Sleepy Hollow - * * *

Sleepy Hollow

Live action romantic horror film loosely based the legend of Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) and the Headless Horseman. Female lead Katrina Van Tassel will be played by Christina Ricci. Casper Van Dien will play Ichabod’s rival Brom Van Brunt. Andrew Kevin Walker adapted the Washington Irving tale. Ichabod is now a New York policeman who’s crazy ideas about scientific policework have landed him the undesirable job of constable of Sleepy Hollow…where a mysterious killer has already beheaded three men. Michael Gambon, Lisa Marie, Miranda Richardson, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Simon McBurney, Christopher Lee, Steven Waddington, Ray Park and Christopher Walken will also star. Tim Burton directs.

Capsule Review: Very stylistic, exciting and entertaining, Tim Burton weaves an entirely new spin on the Washington Irving classic. Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci seem slightly stiff in this period piece, but the inventiveness of the film soon sweeps those worries aside. My biggest gripe: the Headless Horseman himself is trivialized, and never materializes as the fearsome villain the film needs him to be.

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