Jacob’s Ladder ***½ (1990, Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello) – Classic Movie Review 5,197

The eerie, eye-catching 1990 horror movie Jacob’s Ladder stars Tim Robbins as New York postal worker Jacob Singer, a divorced, traumatised Vietnam vet who is troubled by terrible nightmares.

Director Adrian Lyne’s eerie, eye-catching 1990 American psychological horror movie Jacob’s Ladder finds Tim Robbins climbing the ladder to stardom in a stalwart performance as the divorced, traumatised Vietnam vet, New York postal worker Jacob Singer, who is troubled by terrible nightmares.

Danny Aiello is also very good as ‘Louie’ Denardo, the osteopath who treats Robbins. Macaulay Culkin has only an unbilled cameo as Robbins’s dead son Gabe. Also in the cast are Elizabeth Peña, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, Ving Rhames, Eriq LaSalle and Brian Tarantina.

It is an intriguing, often compelling film, with striking cinematography by Jeffrey L Kimball, smart production designs by Brian Morris and good special effects by FxSmith Inc. Maurice Jarre’s score is notable too. The premise, characters and ideas are strong and intelligent, though the film is marred by scrappy story-telling from screen-writer Bruce Joel Rubin, the man who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for writing Ghost (1990), with a particularly unsatisfying conclusion.

However, there are several scary sequences, spiritual highs and great monsters along the interesting way. Despite all its good qualities, it was a costly flop, costing $25 million, grossing $26 million in the US, and losing $40 million.

It was advertised as ‘from the director of Fatal Attraction‘ (1987).

A remake was planned for 2017 and was released in 2019. Jacob’s Ladder (2019) is directed by David M Rosenthal and stars Michael Ealy, Jesse Williams, Nicole Beharie, Karla Souza, and Guy Burnet.

The cast

The cast are Tim Robbins as Jacob ‘Professor’ Singer, Elizabeth Peña as Jezebel ‘Jezzie’ Pipkin, Danny Aiello as Louis ‘Louie’ Denardo, Matt Craven as Michael Newman, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Paul Gruneger, Jason Alexander as Mr Geary, Patricia Kalember as Sarah Singer, Eriq La Salle as Frank, Ving Rhames as George, Brian Tarantina as Doug, Lewis Black as Jacob’s Doctor and Macaulay Culkin as Gabriel ‘Gabe’ Singer.

Jacob’s Ladder runs 113 minutes, is made by Carolco Pictures, and is distributed by Tri-Star Pictures.

Release date: November 2, 1990.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,197

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