a horrible disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (24 November 1999)

I think many of the positive reviews of this movie were written by people who've just been desperate for some good head-chopping scenes. To be fair, this movie has a lot of them, and they're done well. But the movie itself is *bad*. The long-winded exposition scenes are an embarrassment, and people have already commented on the plot flaws, the lack of chemistry between Depp and Ricci, and the incredible mangling of the original Irving story. But wait, there's more!
Christopher Walken looks and acts comical as the horseman. His recurring line is "rahhr!" Far from being scary, he looks like a clown, and I kept expecting him to launch into a story about a gold watch. (Oh, and how could anyone fail to notice the headless horseman visibly looking around for his horse when he comes out of the windmill?)
Crane is a confused character - one minute the bold constable questioning everyone, the next minute shaking violently with fear when they tell him the ghost story. In one scene he pushes a boy in front of him into a cave, and in the next he insists on going first. This isn't a complex character; it's a badly-written one.
The script is awful. "You must have some witch in you." "Why?" "Because you have bewitched me." Argh! But the scene that really pushed it over the edge into B-movie territory came at the end. I'll refrain from Ebert-style spoilers (that man should be restrained!), but why did Crane and Katrina choose -that particular moment-, you know which one I'm talking about, to start hugging and kissing at the climax of the movie? That moment was about as romantic as a prison rape, and their reaction was *completely* inappropriate. Much of the audience burst out laughing, which I'm sure wasn't Burton's intent.
Go in with your expectations set for "bad", and you might be able to stomach it.