| 91 |
Christian Science Monitor
Tim Robbins gives a strong performance in this first-class horror yarn, which has a surprisingly strong political edge.
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| 91 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Jacob's Ladder is also undeniably spooky. It creates and maintains a mood of paranoia, its special visual effects are original and nightmarish, and it has at least three sequences as haunting as anything I've seen in some time. [2 Nov 1990, p.9]
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| 90 |
The New York Times
The ending of Jacob's Ladder, when it finally arrives, is, like much of the film, both quaint and devastating.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
This movie left me reeling with turmoil and confusion, with feelings of sadness and despair. Those are the notes it strives for.
|
| 88 |
ReelViews
I wouldn't go so far as to classify Jacob's Ladder as a masterpiece, but it is smart and compelling and unquestionably worth a first or second look.
|
| 88 |
TV Guide
Staff (Not Credited)
Truly frightening and visually unique, this messy, challenging film is anchored by Tim Robbins' remarkable performance.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Thanks to a remarkable script by Bruce Joel Rubin and the directorial skills of Adrian Lyne, this works as both a highly effective stream-of-consciousness puzzle thriller offering the viewer not one but many "solutions" and an emotionally persuasive statement about the plight of many American vets who fought in Vietnam.
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| 75 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jacob's Ladder is a cheat - but a talented, disturbing, beguiling cheat. We don't know we've been truly had until it's finally over, when the screen fades and the lights rise and we wake up with a start, deliciously unnerved. [2 Nov 1990, p.D3]
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
There's little doubt that Jacob's Ladder is a failure-it's a messy, unsatisfying and often overreaching film-yet it fails in interesting, ambitious ways. It's a must-see disaster. [2 Nov 1990, p.C]
|
| 63 |
USA Today
One sits through Ladder halfway engrossed, though always with a sense that its impending punchline will render the preceding an industrial- strength put-on. Then again, there are people out there who thought Ghost was profound. [2 Nov 1990, p.6D]
|
| 60 |
Empire
Ian Nathan
Despite all the confusion, it's a simple case of the script being too ambitious. It may emulate a man experiencing flashbacks, but it doesn't help the audience.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
Desson Howe
True to his resume, director Lyne produces a frenetic battery of visceral images, ominous music and that ol' faithful standby, the eerie background chorus. To give Lyne his relentless due, this does make for some heart-thumping moments. But it also causes Ladder to fall ultimately flat on its surrealistic face, the victim of too many fake-art sequences.
|
| 50 |
Wall Street Journal
As a metaphysical exploration of otherworldliness, Jacob's Ladder has a kind of morbid intensity, for those who like that sort of thing. The picture flounders, however, with its insistence on injecting a little politics into the paranormal brew. [1Nov 1990, p.A20]
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
The strength of Jacob's Ladder is that we never know what the next scene will be. But that's also its weakness. We don't feel involved with the characters here. We just feel jerked around. Jacob's Ladder, finally, is bummer theater. [2 Nov 1990, p.73]
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
If you ask too many questions about Jacob's Ladder, you're likely to burst the bubble. For all its emotional sizzle and spit, it leaves you hanging. Yet the ride to Lyne's middle-of-nowhere is almost worth it. [2 Nov 1990, p.E1]
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
The movie, a piece of luridly baroque metaphysical trash, is about a Vietnam veteran who keeps getting jolted by demonic visions.
|
| 40 |
Los Angeles Times
Really effective horror films make us participants in the horror. Jacob's Ladder doesn't draw us in in that way. It's a movie about interior states that's all on the outside. [30 Oct 1990, p.1]
|
| 30 |
Time
Staff (Not Credited)
Director Adrian Lyne has encapsulated the cliches of three decades in a single dreadful and hysterical movie.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Here, Lyne indulges more in misdirection than in direction; he's a magician turning a sleazy trick. But even his technical skill breaks down. The picture is garbled and cliched.
|
| 30 |
Variety
Staff (Not Credited)
Jacob's Ladder means to be a harrowing thriller about a Vietnam vet (Tim Robbins) bedeviled by strange visions, but the $40 million production is dull, unimaginative and pretentious.
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