Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Jacob's Ladder is some freaky shit as a movie, otherwise, at its origin, it is a religious concept that appeared in the book of Genesis. It is supposed to be a sort of bridge between heaven and earth.



Lead by Tim Robbins, Jacob's Ladder is the story of Jacob a Viet Nam vet who comes back from the war with a little more baggage than he thought.

He starts feeling scared, he is followed by dangerous mysterious people.
He has nightmares.

The whole thing is like the poster.

You are thrown with Jacob in a world of distorted visions.
And it's really impressive. Emotion wise you are in a constant state of anguish throughout the whole movie.

Robbin's interpretation is top notch.
But I would give all the credit to the Director on this one: Adrian Lyne (9 &/2 weeks, Fatal Attraction).
Given the result, I am not sure than any other person could have done the same movie based on the script from Bruce Joel Rubin

It is also a very interesting story about the ordeals of a certain group of Viet-Nam vets. But I don't wont to spoil the movie.
It's a little gem.
Oh, and forget about having dinner while you watch this one.
And don't do what I did, don't watch it alone, at night, and try to go to sleep right after.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986-1990)

Henry is without a doubt the most disturbing movie I've ever seen.



Well, there's Henry, and there's Audition from Takashi Miike.



Both movies are violent, but not that much, much less than any Rambo movie, or any Paul Verhoeven movie.

I just kept reading reviews about Henry, all of them great, all of them riveting.

I finally got a hold of it and boy oh boy.

As I started watching it all I could think is: "This is just a piece of crap". Acting seemed bad. Photography was bad. Filming was bad. There was no plot. nothing.

But, I had read such great things about it.

So, I held on.

As time goes by, you get swallowed by the movie.
The bad acting becomes more and more intense.
The Photography and the Filming actually feel like a documentary - You are IN the movie.
There is no plot. Because in real life, there is no plot. Things just happen.

More than physically violent (and it gets quite violent), the worse part, or should I say the best part is its rawness.
Henry is a Serial Killer. No doubt.
He just says things as they come to his head.
However as he kills, he seems to be professional, methodical, and to have some perverted sense of justice and morals.

His pal Otis, is a whole different case.
He has no morals
He has become addicted to the game of violence
But he has no method, no sense of direction.

The MPAA refused to give Henry a rating for over 4 years. It wanted to give it an X rating, but it doesn't deserve it, and yet they thought that an R rating was not enough.
This, for a movie that is less violent than half the movies of its time.
Probably, the guys at the MPAA simply got as disturbed as I.

Even Siskel and Ebert gave it a great review in 1990 (date of its final - limited - release in US theaters).
They say its a work of art, and that it deserves to be seen.

So there you go.
Who am I to go against Siskel and Ebert?



I hope you will enjoy this movie