Strange Brew

Watched a couple of very weird movies this weekend, with mixed results: Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. I couldn't make it through Time Bandits, and that’s led me to abandon my attempt to watch all of Gilliam’s movies. Aside from Holy Grail, I just can’t get into his mix of British humor, sci-fi, and social commentary. Taken separately, I like all of those things just fine, but his early films just don't do it for me. At least I can say I tried.

On the other hand, there’s the work of Tim Burton, in its own way just as weird, but somehow much more up my alley. Sleepy Hollow is a great movie for this pre-Halloween time of year. It’s more bloody than I remembered, but just creepy and odd enough to unsettle the viewer. And what a great cast: Besides Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, you've got Albus Dumbledore, Uncle Vernon Dursley, Emperor Palpatine, Saruman, Ed Rooney, and Mr. Bruce "More Cowbell" Dickinson himself making appearances. Some of the acting seems a little stilted, but that just serves to add to the sensation of everything in the movie being slightly off. I’ve never been disappointed when Depp and Burton get together, and this is one of my favorites.