Sunday 30 April 2006

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

I really should have written sooner how chuffed I am to be amongst this week's guest editor's recommendations -- and welcome to any new readers!  Tommy has been one of my most consistent commenters since early on, probably because we both have a penchant for weird and not so weird foreign movies -- although he is FAR more tolerant than I am.  Then again he wonders how I put up with watching so many crappy mainstream films -- and believe me I don't even comment on a lot of them, but I consider it all part of my ongoing education and seeing everything provides me with the tools (I hope) to really differentiate the exceptional from the mediocre.  Or that's my excuse.  If you want to discover who else Tommy reads, use my link on the right to his journal.

Anyhow back to the business at hand.  When there are no new (to me) films seeking my attention, I fall back on my own collection to watch certain favourites, often  for the third or fourth time -- and for some real favourites, more often than that.  In the last few days I have revisited "Duel to the Death" a seminal Hong Kong film from 1983 with the spectacular fights and wirework now receiving a wider audience through movies like "Crouching Tiger..." and "Desperado" from 1995, the middle film in Rodriguez' Mariachi trilogy -- both suitably escapist.  (You might ask from what am I escaping.)  And a third look at the film named above.  By and large I appreciate Tim Burton's gothic sensibilities and can even forgive his mistakes like the Apes re-make (or re-imagining as he would have it).  This one is his tribute to the Hammer horror films of the '60s and includes a number of British faces in the cast.  Of course the fact that Ichabod Crane is played by Johnny Depp is sufficient in itself to guarantee a good time for all. And Christopher Walken's razor-toothed Hessian is the stuff of nightmares -- tell me, does Walken ever play normal?  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also love films..and I drive my family crazy with it.  I am a horror film buff.  That is my fav to watch.  I have been watching those kind of films since I was a small kid. I enjoy other also..but not nearly as much.  Congrats on being a pick. take care,
Dwana

Anonymous said...

Really chuffed here JP you've mentioned two I've seen...........I seem to be on the lower scale of film buff unlike yourself and Tommy.

Crounching Tiger.........I quite liked that, but I do like the oriental films, well most anyway.

.............Sleepy Hollow............scared me silly first time watching it, second time I was used to it, so not quite the same effect but still good, although I always have Bing Crosby singing in my head, he was best at singing that song :) Rache