Jacob's Ladder 1990

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: [Robbins' and Pena's] scenes together are the highlight of the film, so natural, so bright. That's why we're willing to invest a lot of time in what turns out to be a terribly overwrought plot. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: As long as the movie refuses to commit itself, it is a truly creepy, nerve-jangling experience. Read more

Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Times: In the best puzzle movies, the pieces fit -- eventually. But if you try to piece together Jacob's Ladder, all you get for your trouble is more pieces. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Without a strongly sympathetic figure at the center of the movie, Jacob's plight seems very remote. Watching this film should feel like being caught in a nightmare, but it feels more like watching someone else who is caught in a nightmare. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A friend, after seeing Jacob's Ladder, griped, "I wasn't afraid of dying -- until I saw this movie." Put that blurb in an ad and see who shows up at the multiplexes. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: For hours and days after you've seen it, you'll still be putting it together in your head. While all of it is gripping, it doesn't come together until the final scene, which is jolting, transcendent, unexpected yet inevitable. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: A slick, riveting, viscerally scary film about what in other hands would be a decidedly unsalable subject, namely death. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: A bold, powerful psychological horror film. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Jacob's Ladder is the nightmare as Rube Goldberg machine. Lyne bombards us with omens and portents, but they aren't rooted in anything, and so the audience remains in a state of arbitrary, floating anxiety. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's weird and surreal, but it ends with most of the holes plugged and all but a few of the loose ends tied into a tidy package. Some argue this is a cheat and the film should have been more open ended. That's a personal choice; I like it the way it is. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This movie was not a pleasant experience, but it was exhilarating in the sense that I was able to observe filmmakers working at the edge of their abilities and inspirations. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: There's a word for a movie that dresses up the usual cheap tricks with real human suffering and a bogus patina of truth: offensive. Read more

Steve Grant, Time Out: Lyne's giddying, unsettling direction conjures up moments of horrifying hallucinogenic power from the bad-trip hell of his protagonist. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Dull, unimaginative and pretentious. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: Lyne indulges more in misdirection than in direction; he's a magician turning a sleazy trick. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: [Falls] ultimately flat on its surrealistic face, the victim of too many fake-art sequences. Read more