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| A A A | |
| Review by Xibo | Date seen: November 24, 1999 |
| Viewing Location: East Village, NYC | Grade: A |
| Summary: The closest one gets to steampunk these days. | |
| Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, out to investigate the beheadings in a small town in upstate New York. The very sexy Christina Ricci plays the love interest and daughter of the big family there. Her lines are nothing memorable, she's mostly there as part of the nice scenery. If you like the forest in the fall, then you'll love the scenery in this film. Christopher Walken looks extremely vicious as the headless horseman, and with Tim Burton's direction, everything comes together for a very exciting film. And with Danny Elfman doing the soundtrack, how can you lose? | |
| B B B | |
| Review by Carneggy | Date seen: April 26, 1999 |
| Viewing Location: Theatre (Chicago) | Grade: B |
| Summary: So close, and yet so far | |
| Gee, a visually amazing Tim Burton film - who'd have thought. Great scenery and cinematography. I'm still trying to figure out why they included certain scenes in the film - oh, right, because Burton's SO *has* to be in his film. As smeehrrr noted, virtually none of the final plot points had anything to do with anything shown in the rest of the film; some of the twists and turns of the plot *before* it wanders off to Cluelessville are clever and unexpected. Ricci is here for eye-candy, but she's so well-known that altering her looks to a blonde is just distracting. One more polish of the script would have made this a great film, instead of a great-looking good film. | |
| B B B | |
| Review by Finrod | Date seen: 0, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: theater | Grade: B |
| Summary: Great people and visuals, loses coherency at the end | |
| Any geek worth his salt should jump at a chance to see a movie by Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, and Christopher Walken in it. As it is, the last third of the movie loses coherency, otherwise it could have been a really good movie. | |
| A A A | |
| Review by Scalveg | Date seen: January 21, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: Silicon Valley | Grade: A |
| Summary: Burton and Elfman do it again. | |
| Johnny Depp got off to a poor start in my mind by being a teenybopper cop in '21 Jump Street' but he's been making up ground in big strides ever since. Most of the credit has to go to Tim Burton though, for the smoothly oppressive feel of Sleepy Hollow. It's a good story, competently acted, but with breathtaking production values, a solid and eerie feel, and a rich, moving soundtrack. | |
| C- C- C- | |
| Review by smeehrrr | Date seen: January 21, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: The Evil Empire | Grade: C- |
| Summary: Couldn't I Watch Scooby Doo Instead? | |
| This movie would have been greatly improved by the addition of Casey Kasem and a talking dog. Visually it's stunning, but the script is a steaming pantload. Johnny Depp is unconvincing and uninteresting as Ichabod Crane. This might have been a better movie if anything in the second half had been effectively foreshadowed in the first, but what we get instead is Old Man Withers ripping off his mask and crankily yelling "I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" | |
| D D D | |
| Review by Brian | Date seen: June 2, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: My living room | Grade: D |
| Summary: My grilf forced me to watch the entire thing | |
| I kept hearing a piano, hitting the same note over and over and over. That's what this movie was to me. Booooring is a good word to describe this movie. Stupid is another. Incoherent is yet another. It isn't that it is too long, the length is fine, it is that the writing, direction, and (sorry Johnny!) acting that suck. Early on Johnny Depp is cast as the young man of science, then that's tossed away except as an excuse to have mad dentist tools left over from Edward Staplerhands. Of course he's brash and confident, but easily shaken and timid--but no, wait, he's brash and confident again! Oh darn, turning on a dime he's timid and shaken again. Did they shoot 2 versions of this movie and alternate Depp cuts in the scenes? Too bad he isn't convincing in either. And I like Johnny Depp, including 21 Jumpstreet. Ricci is in the movie for two reasons. Nothing against her, she can act, but as noted elsewhere, she has no lines (just curves). She is way yummy as a blond, but far too young looking unless your first and last name is "Humbert". Danny Elfman hasn't written good music since the theme for Pee Wee's Playhouse and he doesn't surprise here. Most any movie has something good going for it, and this one had a great black horse from hell. Oh yeah, and a few good sword fights. | |
| B+ B+ B+ | |
| Review by tmon | Date seen: June 21, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: NYC | Grade: B+ |
| Summary: Love Burton, love Depp, couldn't stand Ricci | |
| I am a sucker for the dark Burtonesque movies accompanied by Danny Elfman's music. They can make the worst movie a visual and aural work of art. Depp gives a clever and believable performance, but Christina Ricci is flat (in her acting only) with her here-now-gone-later British accent. The horseman is mysterious but there are scenes when he is just standing out in the open fighting, which really ruins the effect a bit. Wasn't worth the $9.50 for ticket but worth renting, even if only to check out the cool cinematography and spooky effects. | |
"I should put quotes here."