The Pointless Horseman

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 1999)

I am always shocked when I see the extents to which people have gone to praise a movie which just wasn't that good. To these people I have to ask, what on earth are you talking about? No, Sleepy Hollow was not unbearable or terrible. It was simply uninteresting. And that in itself is shocking. How can you make a movie about a demon with no head who chases people down on a black horse and chops of their heads uninteresting? It would have seemed impossible before SH, but Burton pulled off a miracle. The movie bogs itself down with plot and attempts to add a conspiracy element which simply does not work. I agree with a previous reviewer that the movie should simply have focus on the horseman himself - but instead by the end of this movie we think of the horseman more like a robot or mindless animal - not the truly evil being he could be. I think the feel of the initial scene was successfully creepy, but few other instances in the movie succeeded in raising any fright. I think Johnny Depp went about as far with the role as he could, but I was underwhelmed with Christina Ricci. I also expected to see more of Walken, but I suppose since his character starts out the movie dead, you can't expect too much. All in all, not Tim Burton's best work, and probably the worst of the last four movies I have seen (Dogma, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, The World Is Not Enough).