Halloween 2009: Sleepy Hollow

File this one under very, very, very Halloweeny.

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite movies to watch on Halloween. It also happens to be the only "scary" movie my wife will watch with me, but that's besides the point. The film, which came out almost exactly 10 years ago, fell between Burton's two fairly unsuccessful forays into sci-fi territory, Mars Attacks! and Planet of the Apes. Sleepy Hollow is the quintessential Tim Burton film, and I dare say it's my favorite of his movies.

I'll just make life easier for myself and make a list of just a few of reasons why this movie is awesome:

• Johnny Depp as a brilliant but scaredy-cat Ichabod Crane.

• An actual flaming pumpkin head.

• Purposely cheesy dialogue delivered perfectly, including this exchange between Depp and Christina Ricci (in her best role since The Addams Family): Katrina Anne Van Tassel: I have shed my tears for Brom... and yet my heart is not broken. Do you think me wicked?
  Ichabod Crane: No... but perhaps there is a little bit of witch in you, Katrina.
  Katrina Anne Van Tassel: Why do you say that?
  Ichabod Crane: Because you have bewitched me.

• It has plenty of humor, but also features multiple graphic beheadings, as well as the off-screen slaughter of a cute child (not my wife's favorite part of the movie).

• An amazing supporting case, including Miranda Richardson, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Gambon, and Christopher Lee.

• The obligatory cameo by Burton's girlfriend-at-the-time, Lisa Marie (it's like looking for Hitchcock in one of his films).

• And of course, perhaps most importantly, Christopher friggin' Walken, as the Hessian Horseman himself:

See? Awesome.

If for some reason you've never seen this movie, this is the time of year to do it. It will bewitch you.

Holy crap, I saw another movie!

Since there are only about two dozen people in my building today, I decided to play hookie (am I really dating myself with that term?) and catch a matinee of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I don't really have time for a long review, but I can say that I enjoyed it immensely. I wouldn't say it's Tim Burton's best, but it's probably in the top 4 or 5. Ups: the visuals are excellent with a color palette basically consisting of black, white, and red; it's both amusing and gory and a musical without one detracting from the other; the three lead actors (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman) are perfect for their roles. Helena Bonham Carter is the real stand-out...how convenient is it that Tim Burton's girlfriend is the go-to woman to play pale, frazzled psychos? Also, the three young newcomers in supporting roles are decent singers, which leads me to...downs: As good as they were in their roles, the three leads aren't great singers. But really, I didn't care that much about the quality of the singing. For the most part, I could almost forget that this was a musical (not my favorite genre). That said, some of the songs were painfully long and hurt the pacing--I feel like the movie could have been a good 15 minutes shorter. But all in all, a worthy addition to the Tim Burton catalogue. Probably not necessary to see at the theater unless you feel a geek-like obligation to help Burton's box office, but certainly worth renting at some point down the line.