking for violent, dangerous sex. Johns was the first feature film for former TV documentary director Scott Silver. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, David Arquette, (more)
Featuring a soundtrack filled with beloved "standard" songs such as "Just You, Just Me" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," this musical comedy by Woody Allen concerns a polite and comfortably well-off group of people and their romantic difficulties. DJ (Natasha Lyonne), who narrates the picture, is the daughter of divorced couple Steffi (Goldie Hawn) and Joe (Woody Allen). Since the break-up, Steffi has married Bob (Alan Alda); their children, DJ's half-sister and half-brother, are Skyler (Drew Barrymore) and Scott (Lukas Haas). Skyler is about to be married to a likeable chap named Holden (Edward Norton). However, her mother Steffi, a wealthy liberal, cultivates people as "projects." Her latest project is ex-con Charles (Tim Roth), an extremely rude and crude customer. At family gatherings, everyone politely ignores his lapses in manners and good taste until Skyler postpones her wedding to have an affair with him. In a parallel storyline, we see that DJ is convinced that her unremarried dad would find a perfect mate in Von (Julia Roberts), and she contrives an elaborate (and successful) scheme to bring them together. In a fashion typical of '30s musicals, this movie completely transcends its fluffy story, using a cavalcade of ballads to send the characters on a chaotic, romantic merry-go-round from New York to Paris. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Norton, Alan Alda, (more)
This quirky science fiction comedy is a characteristic feature by iconoclastic director Tim Burton, known to moviegoers for Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The storyline affectionately harkens back to the deadpan sincerity of such '50s and '60s science-fiction films as The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds. Flying saucers have been reliably seen over the capitals of the world, and the whole world awaits with bated breath to see what will transpire. Among those waiting is the President of the United States (Jack Nicholson), who is assured by his science advisor (Pierce Brosnan) that the coming aliens are utterly peaceful. This advice is hotly contested by the military (led by Rod Steiger), who advices the President to annihilate them. When the aliens land, they are seen to be green, garish, and very cheerful. But appearances prove deceiving when the "friendly" aliens abruptly disintegrate the entire U.S. Congress. Hollywood notables appear in vast quantities in roles (and sub-plots) of all sizes in this zany feature. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, (more)
- 1998
Oprah Winfrey co-produced this psychological drama, a TV movie remake of the acclaimed black-and-white low-budget ($180,000) 1962 David and Lisa. The original earned $1 million in its first run and also earned Oscar nominations for director Frank Perry and screenwriter Eleanor Perry, who adapted the story from the case history by Theodore Isaac Rubin. The script for the remake is credited to director Lloyd Kramer, Eleanor Perry, and Rubin. Emotionally disturbed teenager David (Lukas Haas), a genius with a fear of being touched, is taken by his mother to an institution where he encounters compassionate psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Miller (Sidney Poitier) and free-spirited teen Lisa (Brittany Murphy), who speaks in rhyme. Although Miller makes a supreme effort with David, it's Lisa who succeeds in reaching out to David and making contact with him, quelling his demons with love. The remake relocates the story from the East Coast to the West Coast, where it was filmed in Los Angeles locations (Venice, Los Feliz). The telepic premiered November 1, 1998 on ABC. When this remake was filmed, Rubin was still a practicing psychiatrist in New York at the age of 75. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Lukas Haas, (more)
