I was so fucking excited about the film, and then I read the reviews. I'm waiting for it to show up on Amazon or FX now.

I saw it and liked it.

It is just so serious and over the top that it's fun and funny. You also have to ignore the history and pretend the movie happens in an alternate universe.

I saw it with my friend Miriam. She did point out that no, Lincoln did not have a black sidekick. She also said it's a parody of Hollywood action movies, but I'm not so sure.

We certainly weren't the only ones in the theater laughing, though.

Also, Speed was a real, historical friend of Lincoln's.

eta: Miriam said the only thing that was historically accurate was that no one who knew Lincoln called him Abe. Also, the thing that ita ! whitefonted was one of many scenes that had me laughing with glee.

I was so fucking excited about the film, and then I read the reviews. I'm waiting for it to show up on Amazon or FX now.

It sounds as if you may get to watch it as a SyFy Original some Saturday night in the not-too-distant future.

Is this the Christopher Lee original, or the remake? Because the Devil's going to have to trade in his pitchfork for a hockey stick before he can get me to watch a Nicholas Cage musical.

Christopher Lee orginal. Neither Lee nor the "hero" sing. Basically they integrate musicians into the plot. So that in the bar scene the bar patrons sing a song. Unexpectedly and rudely, but there are good plot reason for it. (And NOT in the musical "any excuse for song" way, but really good reasons.) And when the lead is walking along he may encounter people engaged in a ritual that includes music. Some of the score is just a score, but a lot of it is actually sung and played by minor characters or extras in way the contributes greatly to feeling of being in increasingly bizarre circumstances - where the lead encounters music in unexpected circumstances and reacts to it. Unexpected music is part of the horror, and part of the comedy as well. (A lot of intentional comedy in the original, as opposed to the Cage version which is a huge sourced of *unintentional* comedy. ) Not that the original does not lend itself to snark if you are in the mood - very over the top, but it is a good film with stuff you can make fun of as opposed to a bad film whose only possible redeeming value is snarking about it.

I haven't seen AL:VH, but I've read the book, and the book took itself very, very seriously. It was not the zany fun romp I had expected, but a straight-up AU historical novel.

Was there horse-tossing in the book?

And catching. The catching is a key part of why I need to see this. Anybody can toss a horse, really. But who's badass enough to catch?

I ... don't remember! I'll have to go look, again. I don't think there was, tho'. If there was, I'd remember, right?

From discussion I've been reading it seems to be a screenplay addition. The screenplay was written by the book's author--no clue if he decided to add it, or it was someone else's idea.

Part of the reason I want to go see it (besides, y'know, vampires and quasi-historical setting) is that the screenwriter (and book author) is the guy who is working on the script for the Beetlejuice sequel. All the interviews I've seen with him talking about the project makes me feel like his heart is in the right place, but I still haven't gotten a good read on if he's an okay screenplay writer.