*Spoilers follow* (although this movie has been seen by almost everyone that's going to see it ;)
I liked this flick, and I realize I'm a little late in seeing it (released 1990 CE). I am, you'll find late in seeing a lot of movies. Jacob's Ladder is better than I had imagined it would be; initially I had written it off as another horror movie, and it did have it's share of horror, but ended up being pretty interesting despite it's heavy reliance on overt biblical references. Of course this movie would have faltered and failed if Tim Robbins hadn't been playing the lead, his burden was not the tonnage of Jeff Goldblum's in Mr.Frost, but Tim certainly carried this movie much farther then it had legs for. Elizabeth Peña tho I must say did her share to help Tim out. Her portrayal of Jezebel was spot on for me, just creepy enough, but evened out with sexy and a touch of compassion that didn't play as fake. Jacob's Ladder has in common with Mr. Frost the afore-mentioned biblical theme, but with a more evangelical execution (eh! eh! Get it?!). Maculay Culkin was no better than he was in any other movie with his unnaturally red lips that make him look like he just ripped apart a small bunny with his teeth. But I digress.
My favourite part of the movie was the tool-like head shaking and stop-motion work that made it into the film. Adrian Lyne certainly did a pretty good job considering this content is far from Flashdance. I thought the stop motion was well executed and not overdone to the point where the effect becomes tiresome.
My biggest problem with the film would be the overt biblical references. This is of course a personal preference, but I like my references to be more subtle, especially when you know the major portion of your audience is already familiar ( voluntary or involuntarily ) with the iconic subject matter. I may have been watching too many movies, but aside from the scary daemons, the advertising in the subway at the beginning of the movie was enough for me to realize that Jacob was in hell. More mystery about his spiritual stat MAY have interfered with the HOW of it all tho, so I guess it still works. Just not as elegantly as I would have liked.
:-Prof. D.
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