This review will contain some spoilers, though since the movie is hardly at all about the plot or the conclusion, nothing I tell you here should have much impact on your viewing enjoyment, or lack thereof.

The following categorized score was computed in July 2004, 4 months after the initial review was posted. Since I haven't seen the movie since then (or really spent a minute thinking about it) the scores should be the same as they'd have been back then, if I'd been doing such scores at the time.

Sleepy Hollow
Script/Story: 6
Acting/Casting: 8
Action: 4
Horror: 5
Eye Candy: 9
Fun Factor: 5
Replayability: 4
Overall: 7

This seems like sort of a high score for such a one-dimensional movie with such absurd and pointless aspects to it. Really, this movie is classic Tim Burton; all about mood, atmosphere, and weird acting and characters. The plot is minimal and frequently nonsensical, and the less you think about it the more you'll enjoy the film.

March 22, 2004

I enjoyed much of it, despite being disappointed that the interesting opening set up was immediately abandoned and that the overall plot was very formulaic.  I'd give it a slightly positive rating based entirely on the great scenery, sets, costumes, atmospheric mood, and occasional cool special effects and beheadings, but it can't get a better review since the movie was just too Tim Burton-esque.  All style and flash and look and very little substance or plot or story.

Sleepy Hollow was directed by Tim Burton and starred Johnny Depp. It was released in 1999 and made just over $100m, and was pretty well received by the critics. (It's at 72% positive on RT, with 72% positive on RT, with 74/103 reviews.)  I didn't see it then, nor did Malaya, and neither of us had really given it a thought since.  I'd never seen it advertised on TV or in DVD form, until I happened to see it on the shelf at Fry's, Saturday, and since it was just $9.99 and I hadn't seen it, I picked it up.  Malaya said she hadn't seen it either and since she was interesting and willing to pay half, home it came to join our DVD collection.  We were both pretty eager to see it, once we had it, and we watched it Saturday night over salad and pasta.

Malaya enjoyed it more than I did, though I couldn't say exactly why.  I think my lack of enjoyment was mostly due to my being unable to let go of my critical thinking and plot expectations.  Basically, I wanted it to be something that it wasn't, and I wasn't able to enjoy it for what it was.  I suppose that's more of a failing on my part than on the film's part, but it is it what it is. So perhaps she was more able to overlook those things than I was? I'd ask her, but she's like, two feet away, and working on other stuff, and actual facts and interviews would just slow me down in my usual fast-paced string of off the cuff remarks and general inaccuracies.

As for Sleepy Hollow, it was basically a lot of scenes of a guy on a horse riding down terrified victims with his huge black cloak flowing behind his huge black horse as he charged down leaf-littered, tree-lined lanes with a sword overhead.  All atmosphere and sets and setting and costumes, with very little reason for the viewer to care if the next victim got their head lopped off or not.  There was sort of a plot and sort of a conclusion and it all made sense, sort of, but I was pretty disappointed by how things transpired.

The whole initial point was the NYC police inspector Ichabod Crane (Depp) was a modern man of science and logic and deduction, in 1799, and that he wanted to bring forensics and analysis to police work. Sort of a CSI:1800, a premise that you'll note has since been stolen and put to work in about half a dozen TV series.  He kept annoying a judge with his criticisms of the medieval "justice" system, and the judge, who somehow knew of several recent beheadings in Sleepy Hollow, upstate New York, gave Ichabod the choice of heading up there to investigate, or staying in NYC in a jail cell (more like a jail pit, as they were depicted).  So off Ichabod went, on a very long and very scenic coach ride and then a walk to an inn; a trip that set the tone for the rest of the movie.  I.E. it had no reason to exist, but was photographed so beautifully that you could almost forget how pointless it all was.

Once in Sleepy Hollow he establishes his identity, talks to the town elders, tries to investigate things scientifically, and firmly states his belief that there is no headless horsemen, that he's not the dead mercenary the townspeople think he is, and that there's a perfectly logical explanation for the killings and the fact that all of the bodies were found but none of the heads were left with the dead.  He does some primitive investigation, using funny glasses and medical instruments, and is amusingly squeamish about blood and ignorant of female anatomy.  But his investigations add no info to the case, nothing he does is of any real use, and as we soon find out, the headless horseman really is a headless horseman, and really is the mercenary the townsfolk think he is, and really has returned from hell, and really is impossible to defeat in combat and immune to injury.

At this point I was annoyed and disappointed.  I had hoped there would be something more to it than magic and witchcraft; that Ichabod's reliance on science and logic would make a difference, and that there would be a non-magical explanation for things.  I was mistaken.

So once all has become magic, mediocre special effects, one-sided battles, and inevitable killings, the only remaining story is to try to figure out who is responsible for the killings and why they're taking place.  I.E. who dug up the mercenary and took his head and thus gained control of him (I didn't know it was so easy to command the dead.) and why are they sending him to kill most of the townsfolk.  All is revealed, and it all ties together with the random bits of odd info we had from various flashbacks, and it all makes sense in the end. At least if you accept that headless mercenaries can return from hell on jet black steeds, and that they're invulnerable once they do, and so on.

In fact, I guess I should raise my grade slightly.  I'll give it a 2.5/4, since it was consistent, and it did make sense in the end.  I just disliked the magic required for it, especially after the movie opened up as though it was going to be a triumph of reality over superstition, and then quickly became just another demon/ghost story.

I'd recommend it if you're a non-critical viewer able to suspense your disbelief who likes magic and graphic/amusing beheadings and a good ghost/witch story that you won't have much need to think during.

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