Horror in the 90's Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (1990) 

Directed by Adrian Lyne 

Written by Bruce Joel Rubin

Starring Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello

Release Date November 2nd, 1990 

Box Office $26.9 million 

Director Adrian Lyne is known best for his sexy, sweat-soaked thrillers about cheating husbands, scheming women, and rich guys who pay for sex. So, seeing that he's also the director of a gritty, Vietnam era horror movie like Jacob's Ladder is a little jarring. Now, of course, he does throw in needless nudity, Elizabeth Pena's breasts are lovingly captured on screen for no particularly good story reason, but otherwise, Jacob's Ladder is a grand departure for the tawdry director of admittedly zeitgeist grabbing sex thrillers. 

Jacob's Ladder tells the story of a deeply haunted Vietnam vet named Jacob, played by Tim Robbins. Jacob nearly died in Vietnam after his unit was the subject of a violent surprise attack. Jacob himself was stabbed in the gut and had to have his intestines pressed back into his body before he could be taken back to the base hospital. Jake remembers being gutted by a bayonet but he also has another memory that he cannot quite reconcile. Just prior to his being stabbed, Jacob's unit seemed to be having severe hallucinations and overdoses. 

Is it a dream or a memory? Jacob cannot tell. However, when Jacob survives a pair of attempts on his life and compares notes with some of the members of his unit, it appears that there may indeed have been more to this firefight than a surprise attack. Meanwhile, Jacob isn't sleeping, he's in desperate pain from a back injury. Thankfully he has a benevolent chiropractor named Louie (Danny Aiello) who acts as friend, confessor, therapist and guardian angel. Louis is seemingly the only one able to comfort the ever-tormented Jacob. 

On top of his traumatic near death in Vietnam, Jacob lost a son before the war. Gabriel (Macauley Culkin), was struck and killed while riding his bike. Jacob's life has been a mess ever since. Despite having two other children, Jacob fell apart, his marriage to his wife, Sarah (Patricia Kalember) fell apart and then Jacob nearly died. It's no wonder that he can barely function and gave up life as a Park Avenue Shrink for a relatively more peaceful and less stressful job as a postal worker. Boomers and Gen-X'ers are making dark jokes right now, millennials are a bit confounded and thinking yes, being a postal worker would be less stressful.  Both sides are right. 

Anyway, that's Jacob's Ladder. Jacob barely functions, survives a few attempts on his life, has a couple more near-death experiences and begins seeing demons. He has meltdowns at any function he attends, when he's not sick he's obsessed with his time in Vietnam. He's slowly destroying his relationship with his girlfriend, Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena), while she may have a secret related to what is happening to Jacob. What is real and what is a hallucination begins to intermingle into a confusing mélange of disconnected horror images that all mean nothing when the ending is revealed. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) 

Directed by Robert Schwentke 

Written by Bruce Joel Rubin 

Starring Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston

Release Date August 14th, 2009 

Published August 14th, 2009 

A movie involving time travel is, quite obviously, held to its own logical standard. The film will have every opportunity to establish its own universe and create logic that makes sense to its characters and gives those of us watching something we can invest in without spending all of our time questioning logistics.

The Time Traveler's Wife starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams blows up its own logic and loses much of the audience within its first 5 minutes. This dopey romance that wants to combine sci-fi conventions with The Notebook style melodrama fails miserably at every turn stranding a pair of terrific actors in the wake of one supremely dumb story.

As a little boy Henry DeTamble was in the backseat of his mother's car when suddenly they were in a spin and headed to wicked accident. Then just as suddenly Henry was standing on the side of the road naked. The truck that was to kill he and his mother roars past and then a man emerges from nowhere to wrap him in a blanket. The man is future Henry and he has repeated this scene numerous times.

Henry is a time traveler though he doesn't want to be. He has a condition that causes him to simply disappear and then appear, completely nude, somewhere in time. One place where Henry seems to arrive regularly is a field near the home of wealthy family. What draws him to this spot is a little girl named Claire who, in the future, will become Henry's wife.

Claire and Henry met repeatedly when she was little and up through her teens but when she finally meets Henry when she is in college, he has no idea who she is. This version of Henry has yet to meet Claire and the two share a very confused dinner encounter and some very unexpected, for Henry, intimacy.

Thus begins a very complicated romance and marriage. She wants a normal life and a family and he wants to give it to her but his many trips through time continue to interrupt their life. Can Claire and Henry make a life together despite his time traveling? Will you care by the end?

My description of the plot is far less ludicrous than the way things play out on screen. Director Robert Schwentke and writer Bruce Joel Rubin craft the story in a way that is a little like series television. Henry time travels. He has an encounter where he steals clothes confronts someone and then time travels again. The scenes are ike really dopey episodes of Quantum Leap limited to 2 minute lengths.

What the makers of The Time Traveler's Wife want is for us in the audience to fall for the romance and not notice the many, many logical compromises and outright creepy weirdness that are part of the whole time travel conceit. Henry's encounters in the past and future set up questions about the timeline of his life and Claire's that the movie has no intention, or is it ability, to answer.

When it comes to the subject of Henry and Claire's trouble having children, more unwanted questions arise. And still more questions when Henry and Claire finally have a child and she (Tatum and Hailey McCann play the daughter at different ages) has Henry's talent for time travel.

The logistical questions go from awkward to bizarre to just plain creepy by the end of the movie and then the film manages to find an ending that is even more outlandish and will send audiences home shaking their head. All I will say is, pay attention to Claire's father who is shoehorned into a subtextual role in the movie that really makes very little sense.

Foolishness abounds in The Time Traveler's Wife. Some of it is of the so bad it's funny variety. Most of it is just plain dumb.

Movie Review The Last Mimzy

The Last Mimzy (2007) 

Directed by Robert Shaye 

Written by Bruce Joel Rubin, Toby Emmerich, James V Hart 

Starring Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rainn Wilson 

Release Date March 23rd, 2007 

Published March 22nd, 2007 

Robert Shaye is a behind the scenes legend in Hollywood. As President of New Line Cinema Shaye turned the boutique label into a major Hollywood player. Shaye shepherded such projects as Nightmare on Elm Street, the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. With so much success it would be very easy for Shaye to rest and count his cash.

Resting may be on the agenda some time in the future for Robert Shaye; but for now he is ready for a new challenge. After years as the money man, Shaye went and got his hands dirty on the set of his very own movie. Shaye is behind the camera, for the second time in his long Hollywood career, on the kiddie sci fi flick The Last Mimzy.

In The Last Mimzy a brother and sister, 10 year old Noah (Chris O'Neil) and 5 year old Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn), vacationing at their beach house on the Washington state coast, uncover a unique box. Inside is a magical stuffed animal named Mimzy who Emma adopts as her favorite new toy. Also inside are some strange looking rocks that seem to have some kind of mystical power but only in Noah's hands.

Soon the rocks and the toy bunny begin to help the kids make some unique discoveries. Both kids have amazing brain power and together with their new toys they may be able to create a bridge through time. Naturally, the changes in the kids behavior do not go unnoticed by mom (Joely Richardson) and dad (Timothy Hutton). And at school; Noah's science teacher also notices a change when he goes from apathetic C student to science fair champion.

Eventually, the power of their new toys gets beyond the walls of their own home and when it does it causes an incident with homeland security. Can the kids help Mimzy build his time travel bridge before the federal government steps in? Or is the future doomed by government scientists who can't wait to dissect the little child's toy.

The Last Mimzy is loosely based on a 60's sci fi short story called Mimsy Were The Borogoves. Director Robert Shaye read and fell in love with the story years ago but only now found the opportunity to bring it to the big screen. Shaye's direction conveys how much he loves this story. The Last Mimzy is energetic and fun with a terrifically childlike imagination.

The secret weapon of The Last Mimzy was the casting of two terrific young leads. Chris O'Neill and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn capture perfectly the innocence and childish wonder of The Last Mimzy. This is a whimsical, sweet natured little movie that could have crumbled under the weight over overly precocious child actors. O'Neill and Wryn deliver performances of great sweetness and lightheartedness that  perfectly match the tone of this story.

The supporting cast of The Last Mimzy is as strong as the two young leads. I especially enjoyed Rainn Wilson as Noah's science teacher who has psychic dreams and Katherine Hahn as his girlfriend who can't get over the time he dreamed of winning lottery numbers but neglected to play them. These two quirky funny actors really play well together and like their co-stars, match the good natured whimsy of the story being told.

The Last Mimzy has nothing deep to say. It's not a movie that is going to stick with you long after you leave the theater. But, for a kiddie flick; it has a big heart, a few laughs and is just too darn fun not to be enjoyed by anyone willing to give it some time. See The Last Mimzy with your kids. They will love it and maybe you will too.