'Jacob's Ladder' Blu-ray Announced
Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 03:30 PM ET


Tim Robbins loses his mind in the critically-acclaimed psychological thriller hitting Blu-ray this fall.

In another early announcement to retailers, Lionsgate says 'Jacob's Ladder' also starring Jason Alexander and Elizabeth Pena is coming to Blu-ray on September 14.

Directed by Academy Award® nominee Adrian Lyne (Best Director, 'Fatal Attraction,' 1987), this "bold, powerful psychological horror film" (Chicago Reader) stars Oscar® winner Tim Robbins (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, 'Mystic River,' 2004) as Singer, a mild-mannered Vietnam vet thrust into an unsettling journey filled with fear, bewilderment and strange fascination.

Specs have yet to be revealed, but supplements will include a director's commentary, a Making-Of featurette, deleted scenes, and a trailer.

Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $19.99

Jacob's Ladder debuts on Blu-ray in North American in a 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer using MPEG-4 encoding. Those who haven't seen the film before might be a bit taken aback by the grim and deliberately flat looking color scheme employed in the picture and this look has been carried over to the transfer, as it should be. The film exists in a world of blacks and browns and dirty grey tones, so don't expect it to pop much. Skin tones are lifelike and natural looking and close ups show good detail but there's a softness inherent in the film's look and cinematography that ensures that this film will never be reference quality demo material. Print damage is held in check though a natural (and at times moderately heavy) coat of film grain is present. With so much of the film taking place in dimly lit areas and grimy locations, it's never going to look all that slick or all that pretty and the haziness and soft focus used will probably irritate some viewers but the disc is an improvement over the standard definition release not just in terms of detail and texture but in clarity as well. The lack of compression artifacts and nasty edge enhancement is also a plus.

Jacob's Ladder climbs onto Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p image in 1.85:1. This was never the sharpest looking film even in its theatrical presentation, and this Blu-ray certainly replicates that softness to a tee. While there is a noticeable upgrade over the SD-DVD, it isn't to the point where anyone other than ardent fans may want to invest in this version. Lyne and DP Jeffrey L. Kimball opt for a deliberately lo-fi, extremely grainy and low contrast look which some who are new to the film may mistake for a less than stellar transfer on this particular Blu-ray. Colors are never extremely well saturated here, and the entire film is dark and fuzzy. All of this said, close-ups reveal some nice detail and several segments, notably the opening Vietnam sequence, while drenched in a hazy yellow color, offer considerably more sharpness than the SD-DVD.

That said, Lionsgate has done a commendable job bringing this murky film to Blu-ray. The encode is nearly flawless – I only noted a few minor instances of compression grain. The print has been cleaned up as well, removing virtually all of the nasty bits of dust and dirt specks found on both the previous DVD and HDTV encodes (incidentally, the HDTV 1080i version looks much worse than the standard DVD).

While this restoration probably could have been polished and tweaked a little more to bring out more depth and detail, ultimately, I can' really fault Lionsgate. They did the best they could on a budget, and while the results still aren't particularly appealing, this is easily the best Jacob's Ladder has ever looked.