Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Succeeds Like An Old Horror Tale Masterfully Retold
Review: The words "horror film" conjures up for most of us the typical mindless schlock that has been dredged up the past few years in movies like "Scream", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and "The Blair Witch Project". "Sleepy Hollow" reminds us of how tales of terror were once told.In this Tim Burton retelling of the old Washington Irving Story, Johnny Depp stars as Constable Ichabod Crane. Burton has cast Depp in some of his past efforts, notably "Edward Scissorhands", and it's not hard to figure out why. He turns in a very good performance in this picture, much more believable than his work in "Ed Wood". Christina Ricci portrays the love interest, Katrina Van Tassel, and turns in a competent, but uninspiring performance. Miranda Richardson is quite good as Katrina's evil stepmother, and the very underrated Jeffrey Jones plays the town minister. The best acting on this film, next to Depp's, is by Christopher Walken as the Horseman nee Hessian. As with all of Tim Burton's pictures, there is a dark and gloomy appearance. For a change, it actually works in "Sleepy Hollow". I hated it in "Batman" and "Batman Returns". The pacing is a bit slow at first, but it quickly catches on. The ending is much more satisfying than any of the recent crop of "slasher" movies and overall has a more mature feeling about it. From where I sit, this is Burton's best movie this side of "Edward Scissorhands", and Johnny Depp's best performance since that same film. I for one am glad that we have directors like Burton who still have a lot of respect for the older, more traditional horror stories. "Sleepy Hollow" is a perfect antidote to those who have become jaded by so much of the silliness that has pervaded this particular genre ever since "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th".
Rating:
Summary: another good film by tim burton.but it has NO child like sid
Review: you know the drill on this one i hope.the story is way off,but the movie is quite good anyway.johnny depp is the star,ichabod crane.this is his best movie.the kids will get scared.this is timburtons only horror film and all others are kid-friendly.i think it is the best of many,many versions of this story including one by disney.a lot of people say they dont like it due to its inconsistencies with the book and that they just werent scared.i say ive never seen a film a hundred percent like the book and why would you want to be scared?entertainment is the idea not fright.if you go to church,youll want to skip this one also.demons,murder,witch craft etc.if the lights are off and your surround sound is blasting,this sounds incredible.a witch and a preacher type get busy but no nudity.johnny depp doesnt deserve any awards but this is the best movie he happens to be in.people give this movie a bad rap for a lot of stupid reasons.the real deal is its good.ive never seen a bad tim burton film yet and ive seen almost all of them.
Rating: 
Summary: A Creepy Confection to Savor
Review: Tim Burton, the master of dark & moody films, has probably created his best movie to date in this loving tribute to the old Hammer horror films. While not true to the letter of Washington Irving's classic tale, SLEEPY HOLLOW is very true to the story's spirit. Looking at this film is like looking at a faded scenescape as Burton creates a world that truly dazzles. Johnny Depp makes a most unconventional hero as Ichabod Crane, but he more than provides the glue which binds this flick together. Christina Ricci makes a good impression as the china doll like love of Ichabod's eye. A lot of Burton's usual acting stalwarts are solid in small roles including Micheal Gough and Jeffrey Jones. There is also a wonderful cameo by horror great Christopher Lee as the magistrate who sends Ichabod on his mission. This film is spooky, creepy and very funny. Even the over-the-top violence tends to engender laughs as much as chills. A must see film not only for Halloween...but for anytime you want to enjoy spooky thrills. The DVD edition is also great for Tim Burton's amusing commentary and the extras included. Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning Visuals, though flawed in other ways
Review: Alright, in case you didn't notice, this film really doesn't have much of anything to do with that Irving story, which is fine, cause that story sucks. In the film, Ichabod Crane is a constable, who is sent to Sleepy Hollow in order to investigate a series of decapitation murders, which were supposedly committed by the headless horsemen. So basically, this is just a serial killer movie, except it takes place in 1799, and it's got a lot of Tim Burton wackiness added into it. I like it.
This is definitely an odd little film. Reviewing this one is easy, really, and it can all be summed up in a single sentence: If you're interested in intriguing, surreal and beautiful imagery in movies, you simply have to watch this film. There are very few films that can compare with the visual splendor of this movie, which is remarkable on pretty much all fronts from the costuming to set design to outdoor scenery to matte paintings to cinematography and so on. Make no mistake, the visualization of this film goes far beyond a simple attempt at period re-creation. The whole thing stands between the border of the real and the surreal, simultaneously seeming like nothing you've ever actually seen, but still seeming like it almost could exist, somehow. The colors are all deep and strong, mostly earth tones, but with a sorta depth and intensity that the film never appears lifeless. The scenery is particularly striking, with banks of fog all about, and the surreal forest, with the gnarled and dark, nearly charred looking trees against the yellowed leaves. I'm trying to describe, but I just can't. It's just amazing, and the film creates another world in a way more powerful and convincing than in any other film I can think of. You just have to see it.
Some of the other parts of the film, however, don't entirely work. This is a Tim Burton film, and as such it has a kinda weird tone, with lots of weird and wacky stuff going on, even though the film as whole is fairly serious. This even comes down to the death scenes, some of which are dead serious, (such as the one most prominently shown in the ads of a man being ridden down at dusk, and Crane's mother's grotesque fate) and some are comic.(such as when one character is decapitated, but his head spins around on his stump repeatedly, for some reason) This is typical of Burton's stuff, so the fact that it is this way doesn't really surprise, but I really think this film could've been completely amazing if it had been made as a straight horror film. This wackier stuff isn't always all that jarring, but their no denying that the more serious scenes are invariably the most effective ones, at least for me.
The plot is arguably excessively convoluted, though, in the end, I really don't care that much. Plot just doesn't matter much in this sorta film. The complicated plot, however, does require that the characters spend quite a bit of time just sitting around and talking, which does hurt the film some as the indoor scenes definitely aren't as impressive as the outdoor ones. (They certainly still look great, however. Just less great) The acting is more than sufficient for the purposes of the film, though nothing much really struck me about it. The casting was is appropriate, at least from a visual standpoint, as it includes plenty of odd looking people to fit in with the unusual world that they locate. Elfman's score is your fairly typical Orchestral stuff, but it does work very well, and is both quite beautiful and quite eerie. Also, there is quite a lot of severing going on in this film, as you'd imagine, though it's generally not terribly gory, I think, as the limbs or head typically just sorta fall off, with out much or any blood. Some of it is fairly impressive, though most of it is done with CG effects, and I definitely prefer the real thing when it comes to gore effects.
I dunno, that's about it. If a movie looks this good I can put up with about anything else. This is not to say that the story and tonal aspects of 'Sleepy Hollow' don't work at all, as they do work quite well for the most part. But, it coulda been better. Still, it's more than worth seeing.
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Summary: A Horror Thriller That Will Keep You At The Edge of Seat!!
Review:
this is definately one of johnny depps best films even thought the blood looks kinda fake like nailpolish its still one of the best films ever
Rating:
Summary: simply great!
Review: I usually hate thrillers but this one just caught my attention and i thought why not give it a try.
it is just great!!! a great performance by johnny depp and christina ricci, a great story and all done by a great director.
i recommend this one to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: A Nice Look At The Legend
Review: of course, this movie isn't word for word/play by play to the book, but it doesn't need any comparison to the book. this film is a very stylish film. the settings don't just take your mind to the elder time it takes place in, it brings a visual feast to the mind with lovely effects and quite dreamy sets. johnny depp is a wonderful actor, as always. the legend of sleepy hollow is a classic and is for sure great ground for anyone wanting to make a creepy and timeless adaptation. this version is for sure one to keep. as you all know, the story is somewhat simple. depp's character goes to sleepy hollow to investigate some murders that are very peculiar--all the victims have been decapitated. he soon learns of a menacing character--"the headless horseman". along with a troublesome crush on one of the local girls, depp faces a few problems when the horseman returns to claim more victims and he's in the middle of it. the atmosphere of this film alone is worth a viewing. this a just as much as a dark classic as the original tale was. and you won't be disapointed with the climax about the horseman!
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Summary: a ultmite tim burton film
Review: this film is a true burton film, it has his style in it very rich, deep, and intense. the film starts in the year before 1800, Icabod crane is sent to sleepy hollow to investigate a series of grissly murdurs. all of which have there heads cut off, he finds out that it is the work of the headless horseman, who was sent hear to keep the americans under control. he is killed in the woods near sleepy hollow. now icabod must stop him he has the help of a young boy whos father was a victom of the horsman and a strange mysterious girl. this is really a burton film
Rating:
Summary: A MUST-SEE!
Review: Sleepy Hollow is rather loosely based on the story of the same name by Washington Irving, about a small town haunted by the Headless Horseman. In Tim Burton's version of the story, the events take place in the isolated colony of Sleepy Hollow, where several townsfolk have been beheaded by what the people describe as a headless horseman. As the film begins, rebel constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent to the isolated town for believing that his work should be governed by the facts rather than by insane beliefs. His reasons for believing in, as he says, "sense and justice" rather than a series of ghastly fairytales that pass for an ethical system, are explored in a series of dream sequences in which we see a seven-year-old version of Ichabod (Sam Fior) with the influences of his mother (Lisa Marie) and his father (Peter Guinness). In a way, these scenes make the science versus superstition subplot of the film what it is: fascinating rather than insulting. In any case, upon arriving in Sleepy Hollow, the adult Ichabod Crane is greeted by Katrina Anne Van Tassel (Christina Ricci) and her father, Baltus (Michael Gambon), whose initial reactions to the man are as opposite as their personalities. Baltus is a stuffy, superstitious man, a relic of the century that is about to be left behind (the film is set in the year 1799), while his daughter Katrina is an inquisitive, hopeful woman with an open mind to the investigative techniques employed by Crane. It is a credit to the actors that while we accept these methods as being a crude version of those we take for granted today, we also can accept the unhealthy scepticism with which they are greeted by most of the characters in this film, local coroner Doctor Thomas Lancaster (Ian McDiarmid), not least among them.
Another credit to this film and its makers is the power of its characterizations. At first, I simply could not recognize the man playing Brom Van Brunt (Casper Van Dien), in spite of the fact that I had seen his face enough times in Starship Troopers to be able to recognize the actor out of costume at twenty paces. Another such character who comes across as a character rather than an actor playing a character would be Reverend Steenwyck (Jeffrey Jones), whom I would not have recognized if he had failed to remove his wig during the film. In fact, the only actor other than the two who are billed on the theatrical poster (which also serves as the front cover artwork) who is easily recognizable would be Christopher Walken, who plays the headless horseman before the decapitation, and after his skull is returned to him. Ray Park plays the horseman during most of the sword-swinging scenes, but his head is blue-screened out of the picture. Even the characters with minimal screentime and development, Brom among them, are so convincing that they quickly overshadow the somewhat hollow Shakespearean nature of the story. If there is a weak point in the film, it is only carried over from the story upon which Andrew Kevin Walker's screenplay is based: the overstructured nature of the dialogue. The setting and nature of this film only serves to once again highlight the absurdity of the praise lumped upon William Shakespeare and his work: human beings, under normal circumstances, simply do not speak like this. Still, the strengths of this film far outweigh its negatives.
A look at the film on the Internet Movie Database reveals that, like a lot of Tim Burton films, this movie divides opinion as thoroughly as the modern-day issue of whether we should clone new cells to turn dreaded illnesses of our modern era into relics of the past. The majority of the voters are in the same camp as myself, and praise the film for the quality of the set design, the acting, the characterizations, or all of the above and more. A small minority attack this film for its reported major deviance from the Washington Irving story, or describe this film as being nothing but gore from start to finish. The first of those two criticisms is perfectly valid, but I feel that if I wanted Washington Irving's story to be faithfully followed, I would have gone out and bought myself a copy of that story in printed form. Ian McDiarmid's performance during the autopsy scene makes a blatant joke out of the second criticism, with acting so convincing and strong that it reminded me of what the man has been doing in the sixteen years between this film and Return Of The Jedi (running a theatre company, for those who don't know). In a nutshell, if you want an intelligent film with well-developed characters and an almost flawless plot, then Sleepy Hollow is most certainly the one to look at. Quite why it only received one Academy Award for Art Direction when there are performances, special effects, and a script worthy of such recognition, in contrast to the films that actually won these awards, most notably The Matrix, is beyond me.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance
Review: I loved this movie from start to finish. If you are a Depphead like myself, you should definitely watch this one. The horseman was purely terrifying, with the sharpened teeth and plainly crazed-looking face. Christina Ricci was great as the love interest, and of course Johnny was brilliant as usual. While being frightening, the movie also had some delightful Depp-ish humor slipped into it. Tim Burton did a fabulous job bringing this greusome ghost tale to life. The sets were terrifying. This movie is great...just don't watch it alone, or at least not in the dark.
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