Rating: 
Summary: A dark look into a government experiment gone wrong.
Review: A sureal dreamscape of a man falling through the effects of a millitary experiment gone bad. This is a chilling drama with a genius director's tale of a man who is losing his sanity after his death in a aggresive military battle in which the troops were "enhanced" by experimental drugs. Based on a true account during the Vietnam era.
Rating: 
Summary: Jacob's Ladder is excellent film
Review: The people who will complain about this movie are those who don't like being provoked or made uncomfortable. If you enjoy a dark and disorienting drop into a psychological nightmare, this movie perfects that 'genre.' Comparisons can be made to everything from Dark City or the Crow to Taxi Driver or Apocalypse Now. The imagery alone is exquisite, and it is coupled with a fascinating and disturbing plot.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent nightmare...
Review: An excellent Tim Robbins movie... a little bizarre and impossible to understand on the first viewing, but worth the extended analysis... This is one of my top 5 movies, definitely. Hidden inside are questions (although not always answers) to meanings of life and death if you care to look; and also a disturbing ride along the way. Not a movie for kids or the impatient.
Rating: 
Summary: Not even worth renting.
Review: I enjoyed this movie when I saw it in the theatre when it came out. I used a lot of drugs back then, so that explains it. I just watched this again yesterday. Folks, I literally SUFFERED through "Jacob's Ladder" this time around. I couldn't wait for it to end. Tin Robbins is usually pretty good, but even he seems bored to death in his role. I would not recommend this film to anyone and I do not understand why it's gotten such high praise.
Rating:
Summary: Climbing the Ladder
Review: I won't go into the level of spoiler that virtually every other reviewer seems compelled to use; this is a film that needs to be experienced with as little foreknowledge of its "meaning" or its final revelation as possible.I remember being Very Angry with Newsweek's reviewer when he mentioned the title of a classic story in his review, with the result of completely telegraphing the end of the film to anyone who recognised the title mentioned. As a non-combat Viet Nam veteran, myself, i can attest that the film makers catch the mood and feelings of a sizeable percentage of Nam vets pretty well. The overall mood of building confusion, dread and paranoia, as Jacob Singer's life becomes more and more strange and menacing, is well handled -- is Jacob suffering from some sort of bizarre post-traumatic stress disorder, or is it something more? A few hints: Think carefully about all references to or appearances in the storyline of Jacob's dead son. Listen to what the characters say. Don't take the Nam sequences as necessarily absolute truth. Among thr DVD extras are various cut scenes; i'm glad that they were cut, as thry seem to tend to both cater to the "gross out horror" element and to literalise certain aspects of the film that i'm just as happy to have left at least partly obscure and metaphorical. In fact, there are a few places where i might cut a bit more, if only for pace -- the gurney sequence, after Jacob is ordered taken to X-Ray from the Emergency Room, is too long and somewhat repetitive; i would guess it could be shortend by a third or more without negatively affecting the story and with amarked improvement of the rather glacially-slow pacing of that part of the film. Tim Robbins gives Jacob an appropriately befuddled face, and Danny Aiello is his usual more-than-competent self as an oracular-sounding chiropracter. Not necessariy a film for those who like everything neatly explained and all the back story available before the end, this is still a thought-provoking and disturbing little exercise in the dark side.
Rating:
Summary: True Horror is Psychological Horror
Review: Deft director Adrian Lyne creates a world that draws you in
and horrifies you. Not because you know what you're seeing, but because you don't understand and want to so badly.
Tim Robbins does a masterful job as someone caught in situations he doesn't understand. Awful things begin to occur between him as he is swept between two lives, one with his ex-wife and (dead) son and another with the sexy Jesse, one of his co-workers at the post office. He feels trapped and is hunted by monstrous, malformed things he cannot fathom. This chilling film gave the creators of Silent Hill plenty of material to work with and combine with their own artistic visions.
Recommended for anyone who likes a good scare, and also wants a
film they can talk about with friends afterward.
Rating:
Summary: THE ENIGMATIC PSYCHOLOGICAL RAVAGES OF WAR..
Review: Jacob's Ladder is easily one of those underrated gems in the horror genre that aren't gory and don't feature a wisecracking slasher villain to appeal to the horror crowd, yet are surreal and disturbing enough to interest most mainstream audiences. No doubt that Adrian Lynne has provided the inspiration for several films and music videos with its dark and extremely horrifying images of the rising paranoid insanity that appear in hallucinatory flashbacks at first. As the story progresses the line between what is real in a war veteran's nightmares and what is not becomes blurred, both for the protagonist himself as well as for the audience, and in such a way that you cannot escape questioning yourself during and after the movie. Questions that do not necessarily lend themselves to easy answers. But the movie offers its own interpretations (in a somewhat watered down ending) while still allowing for the audience to draw its own conclusions. Everything is right in this movie. The direction, acting and dialogue are intriguing. The plot is intricate but unfolds logically at a decent pace. The photography is atmospheric and and the special effects are understated yet effective. The character of the protagonist is developed immaculately, his anguish is almost palpable. Unless you're super-squeamish, this is a fascinating movie. Especially if you have a taste for the ilk of Donnie Darko, Lost Highway, or pretty much anything by David Lynch.
Rating:
Summary: Probably one of the best Horror films ever created
Review: Jacobs Ladder is extreamly Underrated and is one of the best films ever. The plot is terrific, the twists are heart drivin Suspense and the Characters are to die for. Jacobs Ladder has a very unique and somewhat Complex story telling and even after they reveal the End(which cooked me up into abunch of theories) the film still leaves you with some unanswered questions. The film has terrific Cinematography and the horror feel is always there.
This film is more of a drama then a horror but then again Dead fetisis sucking on there mamas **** is pretty horrific. I must warn you though, DO NOT watch this film in the dark as it does have some seriously scary moments like the infamous "Dream on" Sequence...God that scared me..
Overall Jacobs Ladder had a terrific story(which I won't get into since you can just toodle along the other reviews to read them)superb acting and great Cinematography. This film is just FLAWLESS. It is one of the best Films I've ever seen(and for some it's one of the greatest films ever made). Lets not forget this got Number 13(I think) in BRAVOS 100 Scariest moments and Movies.
GET THIS FILM. THE FILM IS GREAT AND SO IS THE DVD
GOOD
-Film
-Story
-Acting
-Pretty much everything
Bad
-SHOULD HAVE BIN LONGER..
-Needed more extras
Overall
5 OUT OF 5 STARS
Tim Robbins ROCKS.......
Peace
Rating:
Summary: Great moive with a unique moral
Review: Though "Jacobs Ladder" is often categorized as a suspence or horror film, I think it's a worthy additon to the "Anti-war" genre. In the film, Tim Robin's character is a Viet Nam vet who suffers from demonic hallucinations caused by chemical experimentations conducted on him in the war. Too often the wellfair of our soliders is kicked aside in favor for these inhumane tests. The effects of Agent Orange on these soliders for example, were never analyzed and thousands of vets now suffer for the lack of research. Even today, soligers are forced to take experimental drugs like the AVA anthrax vaccine. failure to do so results in cort marshal. Many experience rapid health failure soon after. Vets are never the same after what they see in warfair. Poor health, shell shock, and flashbacks to name just some of the symptoms . Jacob's ladder shows the devastating effects that war has on these men's mental health. It also shows that we need to care for the well being of these men and women who give their lives to defend whatever the elite deem feasable. The movie displays in great detail the effects of ingnoreing the problem.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest horror film of the last decade of the 20th century
Review: This movie is the greatest horror film of the last decade of the 20th century. Its imagery is startlingly unique. Visually it resembles nothing of its time. It was so well done that its visual effects still hold up well in the CGI world of today. Unlike vacuous and overrated movies labeled as "smart" like Silence of the Lambs or Seven (both from the same era), "Jacob's Ladder" is a "truly" intelligent and genuinely artistic masterpiece of horror. It was marvelous because it took a chance and didn't want to be just like all the other "popular" horror films of the time. This risky decision (like so many masterworks of the past) caused it to be unappreciated by the public in its own time. Movies like Silence of the Lambs or Seven were big hits and had plenty of hype. "Jacob's Ladder" had no such luck and had to get its noteriety and "classic status" from word-of-mouth. THAT is the true staple of a great movie! As seen by the 130+ reviews here at Amazon alone, it has since then gained a sizable following and has not faded away (like Flatliners, for instance - a banal movie from the same exact year that did much better at the box office and was also touted as "smart" but now is all but forgotten as is evident with its less than 50 reviews).
This movie offers a mostly bizarre and dark feel tinged with moments of eirie beauty. Adrian Lyne's masterfull directing is at its peek here and I feel this is his masterpiece with Fatal Attraction running a close second. It just does not give this great movie justice to try and explain all the great things about this horror masterpiece so I advise that one just see it and see it again and again... It reveals more and more each time. But be warned. This movie is very, very terrifying!
I first saw this movie when I was 19 on pay-cable in 1991 and was disturbed like I have never been disturbed by any movie since I was a child. I was pleasantly surprised since I never knew I could feel that way about a movie ever again. I was also a bit upset because I had trouble sleeping for many days! ...It wouldn't be until I saw the American remake of The Ring (over 13 years later) that I would ever be affected by a horror movie like that again.
| 
