Jacob's Ladder

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.

As long as the movie refuses to commit itself, it is a truly creepy, nerve-jangling experience.

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.

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.

One of Robbins' finest unheralded performances, plus a slew of supporting roles from then-unknowns Eriq LaSalle, Ving Rhames, Jason Alexander, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and an uncredited Macaulay Culkin.

[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.

Manages to deliver nightmarish imagery, psychological torment, and a gripping relationship drama all wrapped up in a frightening and mysterious package.

This is gibberish. [Full review in Spanish]

It is just one of those films that will get under your skin and stay with you. In 31 years, it hasn't aged a day.

It's just as haunting as I remember.