Rating: 
Summary: A Classic!!!
Review: Beautifully written and great acting. One of the best movies I have ever seen. The Vietnam portion of the film (filmed in Puerto Rico) is haunting. The story is very similar to Carnival of Souls from 1962. Adrian Lyne has created a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful movie, but with a dissapointing end...
Review: This movie keeps you thinking throughout. You never really know what could or couldn't be going on. The majority of the twists are completely unexpected and sometimes shocking. However, I feel that the ending is too predictable. But, it is still a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Good movie... but oh so strange
Review: This movie freaked me out the first time I saw it. I began to understand it better after the 2nd and 3rd watch. Tim Robbins is one of my favorite actors - and if he appeals to you, you MUST see this movie. Robbins' character (Jacob Singer) is a Vietnam vet who is suffering all kinds of post war problems... most of which came about from the army testing a powerful drug on him during war time in Vietnam. Is it real? Is he dreaming? It's hard to tell at times what's real & what's not. Those men in the car without faces - what did they really want? Good supporting roles by Danny Aiello (as Jacob's chiropractor) and Elizabeth Pena (as Jacob's girlfriend). Haunting, disturbing, violent, nightmarish, suspenseful and SURPRISING (at the end) are all choice words in describing this film. Outside of "The Shawshank Redemption", this is my favorite Tim Robbins film.
Rating:
Summary: What is Real?
Review: Basic story line: Vietnam vet haunted by strange twists to reality. PTSD? MK-ULTRA? Agent Orange? Something more sinister? This intense movie doesn't deserve a horror classification. It's one of the best ontological thrillers ever made. How will Jacob defend himself? How will he sort out reality from illusion? This movie hits so hard because we all need to ask ourselves these same questions. Normally, we're trying to sort out emotional illusions, not full metal jacket flashbacks, but we still suffer with Jacob. How do we know what to believe? Everything our senses tell us? But our senses don't tell us anything--we interpret our senses. Do we dare believe our own interpretations? Fear, anxiety, rage, can produce psychotic emotions every bit as disquieting as Jacob's "flashbacks." This movie is filled with incredible symbolism. Note the role of the chiropractor in the movie. A chiropractor adjusts the spine, the basis of our physical being. Notice his involvement in the movie. The pros dissed this flick as bungling an "An Occurence at Owl Creek" ending. Horsepuckey! This movie stands on its own. Both movies play with reality. Owl Creek manipulates the audience into ignoring what is "real." Jacob's Ladder challenges the audience to discover what holds them back from participating in "reality." Owl Creek "tricks" the audience. Jacob's Ladder challenges the viewers. Both worthy movies in their own right, neither diminished by the other.
Rating:
Summary: A Ladder never to be climbed
Review: This film is strange for anyone who sees it for the first time. It deals with a real fact, the use of hallucenogenic drugs in the US army during the Vietnam war. But we never know, till the end maybe, whether we see reality or a dying dream. It has the look of a thriller and also of a horror film, and yet it is not. It deals with the capability for a dying man to come to terms with death itself. To resist death transforms dying into a fight with demons. To accept death transforms dying into a trip with angels. The moral of the lesson is thus very pessimistic in a way, since we must accept death to die smoothly. It is also optimistic since we can die smoothly if we accept death. It is all a question of from what point of view we look at death : acceptable or inacceptable. Yet a strange question remains : aren't humans supposed to fight for survival, to fight for life ? And there the question is terrible, horrific, horrifying : an individual cannot fight for survival because society, in this case the US armed forces, the government decide whether we have to live or we have to die. We are playthings in the hands of a few bureaucrats of war. At least that was what the Vietnam war transformed plain citizens into. They could have had peaceful and happy lives, but some blind and invisible forces decided otherwise. We had to submit, we have to submit. The film itself does not answer the question that rises then : Why do we have to submit to these forces ? Why are there forces like those imposing onto us decisions that are not our own ? Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Rating:
Summary: high quality work onthe unquieting notion of parallel lives
Review: This film more than a decade ago showed in the best form a old (and would say very new 'quantum') theme later shallowly presented in films as "The Devil's Advocate", "Sliding Doors", "Run, Lola, Run", "The two lives of Veronica" and some other foreing titles of films that I do not remember now. In fact the idea of FUTURE alternative or/and parallel lives is ancient appearing as far back as "The Republic" of Plato and is sometimes found in personal narratives of near death experiencers. In the tradition of tibetan buddism similar experiences may happen in the bardo state: the transitional state towards future new incarnations and the buddist texts are clear in warning about the nightmarish nature of the visions in the bardo echoing the advice of Eckard given to the protagonist of the film throught his chiropractor friend. Excellent philosophical film!
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to a Nightmare!
Review: Jacob's Ladder is a compelling psycho thriller with elements of reality and surrealism coming to a psycadelic spin, leaving the viewer gasping for air and hoping that it's all a bad dream. -- Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam Vet with psychological scars. His attempts to cope with reality in working class New York City streets seem to be fruitless, as his long suffering girl friend begs him to seek help. A sub-plot about Robbins' young son (played by an unbilled MacCaulley Kulkin) having been killed in a bike accident adds to the confusion. The powerful ending negates the entire story. The final line spoken in this film is awesome!
Rating:
Summary: Learn something from this, you cheap modern movies
Review: Well, perhaps not that cheap, their budgets are proof for that, but certainly cheap in content. Jacob's Ladder is in the pinnacle of psychological movies, an experience navigating through the seas of the dreams and bottomless abyss of nightmares. In atmosphere, very similar to David Lynch's "Twin Peaks", only this one gets much better. It is a lie what some people say about several viewings to understand what's going on in here; all that you need to do is pay attention to the whole movie and what some of the characters say, and voila! If you are a hard core fan of Jason and Kruger (or whatever way you write it) you own yourself to sit and see this movie just once. Perhaps you won't like it at all, but it will leave something in you. If you like suspensful, enigmatic movies, this one's a winner.
Rating:
Summary: I continue to climb...
Review: The most liberating artforms are those that begin to uncover the reality that is hidden from our exploration in this world. Jacob's Ladder helps get us back on track. It is interesting how few movies actually give us a glimpse into the true nature of existence. It is possible for many of us to go through life without the knowledge of what life is. Existential guidebooks poke their way into our deceptive view of the world only in the rarest of cases. Jacob's Ladder gives hope that some people have broken the code and are climbing out of deception.
Rating: 
Summary: Jacob's Ladder to the sewer
Review: Oh dear, A complete let down. This is a poorly made film. The plot is fine if not a little predictable, but the cinematography is terrible. The acting is as wooden as Kevin Costner on a bad day. The only redeeming feature (that the entire film relies on )is the ending which is made so ovious in the early stages of the film. Thank goodness 'The Sixth Sense' ripped the ending off and made better film out of it. This is one for teenagers who think it is an intelligent movie to watch, instead of the lame production that it is. An episode of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' can be more intellectual than this.
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