"Dear John" is the fifth Nicholas Sparks book to be turned into a feature film. As with "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember," "The Notebook" and "Nights in Rodanthe," the plot is centered around two people who develop a whirlwind romance and end up torn apart by tragedy. No matter the outcome, the two lovers emerge as "better people" because of the relationship they shared.

"Dear John" follows the same formula, but audiences can be relieved that the tragedy is not as predictable as the trailers or the opening sequence makes you believe. While death inevitably plays a part in all Sparks’ stories, it is not the final separator in this film. Instead, human fault and choice are to blame for the lovers’ quarrel — whether that makes the result more tragic or idiotic is still up for debate, but at least it wasn’t completely predictable.

The timeline of their relationship is represented by a montage of scribbled writings on worn paper. The romantics are up to their eyes in mush and the cynics are rewarded for their skepticism when, all of a sudden, Savannah can’t handle anymore waiting and breaks off the relationship, leaving John devastated in Afghanistan.

Channing Tatum, who is most famous for his roles in "She’s the Man” and “G.I. Joe” plays the title character, John Tyree, a young man enlisted in the Army that gets swept up in the overhaul after 9-11. Though Tatum has made a much more favorable impression in the department of eye-candy than acting, he puts forth a steady effort. Though awkward in the beginning, Tatum does a surprisingly good job of expressing the pain in having to choose between the love of your life and the obligation to your country, in addition to the consequences of that choice. His portrayal of a young veteran with his back against the wall is heartfelt and genuine, an unsuspected improvement from the clich© and contrived roles he’s played before.

Tatum’s performance is pushed to a peak by Richard Jenkins, who plays his autistic father, Mr. Tyree. Their relationship turns out to be the most compelling plot point of the film. Without spoilers, the scene most likely to evoke tears is not between John and Savannah, played by Amanda Seyfried, but a touching reconnection between John and his emotionally estranged father.

If anyone’s performance detracts from the film, it is Seyfried’s — Seyfried comes off as stale, uninvolved and unrelatable. But it’s not entirely her fault. Due to the structure of the story, the audience is never able to sympathize with Savannah, who waits for months-on-end for letters from John. Due to a lack of character development, Savannah goes from hot to cold quicker than a Katy Perry song, for reasons introduced later in the film (which are less than satisfactory).

“Dear John” works for the audience it’s intended for — 14-year-olds with a crush on Tatum and the minivan matinee crowd. But unless you’re looking for a no-brainer chick flick (aren’t we all, sometimes?) steer clear of “Dear John.”

When Blast talked to Craig Deering of Evil Iguana Productions back in November, he was still riding the wave from the EIP “The Dark Knight“ spoof that at that point had earned them over 6,000,000 hits on YouTube and made them instant Internet sensations.

Then, their “Twilight“ trailer spoof, which was the lesser-known cousin of the Batman spoof, earned them a hearty 2,000,000 YouTube hits. In the seven months that have passed since then, Deering and the rest of the Evil Iguana crew have become enveloped by Twi-Hards, and earned themselves free front-row tickets from MTV to the MTV Movie Awards Sunday night.

Bailey “NoMoreMarbles“ Gauthier, beloved “Twilight” YouTube personality and friends of Deering and EIP, received passes to be seat fillers at the Movie Awards from her contact at MTV. She was allowed to bring some “friends” and chose to invite Deering and EIP members Joe Korbel and Tom Latvys. “Of course we weren’t going to say no to that” Deering said.

Though the foursome were originally supposed to be seat fillers for the cast of “Twilight” the company behind filling seats said it would be nearly impossible to guarantee those seats. MTV pulled a few more strings and got them seats at the front row of the pit, “10 feet from everyone” Deering said.

They didn’t get to meet any of the cast “" or make a swipe at Megan Fox’s behind like Deering had joked on his Facebook “" but while they were in L.A. they did get a chance to talk to Christian Serratos who plays Angela in the “Twilight” films.

Deering, who is petitioning Summit to play the role of Riley in next year’s “Eclipse” said he will get a chance to meet the cast of “Twilight” (sans Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson) July 4 at a Make-A-Wish fundraiser in Portland, Oreg. and during Twi-Con in Dallas July 30 to August 4.

When the “Twilight” YouTube spoof originally debuted, Deering and the EIP gang never had any plans to get involved in the Twilight fan culture, but he said he is glad things have changed.

“I’m loving it” Deering said. “I didn’t think I was going to be a part of this Twilight universe thing, but making that spoof was one of the best ideas we had to do.”

Deering told Blast EIP will be making a 15 to 20 minute long “Twilight” scene they will debut at Twi-Con. He also said they are very strongly considering making a “New Moon” trailer spoof, but need some more scenes than the one minute trailer to make an adequately funny spoof. “We might as well” he said.

Though EIP has never worked with or been approached by MTV before, they had the opportunity to make a video before the Movie Awards that MTV put on their Movies Blog site and MTV asked them to continue sending them their videos. Deering said he will be sending MTV the “Eclipse” YouTube petition video in the hopes MTV will get behind their campaign.

Blast previously reported on the “showdown” between “Twilight” screenwriter Melissa Rosenbaum’s choice for Riley “" Channing Tatum “" and fan pick Deering. Tatum was also at the MTV Movie Awards, and Deering said he was apparently sitting about 15 feet away from him.

“I said to Bailey, “ËœHold me back, I’m going to jump him’” Deering told Blast with a laugh. “”ËœI’m going to challenge him to a dance off.’”

Deering said that originally his idea to play Riley in “Eclipse” was a just a joke.

“The fans we were talking to thought we were serious, and they started spreading the word around, and it just got bigger and bigger” he said. “Now we’re going full force and trying to get into this movie.”

EIP got to meet up with T180, a Disney-owned studio that makes a lot of spoofs and parodies, while they were in LA. Turns out not only Blast, MTV and Twi-Hards have had their eyes on Evil Iguana, but Disney has as well. The people Deering, Korbel and Latvys spoke to said they had been planning on reaching out to EIP previous to the Movie Awards experience, and talked about making some spoofs together in the future.

Deering also shed some light for us on the Bruno/Eminem fiasco at the Movie Awards. “I personally think it was scripted because I went back and I watched it to hear everything and [Eminem] was miced the whole time” Deering said. “I wouldn’t know why they would mic someone if it wasn’t. It was very chaotic in the actual awards ceremony when it happened.”

Korbel and Latvys both thought the incident was unscripted, Deering said.

Deering not-so-subtly implied in his post-Movie Awards blog for MTV that he would be interested in participating in more MTV events. With attention from big shots like MTV and Disney, it looks like Evil Iguana is ready to dominate more than just YouTube and “Twilight.”

Fans can check the guys out when they are featured at Twi-Con in Dallas July 30 through August 4. Keep an eye on Blast for up-to-date news on Evil Iguana Productions.

Even before “Twilight” was ever made into a movie, fans have predicted and speculated on who they want to see portray each role in the saga. The most recent cast suggestion — Channing Tatum as vampire Riley — came from “Twilight” and “New Moon” screenwriter, Melissa Rosenberg.

“Eclipse” the third installment of the “Twilight” saga will bring a few important new characters into the story, including the ravenous young vampire, Riley, who Melissa Rosenberg believes should be played by Channing Tatum. The 29 year old actor of “Step Up” and “Fighting” fame might have a lot to bring to the “Twilight” franchise, but Twilighters have someone else in mind.

Evil Iguana Productions’ Craig Deering has become a favorite of “Twilight” fans over the past few months after his role as James in EIP’s “Twilight” parody video, his appearance at the TwilightLive DVD release party in New York City and his upcoming appearance at TwiCon with fellow EIP member, Allen Murphy.

Twilighters are now showing their love for Deering by campaigning for him to appear in “Eclipse” as Riley. When HisGoldenEyes.com, one of the series’ most popular websites, ran a story on Tatum’s possible role in the film, the comment section was overwhelmed with votes for Deering to portray the character instead.

For example:

by amanda @ 01 May 2009 05:57 pm

by Blue @ 01 May 2009 06:04 pm

NO CHANNING! but I would see the movie five more times if Craig was cast! That would be seriously awesome and we know he actually can act… Summit should get on that pronto!

Hahaha I love Craig.

and

by ROLO @ 01 May 2009 06:05 pm

OME, Evil Iguana Productions? That would be so cool! Lol. I don’t know about Channing, I always thought of Riley as thin and lean, like a teenager for some reason. Plus, Channing reminds me of last semester’s health teacher. And that’s just … weird. Especially in that photo. Lol. =P

In that case, the buff Channing Tatum should probably step aside for the charmingly lanky Craig Deering.

Blast asked Deering himself what he has that Tatum doesn’t.

“I may not be able to swoon girls with my sweet dance moves or survive underground boxing” Deering replied, “however, I would bring a fresh approach to the character I am sure fans could appreciate.”

And the fans definitely do appreciate Deering already. Another comment on the story said “NO CHANNING! but I would see the movie five more times if Craig was cast! That would be seriously awesome and we know he actually can act… Summit should get on that pronto!”

Right now it is just another “Twilight” rumor going around, but Deering would be more than willing to make it a reality, as he said he would be “definitely all for it” given the chance to audition.

He gave Blast this heads up: “I’m actually planning a video campaign with two of my friends as a result of fans telling us we should audition, so they should keep their eyes on YouTube for that.”

And he just might be able to get Summit’s attention for that audition with enough fan support, which he has full faith in.

“The amount of dedication these fans have is amazing” Deering said, “and the amount of work they are putting into saying what they want is helping a lot.”

Has Deering got what it takes to step it up and beat out Channing Tatum for the role? Let Blast (and Summit) know what you think by leaving a comment below.

When the entirety of a film’s plot is in its title, you can generally assume it is not going to be of the highest caliber. There is a market for these films, though, as long as they meet the criteria of being “so bad they’re good.” There is a thin line between awesomely awful and just plain awful, and “Fighting” rides it for 105 minutes.

Let’s briefly outline the plot of “Fighting”: Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is a counterfeiter with a heart. While trying to sell a copy of “Harry Potter and the Hippopotamus” to a nice NYC native (Zulay Henao), he is robbed by some common crooks. Later he bumps into Harvey (Terrence Howard), the leader of the crooks, who tells Shawn that in exchange for not beating the living pulp out of him, Harvey will get him $5000 for winning in a fight. Shawn says yes. And fights. For the rest of the movie.

Before we delve into the intricacies of this lovely film, I would like to note that “Fighting” is Terrence Howard’s big screen follow-up to being kicked off the cast of “Iron Man 2.” Though IMDB.com lists him being in a film called “For All Mankind” released in March, I am excluding that due to the fact it is so popular it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry about it. The lesson to learn here? Don’t be greedy.

“Fighting” has every genre clichƒ© imaginable: the girl is more than she seems to be, main character has daddy issues, there is a twist at the end so blatant it was like the filmmakers wanted you to guess it ahead of time. And then there are the fights, both physical and verbal, that litter the entirety of the movie. The physical ones would have been cool had they been shot in a way to actually see what was going on. The verbal ones were just painful to listen to.

Hands down, the best line in film is when one of the head counterfeiters tells Channing Tatum to “step up.” For those of you that don’t get the reference, the line was a reference to Tatum’s 2006 hit “Step Up” (or its 2008 sequel “Step Up 2: The Streets.” Sorry, I can’t say that without laughing.).

The fact of the matter is, this film is bad. But is it so bad it’s good?

Any film that casts extras as “Flawless Woman #3″ “Fine Russian Girl #1″ or “Man in a Cowhide Suit” typically knows not to take itself too seriously. The boys will like the fights. The girls will like seeing Tatum with his shirt off. But if you’re really itching for some cool action and quality Tatum, wait until August 7 for “G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.”