I'll keep this one short and sweet (though the movie, clocking in with a 135-minute running time, is anything but short): I give the SATC movie two very enthusiastic thumbs up, four stars, an A … whatever grading system you want to use, it was worth the wait.

 

Confession: Going in, my enthusiasm for the movie had taken a hit, thanks to months and months of rumors about the movie's storyline. Didn't it almost feel like, between trailers, clips, rumors, scores of magazine and TV interviews and rampant spoilers everywhere, that you'd almost heard and seen everything there was to hear and see about the movie?

Po (Jack Black) is the laziest panda around, save for his enthusiasm for all things kung fu. That may finally come in handy for him when an evil snow leopard named Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes from prison, and a prophecy suggests only Po can save his village from the leopard baddie. Po's going to need lots of help though, in the form of training by Shifu the red panda (Dustin Hoffman), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross) and Mantis (Seth Rogen).

In this exclusive clip, we see Angelina Jolie kick Ian McShane's butt. Okay, not literally, but we do see the tiger that she voices fight the evil snow leopard that McShane voices. Who will win? Watch and find out:

















Kung Fu Panda hits theaters on June 6. Will you buy the tickets to watch Jack Black and Angelina Jolie try to save the world?

All of a sudden, the late singing and acting legend is everywhere: Starring on his own new 42-cent U.S. stamp, and popping up as the subject of a rumored Martin Scorsese-directed biopic.

 

The flurry of activity coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Oscar and Golden Globe winner's death, which Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has marked in a big way with five Sinatra DVD box sets, featuring 22 flicks, 11 of which are hitting DVD for the first time. Among the goodies:

Greatest. Sequel. Ever? Uh, no. Best Indy flick? No. Best action/adventure movie in recent memory? Still no. Best Harrison Ford movie since Air Force One? Okay, I'll give you that one.

 

Unfortunately, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn't live up to any expectations I had going into Sunday's media screenings (save that one about it being the best Ford movie since Air Force One, though that line-up includes duds like Firewall and Hollywood Homicide, so …).

 

Admission: I didn't grow up loving the Indy flicks, but I was excited to see the new movie, based on the cast, Steven Spielberg directing and the assumption that the Ford/Spielberg/producer George Lucas trio wouldn't keep fans waiting nearly 20 years for another Indy adventure and then deliver, well, this.

 

Here's a movie for the top of your Netflix queue: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , artist/director Julian Schnabel's touching biopic of former French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Bauby, at age 43 and with a wife, three kids and a mistress, as well as his work, occupying his life, suffered a massive stroke that left him with a very rare condition known as Locked-In Syndrome. Essentially, his mind was perfectly intact, but the only part of his body he could move was his left eye, which he could blink.

Bauby had signed a deal to write a book before his accident, and after concocting a genius, yet tedious way to communicate with his speech therapist, he decided to write a book about his life trapped in the prison of his mind. Via a painstaking system that required an assistant to go through a list of letters while Bauby blinked when he wanted to choose one, Bauby completed the book, which took approximately 200,000 blinks of his eye (and nearly two minutes for him to get out each word).

Wanna refresh your memory about all things Carrie & co. before the much (much, much)-anticipated Sex and the City big-screen movie? We're already planning our own little marathon (with pretty pink libations, of course) thanks to HBO's Sex and the City: The Complete Series DVD box set.

All 94 episodes of the series are contained in this delicious box—a rose-colored velvet photo album package—which also contains a full disc of bonus features worthy of the most devoted SATC fan. Like...

• The "En-Sex-Lopedia," a guide to all things SATC
• "Location, Location, Location!" a guide to all the real-life New York City hotspots that popped up in the SATC reel life
• "Sex Essentials," a video jukebox of SATC quips on love, life, sex and, of course, fashion
• "You Can Quote Me on It," an SATC quote game
• "The Guest List," a trip down memory lane with the series' many famous faces guest stars
• Three alternate endings to the series finale
• Bloopers and outtakes from all six seasons of the show
• "Behind the Seams," a feature on costume designer Patricia Field
• Deleted scenes and audio commentaries by producer Michael Patrick King for 18 episodes; and
• An interactive Sex and the City trivia game

And another reason now is the perfect time to snag one of the DVD sets for your very own self: Movie Cash! Each set marked with a special Movie Cash sticker includes a voucher for $10.50 worth of said Movie Cash, which can be redeemed in select theaters for a ticket to the SATC movie! Yes, even in swanky Manhattan, that should be enough to cover the cost of one movie admission...

P.S. In other SATC movie news, the whole cast, including Mr. Big himself, Chris Noth, are gathering on Oprah today to discuss the movie. Will they shed more light on all the rumors swirling around the movie's plot? Here's hoping.

By the way, which of the following SATC movie rumors do you believe:

• Mr. Big leaves Carrie at the altar?
• Charlotte dies?!?
• Samantha dies?!?
• Mr. Big dies?!?!?!?
• None of the above?