Plot: Ichabod Crane is a police officer in New York who is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to attempt to solve the mystery behind the murders that have occurred in the town. The people of Sleepy Hallow believe that the murder is a undead being called the Headless Horseman because the victims are beheaded with their heads missing. Crane dismisses their claims, but as the investigation goes on, he begins to learn that there's more to what is happening to the town than they let on, and that the legend of the Headless Horseman might me real.
So while I would say that this is a nice movie and I am glad that I finally got to see it thanks to Blaine, there are moments that...feel a little off. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's once again, start talking about what's good about the movie. First off, there's the casting. Sure it is common now for Burton to have a pretty large cast nowadays, but that doesn't make this one less enjoyable. Here you have some of the people Burton commonly casts like Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Jeffrey Jones and of coarse Johny Deep as Ichabod Crane. But then you have people that are not so common, such as Ian McDiamid, Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths, and especially Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman. The most notable are probably Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken. Depp gives us Ichabod as this police man who relies on science rather than this superstitious schoolteacher. He also makes Ichabod turn out a little more goofy, but at the same time Depp makes it work. I can't say for sure how similar he is to the original character, occupation aside, having never read it myself, but from what I understand from the Nostalgia Chick's review for this movie, he actually does keep a lot of the character's characteristics. His all around quirky charm is nothing new to me, but to be fair, this was made before Burton and Depp made it more common for him to give that kind of performance. Now Christopher Walken on the other hand... is probably the most interesting and unexpected thing for me to find watching this film. I watched this movie not knowing who was going to play the character, and Chistopher Walken turning out to be the guy doing it was not what I had in mind. But while he's not even in the movie for very long, he does make The Headless Horseman appear more psychotic in a way that just makes the character interesting. Another thing I like is the story. Now I know they changed it a lot from the short story with it being a mystery and, again, things like Ichabod being a police officer instead of a school teacher. But for what this film had instead, I got into well enough that it kept me interested in knowing how the mystery was going to be solved. I think the biggest compliment people have for the film that I can agree with is its art direction and it's effects. Granted, some of the effects do look pretty fake by today's standards, but there's still some parts that hold up such as the CGI for the collar of the Headless Horseman on top of making him really headless. And the art direction does look very nice, particularly on how they make it looks like a real town from the very later 18th century. So what do I not like about the movie? Well while I don't know if I would call these problems I have with the films really bad per say, there are some elements to the film where it's makes the film come out a little off. First off, there are some moments where the film just feels like it's just giving us the same stuff from almost any other Tim Burton film like eyes popping out of this witch or the obviously fake blood and stuff like that. And I get that this is his style. Blaine didn't hesitate to point of how stuff like this shown how artistic he is, and that's fine. But for me personally, what made most of this film work - in the same way that Sweeney Todd worked - was how it was being artistic, but doing so in it's own world. So it was a little hard to focus on the film sometimes when it had things such as eyes popping out of the witch or even this scarecrow that was basically the one from the beginning of Nightmare Before Christmas. But again, this is pretty much my opinion, so if you enjoy that anyway like Blaine does, that's fine. But the other problem that I had with the film was the third act when we get all the answers. I wont ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen this film, but in my opinion, it was kind of underwhelming, particularly with The Headless Horseman.
And that's my review for Sleepy Hallow. I have my own personal problems with the result of the mystery and moments that make it a little to obvious that it's a Tim Burton film. But even then, I still think it was a nice film that had an interesting cast, nice designs, some CGI effects that holds up, and a nice story that is so different from the original tale. If you're a big fan of Burton's work like Blaine is, you'll probably like this fine. If you aren't, I still thing this is movie to see at least once for all the strange but interesting and artistic stuff Burton puts into it. Take it for what it is, and see for yourself.
Rating: 70%
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