NEWS FLASH

The First ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ Trailer and Obama as Action Movie Hero | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a movie based on the recent trend of mashing up the classics with monster stories (it began with combinations of Jane Austen and horror, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), will be absolutely ridiculous, at least judging by this trailer. Watch it:

Even though the idea of Lincoln getting all crazy with the stakes and the slaying is deeply silly, I actually wonder if it strikes a larger chord in American life. President Obama’s surgical strikes to take out Osama bin Laden and Somali pirates who are holding American hostages are the closest an American president’s come to behaving like a bona fide action hero in decades. President Bush’s Mission Accomplished photo op was pure Hollywood cheese, an attempt to capitalize on emotions made familiar by the movies. But Obama’s setting a standard with his actions that Hollywood, whether it’s Kathryn Bigelow’s movie about killing bin Laden or this, wants to be able to catch up to and take advantage of.