Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This movie is easily the best slasher film of all time! I am the hugest fan of Tim Burton on earth! Some despise this movie, despite all the gore this movie is a sensation slasher horror flick. This movie is based on a true story, Tim Burton got it 100% correct. This film is superb and outstandingly overrated, but it deserves to be overrated. I could watch this movie 24.7. This is not my favourite Tim Burton film, (my favourites are; Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Batman Returns, Batman, Beetlejuice and Nightmare Before Christmas) but it is close to my favourites. Watch this movie with some popcorn and coca cola and enjoy this sensation slasher movie.

Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to his last release of the decade Sleepy Hollow.Teaming up with director Tim Burton for a third time, Depp once again totally imperceptible himself in a character. He is superb. One thing I remember from 1999 was Depp not wanting Christina Ricci cast, as he had known her since she was 9 (filming Mermaids with Winina Ryder) and felt filming a love scene would have been awkward!! The scene Depp had an issue with was removed and she was cast!! I think it was a good move as she fits right in, in her second movie with Depp. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gough, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths and Emperor Papatine himself Ian McDiarmid. I won't reveal who plays the headless horseman for those who have not seen it, but he is well known, it's not his first Depp movie and he was great. Burton, who jumped at the chance to make this movie after his disastrous time on Superman Lives, really knows how to set an atmosphere and he is right at home here.Depp ended the decade on a high, as Sleepy Hollow won an Oscar for Best Art Direction and was the highest grossing movie (in which he had a leading role) of Depp's career (almost doubling the gross of the previous holder Edward Scissorhands) grossing $101 million dollars at the domestic box office to end the year as the 21st highest grossing movie of 1999. It was also the first Depp led movie to cross $100 million at the domestic box office.

Detective Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent from New York to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders and bring the culprit back to New York to face justice. Using advanced forensic techniques, Crane believes that the task that he has been given shouldn't prove too difficult, but his world is soon turned upside down when he learns that the man that he's pursuing is not quite of this world...Sleepy Hollow is another dark and somewhat macabre offering from Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (whom have both collaborated many times together over the years). I've never read Washington Irving's novel (upon which this film was based), but was interested in this film when I read the plot summary. If I'm honest I didn't find the film to be consistently thrilling, but in fairness the basic story was fairly good and had enough about it to keep me involved (particularly in respect of the Horseman and how and why he selects his victims). Due to the very fact that everyone was a bit wacky I was never quite sure who to suspect and I found it entertaining trying to piece everything together.The screenplay is pretty good, but Director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp are both on top form as well; having worked together on a number of occasions you do get the feeling that both men understand each other fairly well. Although the film has a dark plot and overall dark feel about it, the film does still have some amusing moments and a few gentle winks from time to time which made the film slightly more enjoyable overall.Depp gives a very impassioned performance here and does make the film a lot of fun to watch. It was interesting watching him getting swept up into the mad world of the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow. The supporting cast all do fine with what they have to work with, but this is definitely Depp's film and he carries it well.Whilst overall the film has more hits than misses I didn't find it to be entirely successful; it does have its slow stretches (particularly in the first half of the film) and character development is quite poor, but I suppose part of Burton's problem is that he does sometimes get more swept up in the style of his products at the expense of substance. It's also fair to say that the film also suffers slightly when the headless horseman isn't around.FINAL VERDICT; Worthy of your time, but with the odd miss here and there.

I found this a little hard to pin down but if there is a problem with Sleepy Hollow then it probably lies with Johnny Depp and the depiction of supernatural fantasy here without ever making it convincing. Depp is all over the place in this one, adopting a comic tone in a movie that really shouldn't have one, and coming across like a poor man's Bob Hope than anything else. His frequent fainting is ridiculous.To make the supernatural convincing in movies you need to build up to it and handle it carefully; but Tim Burton just throws it at the viewer, making it far less believable (and effective) than it could have been. The main compensations in the film are how jaw-droppingly Gothic-gorgeous it looks (almost taken for granted when Tim Burton's the director), and the chance to see some great old actors do their stuff. Christopher Lee, Michael Gambon, Michael Gough (yayy the star of Konga is back!) etc give it an air of class, and Christopher Walken is genuinely creepy as the horseman.Burton's main weakness is that he struggles to tell his story as well as he might - probably only in Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood (maybe he should film MR. ED next!) does he keep the narrative on an even keel. And yet his love of horror films is so genuine it comes through in every frame. The windmill used at the film's climax is surely an homage to both Frankenstein and The Brides of Dracula. If only Depp had played it straight the movie might have worked much better.