Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Dark Jedi May 27, 2014

★ 6/10

et us get this over with right away. I do not think Johnny Depp was the right person for playing Ichabod Crane. Maybe I am too influenced by seeing him in Pirates of The Caribbean but I just do not think he was the right person for this role. He really did not work for me. He is to whimsical and gesticulating to be taken seriously as a scientifically inclined crime investigator as far as I am concerned. Too bad since the story itself and the movie was quite promising. As is often the case with Tim Burton’s work the movie has quite dark tone which I quite like. The various scruffy and suspicious characters that Ichabod meets right away as he enters the village inn fits right into the eerie atmosphere. Unfortunately Ichabod’s inclination for science clashes with the rest of the story which is undoubtedly supernatural. It makes the movie not really have a distinct direction but in…

John Chard May 7, 2019

★ 8/10

It is you, Ichabod Crane, who is now put to the test. Sleepy Hollow is directed by Tim Burton and co-adapted to screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and Kevin Yagher from the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by Washington Irving. It stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones and Casper Van Dien. Music is scored by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. 1799 New York, and Ichabod Crane, a timid but forward thinking detective, is sent to the way out village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a number of decapitations. A perfect match of director and actor to the source material, Sleepy Hollow unfolds as a fun filled creeper of such visual and aural pleasures, it's a wonder nobody thought to put the combination together earlier than 1999. Story is familiar, though with a few changes, and although some of the come…

Kamurai August 2, 2020

★ 6/10

Decent watch, might watch again, and can recommend. While Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci do carry quite a bit of the movie, there is quite a lot else going on here. The horseman does tend to dominate much of this story as the original does. I don't feel there was much to the original fable of the Headless Horseman so pretty much any take you do on it seems fine: though maybe an Easter Bunny version would push some boundaries. This is about as weird, but more because it has to create a weird atmosphere, then add Depp doing weirder stuff than the weird people can handle, despite believing in ghosts which he all but fights with them about. Ichabod Crane being a smart, if cowardly, constable is interesting as he literally has the "hero" role painted on him. This is surprisingly more of a mystery than any other type of movie. The action is usually intense and brief when it hap…

Wuchak October 5, 2020

★ 9/10

_**Great Spooky Flick for the Fall Season!**_ "Sleepy Hollow" is Tim Burton's stylish 1999 take on Washington Irving's classic tale about Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman starring Johnny Depp as Crane and Christopher Walken as the Hessian horseman. The story is set in 1799 and involves Crane, a constable from New York City, going to the Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of gruesome murders where the victims are decapitated. Whether you like Burton's films or not, who can deny his talent for visuals and overall production? This guy knows how to make a film LOOK good, that's for sure. As for Depp, he portrays sleuth Ichabod in a very human manner, e.g. he's afraid of spiders and amusingly passes out on occasion. There are four things that really impress me about this picture besides Depp: (1) I love the spooky Fall atmosphere; it obviously takes place so…

GenerationofSwine January 12, 2023

★ 1/10

Well, it has a great cast, and they all do a great job. But, it's really Tim declaring to the world that he is too lazy to read...again. Much like he was with Batman and absolutely every other adaptation that he's made. I had a girlfriend when I was an undergrad that absolutely totally loved a lot of books...but only ever actually read "The Mists of Avalon."...she was an art major too. So, it turns into Tim Burton "artistically reinterpreting" something that he has never read and thus really doesn't know how to interpret in the first place.

CinemaSerf August 28, 2023

★ 7/10

This is probably my favourite role from Johnny Depp. Based on Irving Washington's wonderfully spooky tale, he is the scientifically minded Constable "Ichabod Crane" despatched by that other Tim Burton regular Christopher Lee to investigate a mysterious murder in the eponymous sleepy Dutch settlement. When he arrives, he discovers that the murders are being attributed by the seriously superstitious residents to the "Headless Horseman" who has returned from hell to seek vengeance upon those who betrayed him back when the United States was fighting for it's independence. It soon emerges that there are plenty of sordid and evil goings on amongst the Van Tassels - Michael Gambon, a super Miranda Richardson and Christina Ricci and their sleazy, creepy neighbours ably depicted with some great performances from Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid and especially, though briefly, from Michael Gough. …