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Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: dark yet funny
Review: Johnny Depp's is hilarious as the scared hero and the story is dark enough to pass as somewhat horror. Christina Ricci was excellent too, who happens to be way more brave the Depp's character. Very entertaining movie, dark humor worked really well

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Greatest Art Film OF All Time
Review: Though very different from its roots, this Sleepy Hollow is the ultimate telling of Irving's tale.This is definatly one of the best directed horror films of all time. The backdrop pays justice to such gothic movies as THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and NOSFERATU.
The uptight yet dashing Ichabod Crane is sent to a small town on the eastern side of the Hudson called Sleepy Hollow. Once you see the town, you are disturbed by the quietness. There is not a sound except for two sheep and one shutting window.Johnny Depp(who plays Crane superbly)looks scared.
He stays at the Van Tassel estate where he meets the richest family in Sleepy Hollow.Katrina Van Tassel(played exceptionally by Christina Ricci)becomes interested in Ichabod as does he to her. Baltus Van Tassel tells the tale of the Headless Horseman to Ichabod, a Hessian soldier who fought for carnage with his piercing eyes and teeth(when I say piercing, I mean piercing.)Of course Ichabod doesn't believe but eventually he does.Keep a sharp eye out for his atopsy instuments.It turns out, though, that Lady Van Tassel's(played deviously by Miranda Richardson)white clothes have a splash of jet black in them.
The scenery with its blue filter is amazing.The woods is presented in a quiet and suspenceful fashion.Watch out for the scene in the Crone's cave.It is the scariest scene in the whole film.The music's performance is hauntingly beautiful. Danny Elfman has made the perfect horror score(I've got the CD.)
Besides the high rate of gore, this certainly a wonderful film. To any who complain that it strays too far away from the original text, I have two things to say. One, it is a new kind of Sleepy Hollow that holds true to everything except the plot. Two, ignore the different storyline and look at how wonderfully this film was put together by Tim Burton.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great dark horror, Headless Horseman is a great charecter
Review: This movie is too gritty and very violent, based in those middle ages where the Headless Horseman strikes terror into a small town, the tale is realistic and this movie will give you the chills, Jonny Deep and Christina Ricci are both great in this convincing horror. But be warned that this movie should not be watched by viewers under 18, it's just too damn violent. 8.5/10.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tim Burton Strikes Again.
Review: Once again Tim Burton brings us another gothic fairy tale full of dark corners and mystic characters. This time around he gives us goth with a touch of class and elegance. Who better than to use once again but Johnny Depp, and the beautiful Christina Ricchi, as Ichabod Crane and Katrina. This movie is probably the most scary and edge of your seat Burton film. It is full of great scares and chills, and it is a wonderful movie to watch on a dark spooky night. This may have not been Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or even Batman, but it is definately one of Tim Burton's greatest movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perhaps a Comedy?
Review: Tim Burton is not a master of horror, or at least, those who think he is are probably far too easily horrorified. His movies are about quirky outsiders who don't fit in with an equaly strange world that they are better off without. I would imagine this is pretty much how Tim Burton himself feels.

My take on this movie is that it is infact a comedy. A hauntingly beautifull and surreal comedy, for sure, a morbid and twisted comedy, without question, but in the end, a comedy.

I always feel the edge of a wry wit in Burton's movies, as if he is mocking all those other grandiose, baroque, self-important producers who think of their films as the end-all be-all of both film and art. Clearly Burton doesn't take himself to serriously, but just serriously enough. Why I find this movie so intruigingly funny is that all of the deadpan characters seem to have a detached and ironic appreciation of how ludicrious they themselves are, an appreciation that is external to the movie itself. It's like they are winking at us through out, saying "now remember, it is just a movie." Unlike some directors, Burton keeps his perspective on Hollywood and the real world, not getting too wrapped up in a fantasy that confuses one with the other. That is probably why the movie isn't very scarry, but is, in a very subtle way, quite funny.

One of my favorate roumors was that the script was ghost written by Tom Stoppard. Given it's subdued but cheeky banter, I can see where these rumors come from. It may or may not be true, but either way, it certainly is in the vein of subtle self mockery and delicate sarcasm that has worked so well for both Burton and Stoppard. They are two artists who you can never be sure if they are producing a parody, or the real thing.

Perhaps that I see parody in it, at least partly, says more about me than it does about the movie. I can't say for sure that it was meant to be a comedy, but it is a different way of thinking about the film, and by all means, if you are of the frame of mind, I suggest trying it out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sleepy Hollow
Review: This is my all-time favorite movie. Tim Burton's masterful artwork is shown to the maxium in this beautiful film. Based on the famous, yet humorous tale, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," by Washington Irving, this movie takes that folk tale to a whole new level of suspence and mystery.

Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, a forensic scientist, who is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate several horrific murders, all found with their heads 'removed.' Ichobod, a man of sense and reason, does not believe in the Headless Horesman, who the townspeople say is behind these murders, not until he sees him for himslef. Crane makes several discoveries that leads him to believe that the horesman is being controled by a person of flesh and blood. Ichabod falls head over heels for the mysterious Katrina van Tassel, played wonderfully by the beautiful Christina Ricci, who has secrets of her own.

After much investigating, the person behind these murders is revealed, too much of the audiences suprise.

This movie is fantasic and I whole-heartedly reccomend this book to anyone who is a fan on Tim Burton.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Extraordinary ambience.
Review: For those of us who have never read Washington Irving's short story, Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' proved to be an enjoyable substitute. Burton's love of British Hammer horror movies and a cast full of British character actors meant that the humour in the film gave you the feeling you were watching a 'Carry On' movie from the 1960's. A humour that perhaps wasn't so successful as many of the American actors ie. Depp and Ricci seemed a bit aloof and wooden. Although it has to be said that Christina Ricci was chosen by Burton because she reminded him of a silent movie star.

The set designs on this film are pretty amazing and it's difficult to believe that 90% of the film was shot in the studio, even the west woods. Set buliding is not often seen in movies anymore. Production companies think it's too expensive and shooting, as is, on location gives a greater sense of naturalism. Kudos then to Tim Burton in creating an authentic representation of turn of the 19th century upstate New York, filled with his own idiosyncratic designs such as Depp's David Cronenberg-like operating equipement.

Other Burtonian themes also occur. Casper Van Dien plays the bully that gets his comeuppance as did Anthony Michael Hall in 'Edward Scissoehands' and Jack Black in 'Mars Attacks. Also interesting to note executive producer Francis Ford Coppola who also had a credit in 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' and 'Mary Shelly's Frankenstein' and seems to be something of a literary gothic fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderfully scary !!!
Review: This movie is great. Everything you will see in it was created or put together for the movie. Even the forest was designed and put together inside a studio for the movie. The old windmill was built outside the studio and the computer guys added everything that is around using digital images.

The head of the headless horseman was erased digitally and Sleepy Hollow Village was also built in several months to create the perfect environment for this wondefully scary movie.

The music is intense and sometimes almost romantic. The movie is scary but funny, bloody but romantic, dense and intense but beautiful.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Actually Enjoyable...Even If You Don't Like Horror
Review: As my friend and I were picking out movies to watch recently, she chose this one and I cringed. Was it a thriller (which I can generally handle) or a horror movie (which I generally can't)? Having enjoyed the movie, I am rather surprised to read that other reviewers consider this a horror flick.

As for the movie itself, it starts off in a darkly lit New York City. All the details of those opening NYC scenes can be a little confusing at times (was that guy being tortured in the court room?), but the main thrust is clear: Crane (Johnny Depp) sticks out on the police force in 1799 because he wants to solve crimes based on scientific methods. He nobly lobbies for his fellow policemen to go about their work more fairly, and so they send him to Sleepy Hollow to solve the case of the Headless Horseman.

True to his usual form, Burton suceeds in making Sleepy Hollow every bit as creepy as it should be. The set for this town truly makes the film come alive. As Crane comes into the eerie town, he tries to overcome his uneasiness and social awkwardness by investigating the crimes with a scientific method. However, after encountering too many mystical things in the town, his mind starts flashing back to mysteries from his own childhood. As his waking mind tries to solve the gruesome murders at hand, his sleeping mind is trying to remember what happened to his mother.

I don't want to ruin any more of the plot here. The screenplay definitely deviates from the cartoon I saw as a child - in some ways the motivation for the killings is more rational and in some ways the "solution" to the crimes is even more irrational. However, I was able to handle all the beheadings and other killings just fine. In fact, I was more amused by the subtle humor of the film than I was frightened by the gore of it.

As a side note, I wondered some about the overall smoothness of the dialogue and progress of of the plot. Though Depp once again masterfully takes on another persona, he was a bit wooden at times. I wasn't sure if that was intentional on his part or if Crane's noble and clear-thinking yet queasy character was hard for him to portray. In a similar manner, the dialogue between Crane and Katrina Van Tassel (Ricci) was occasionally awkward. But, then, I thought of how many times in my life conversations have been awkward, and that without a headless horseman...so perhaps that was intentional as well. Also, I thought the plot skipped around a bit, sometimes jumping illogically to the next scene. However, I'm not sure if this is the result of poor editing or a Burton act of genius to make one all the more uneasy. In any case, these little quirks pulled me out of the story at times and so it lost some momentum for me.

Finally, I would like to point out that witchcraft - both "good" and "evil" - are quite prevelant in the film. Depending on your view of witchcraft, you may not enjoy the ultimate lifting up of "good" witchcraft over all else in the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Taken by the Headless Horseman. Back to Hell."
Review: That and other cheery senitments are waiting to be found in director Tim Burtons' "Sleepy Hollow," an errie, stylish and smart slice modern horror. Though "Hollow" may not be grab-your-seat-for-dear-life terrifying, the suspense is palpable and if you give the movie a chance, the tension and creepiness slowly seeps into your skin, and stays there.

Bouyed by Burton's unmistakeable visual storytelling style, the plot methodically plays out, leading Constable Ichabod Crane (Burton regular Johnny Depp), from his comfort zone of logical reasoning to far more uneasy territory: A Headless Horseman loose in the small rural town of Sleepy Hollow cutting off heads almost at random...or is he? Crane if baffled as to the reasons why, but he still finds time to develop a relationship between himself and a local noblewoman (Christina Ricci) while he investigates old grudges and conspiracies that lead to an unexpected, but senisble conclusion.

The cast here is outstanding, led by Depp, whom I am enjoying more with every new role I find him in. His cautious Crane is a far cry from his turn as the flamboyant Jack Sparrow, but Depp is so achingly convincing you forget he ever donned eye-liner and a dingy three-cornered hat. Ricci is effective, but next to Depp she is unfortunately dwarfed. Chistopher Lee and Christoper Walken make brief appearances in the film, as a judege and the horsemen respectively. Lee presides over his court with stately arrogance and Walken is devilishly deranged as the mad Horseman (When the horseman appears with his head of course).

Visually the film is wondrous. The cinematography is breathtaking, giving a surreal gothic look to the film. Sets are gorgeously designed from the dank town to some very creepy woods. The film is also superbly edited, and the visual effects are just about seamless. The horseman sequences are well-executed pieces of CGI (despite the occasional gore, one sees every head sliced off), and Crane's flashbacks to a troubled childhood are a feast for the eyes as well (albeit a bloody one). But the gore cannot bring down a brilliantly crafted horror story, with a refreshing intelligence that puts most other horror films today to shame.


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