Despite the intrusion of post-9/11 themes into the subdued suburban settings of previous Nicholas Sparks film adaptations such as “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “A Walk to Remember,” actors Channing M. Tatum and Amanda M. Seyfried said in a conference call that their upcoming film “Dear John” is still in line with the emotionally moving material at which Sparks excels.

“I really don’t want people thinking that they’re going to go in and have another depressing war movie on their hands,” says Tatum, the star of “Step-Up” and “GI Joe.” “We tried to take as much of the military out. We didn’t want to see John with a weapon on all the time and slogging through really dangerous places... We really just wanted it to be about two kids falling in love.”

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Jordan Melamed's screenplay is based on Nick McDonell's novel published when he was, as he says, "a pissed-off 17-year-old." So the point of view undoubtedly has a certain veracity, even if the story wanders into melodrama he may have picked up while watching movies -- Martin Scorsese's? -- on cable TV. You get this weird alchemy -- an authentic portrait of spoiled rich kids, lacking parental supervision yet possessing easy access to chemical mood changers, coupled with crime scenes more befitting those inner-city movies.

McDonell may well have been pissed off, but he was smart enough to write a compelling potboiler. And the filmmakers have picked up on his commercial instincts, filling the screen with beautiful -- and talented -- young men and women in designer clothes and jewels, whose characters indulge in utterly self-destructive, albeit eye-catching, behavior. Domestic box office looks likely to be above average for the film division of Hannover House, which acquired the film at Sundance.

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Despite their crazy busy schedules, Josh Duhamel and Fergie seem to be joined at the hip lately. On Tuesday, Josh was in NYC pimping When in Rome and wearing tiaras on morning shows before heading off to Sundance with the wifey in tow for The Romantics premiere that night.

Then just last night, the über-tight twosome hit the L.A. premiere of Rome here in Hollywood. Sheesh. All this quality time together, including train-holding and wedding-vow renewals, has almost made us forget about that whole little stripper scandal...

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It’s often been said that Jackie Chan movies are a lot like Fred Astaire movies, only with fighting instead of dancing. With Chan’s forays into Hollywood movies, this has been less true, especially as he’s gotten older (he’s nearly 56) and more valuable a commodity — thus making studios less likely to let him take the risks with his personal safety that he’s famous for.

Chan’s latest Hollywood movie, The Spy Next Door, opens tomorrow in the U.S. and a few other places, so we thought the time was ripe for a list of Chan’s other films that kids are likely to enjoy. The plots are thin and generally quite similar, and you’ll may want to mention to your kids (to avoid them becoming copycats) that while, yes, Chan did his own stunts, he got hurt a lot in the process.

Check out our list, and, after the jump, a trailer from The Spy Next Door.

5. Forbidden Kingdom - One of Chan’s more recent Hong Kong martial arts films, and one of the best, co-starring the great Jet Li and Chan’s first film with fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen in almost twenty years.

4. The Legend of Drunken Master - It’s rated R in the U.S., but most kids over the age of eight could probably handle it: The rating is for violence, but if you don’t want your kids to watch movies with a lot of fighting, you’re reading the wrong list. Drunken Master was an instant classic, and is considered by some to be the best Kung-Fu movie ever made.

3. Rumble in the Bronx - If you’ve ever been there, you’ll find it amazing how little the Bronx looks like the Bronx (the movie was filmed in Vancouver). But you won’t care about that any more than you’ll care about the plot, which is completely predictable. The fight scenes, and many of Chan’s stunts, will just blow you away. (This movie, too is rated R, but the level of violence isn’t high enough that most kids couldn’t handle it.)

2. Shanghai Noon - As an American-made film, this is probably more accessible to English-speaking kids than the Hong Kong-made ones, as there’s only a few subtitles and no terrible dubbing to deal with. Yes, there’s some suggestive humor, but nothing worse than is in most PG-rated movies (Shanghai Noon is rated PG-13, mostly for violence). You may have to explain to your kids why it’s funny that Chan’s character chooses the name “John Wayne,” but most of the jokes are crude and obvious — in other words, perfect for kids. The sequel, Shanghai Knights, is essentially the same.

1. Operation Condor 2: The Armour of the Gods - Ignore the name — this is actually the first Operation Condor movie, though it was imported to the U.S. after its sequel. Made over twenty years ago, this is Jackie Chan at his young best. The plot is completely irrelevant — you could fast-forward through all the non-fight scenes and lose little — but the fight scenes are just brilliant.

"Tooth Fairy," starring Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, isn't the disaster the various previews would have you believe. It's not a great kids movie by any means but it's not so bad that it's unwatchable. In fact, there's a potentially pretty dang decent kids movie lurking in there somewhere, if only the director, the usually competent Michael Lembeck (he directed the last two "The Santa Clause" movies), had understood that a goofy kids movie really can't be any longer than ninety minutes.

Anything longer than that is likely to have several instances where the movie drags on more than it should, which is exactly what happens in "Tooth Fairy." "Tooth Fairy" stars The Rock as Derek Thompson, a minor league hockey star that's famous for hitting guys on the ice so hard that they lose teeth (hence his nickname "The Tooth Fairy"). He's such a noted bad ass within minor league hockey that he has an easy chair with his name on it in the penalty box.

He also has a penchant for telling his young fans that they should never strive to be high achievers because, odds are, they'll fail (maybe Thompson's other nickname is "Mr. Sociology"). In short, he's a big meanie. Thompson doesn't try to be a big meanie with his girlfriend's children Tess (Destiny Grace Whitlock) and Randy (Chase Ellison.

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Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, India unveiled the poster and trailer of its first live action Hindi feature film - ZOKKOMON. Darsheel Safary, ZOKKOMON'S lead actor, a popular child actor in India and Satyajit Bhatkal, Director of ZOKKOMON and the National Bravery Award winners unveiled the first poster and trailer of the movie at a press event in New Delhi.

The star cast for ZOKKOMON would have Darsheel Safary in the lead along with Anupam Kher and Manjiri Phadnis. The music of the movie has been composed by the famous trio Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy with Javed Akhtar's lyrics.

The Screenplay of the movie is given by Lancy Fernandes, Svati Bhatkal, Satayjit Bhatkal and Choreography by Shiamak Davar, Raju Sundaram. The movie is scheduled for May 2010 release.

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A fine issued to Walt Disney World by a federal workplace safety agency for a serious violation that contributed to the death of a worker during a summer monorail accident has been reduced by 20 percent. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Disney World signed a settlement agreement on Friday, and the deal was made public on Tuesday.

Disney had been fined $44,000 in December for breaches contributing to the July 5 death of 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg, as well as other workplace violations. That fine has been reduced to $35,200. A Disney spokeswoman said the resort worked with OSHA to address any concerns but declined to comment further.  Under the agreement, Disney says it will correct all four safety violations cited by OSHA. 

The movie was lively, colorful and kid-friendly, recalls Hartsell, a preschool teacher. Her youngest daughter, now in kindergarten, still enjoys the "Madagascar" DVD as her "first movie ever." But the next two movies were mistakes, she says. A documentary about penguins with little color - lots of gray skies, white snow was dull. And the movie "Where the Wild Things Are," one of her daughter's favorite books, turned out to be frightening to both mother and daughter.

"Two scary scenes seemed to have ruined moviegoing for her," Hartsell says. "Now she won't even consider seeing 'Princess and the Frog' or 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.'" The mother hopes to try again in the summer with short, kid-geared matinees where the sound is lower and the lights are up a tad.

Be understanding - and be prepared to exit - if a movie is overwhelming for your child, moviegoing moms suggest. It's not unusual for little ones to be sensitive to the surround-sound in theaters, or to flip when their favorite book or TV character suddenly appears to bust out of a screen.

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With so many animation studios attempting to replicate the winning formula of Pixar it's often a surprise when one of them turns out a feature that's appealing to adults as well as children. A film about food, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is one of those rare animated films that tastes good going down, leaving little side effects because it was mixed with all the right ingredients.

Like the folks at Pixar, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller appear to be fans of good animation and great movies in general, employing a variety of familiar film techniques and homages that work. Though their film enjoyed success theatrically as a 3D release, seeing it in good ole two dimensions is still an enjoyable experience because of its simple story with sweet and intriguing characters that inhabit it.

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The Spy Next Door I was surprised to see The Spy Next Door open with clips of other Jackie Chan movies. I guess it’s an easy way to establish the character’s backstory as a man of action.

He’s already provided the best stock footage around. They’ve got Rush Hour, Operation Condor, The Tuxedo and a few others in there. I guess New Line, Disney and Dreamworks were happy for a little extra residuals on their investments.

It kind of fits because this movie is Jackie Chan highlights for kids. They’ll see his standards, climbing walls, flipping over barriers, fighting with various props.

They even hearken to a few Police Story and First Strike classics. Some original bits are just adorable, like a little girl on Jackie’s leg.

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