Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my picks below, you can also add Priceless starring Audrey Tautou and Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson to your queue.

Wall-E
Squee! Pixar's Wall-E is out on DVD! The more I think about this movie, the more I'm impressed with what the creators managed to pull off. First of all, they managed to make a desolate, post-apocalyptic Earth seem like the ideal setting for a love story that will give anyone with a pulse the warm fuzzies. They also managed to give a robot that can't really speak the most adorable, expressive puppy-dog eyes this world has ever known. It's quite the feat, and if you weren't able to catch this gem in the theater, you might want to bring it home ASAP.

Even if you did see this on the big screen, the DVD has plenty of special features that have me pretty excited as well. They include: several all-new animated shorts, deleted scenes, a ride through space with Wall-E, and a feature on the history of Pixar.

Two more coming up, so read more

Interestingly, neither a BFF movie nor a stoner action-comedy could dethrone The Dark Knight in its fourth weekend. Having already surpassed the $400 million mark in domestic ticket sales, the superhero movie pulled in another $26 million over the weekend.

According to Variety, the movie has now taken the place of Shrek 2 to "become the third highest domestic grosser of all time with a cume of $441.5 million. It’s expected to beat Star Wars in the next week before finally settling at No. 2."

Pineapple Express came in second place with $22.4 million (however, it has earned a total of $40.4 million since it opened last Wednesday), followed by The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in third, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in fourth, and Step Brothers in fifth place.

What do you think? Will The Dark Knight score five weeks in a row at No. 1?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

In Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (yes, I saw it and am not afraid to admit it), America Ferrera's character Carmen, long the thread (pun intended) that held the four friends together, becomes exasperated over her foursome's inability to communicate over distances. When they cite email as being the way they connect, and don't connect — Blake Lively's character Serena — er, Bridget — says, "It's not my fault I have a lame server!" (Oh you went there, Bridget, really?!).

Carmen retorts, "Email, you guys? Really? That's lame," and as the characters hung their heads guiltily, I did too. To see why I think email hurts friendships, just read more

At one point in the second installment of the stories surrounding girls who have pants and will travel, an exasperated Carmen (America Ferrera) says something like, "Can we just please focus on the pants?!" And yet, that's the thing I find most refreshing about this sequel: there's not really a focus on the pants. The fact that Carmen has to remind her friends to think about the pants is a good sign in this case; the focus should be on these girls and their friendships, not two tubes of faded, magic denim. And as the girls have grown older and more mature, in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 they're centering on the important stuff: their relationships, their goals, finding themselves and supporting each other.

Like the first movie, this one consists of four separate storylines that occasionally intersect. When we are reintroduced to the four friends, they're all in college: Tibby's (Amber Tamblyn) making movies at NYU, Carmen is at Yale and does backstage work at Yale's School of Drama, and Lena (Alexis Bledel) is painting (and cavorting with the insanely hot model Leo, played by Jesse Williams) at Rhode Island School of Design. Bridget (Blake Lively) doesn't yet know her major, but she decides to try her hand at archeology for the time being. After spending the year at their respective schools, Carmen, in particular, is anxious to have some good sisterhood time together over the Summer — only to find out the other three won't be in town at all. So, Carmen decides to do her own thing and goes to work backstage at a theater in Vermont.

For more of my take on the movie, read more

Tuesdays are big in entertainment-ville: Not only do all the new DVD releases hit Netflix, but new music also pours into stores, including iTunes. So I take a spin through each week's iTunes music releases and pick out some albums and tracks worthy of a download. Here are today's selections:

When geeks are right: I chose that intro phrase because that's what one of the coolest songs from The Faint's new album, Fasciinatiion, is all about. If you've never listened to this new-wave band before, this album might be a strange introduction (I'd recommend checking out their earlier album Blank-Wave Arcade instead). That said, I'm really fascinated (get it?!) by this new album and have already added the first track, "Get Seduced," to my iPod.

The music of the pants: If you're like me, you might want to add the soundtrack of the new Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie to the soundtrack of your life. I've seen the movie and enjoyed it (more on that later) and am having a good time reliving some of the scenes via these tracks, which include a pretty Aqualung song, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, a fun head-banger from the Noisettes and a totally romantic ballad from Mutemath.

One more new release to check out so read more

The other day I found myself saying, "You know where I really want to visit? Greece." Why? Because of that lovable hot mess Mamma Mia! and the upcoming Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Both are set (or, partially set, in Pants's case) on beautiful Greek islands with many sumptuous shots of white sands and sparkling azure oceans. It's like the ultimate product placement: I want to go where that movie is. Now.

Now Baz Luhrmann is fully embracing this idea of movie-as-travel-ad, and will help create a tourism ad campaign to go along with the release of his film Australia.

I've already shared a few movies that have inspired me to travel, so now it's your turn. Which movies have made you antsy to get out and see the world?

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Last night at the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 premiere, actress Amber Tamblyn looked sweetly fresh-faced. The makeup simply accentuates her beautiful skin and soft, smiling eyes — exactly what "natural-looking makeup" is supposed to do.

To find out which products Chanel makeup artist Kara Yoshimoto Bua used to create this look, read more

All four starlets of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 looked fabulous at the premiere last night. But America always shines on the red carpet and that she did in her electric blue Brian Reyes dress. Gossip Girl Leighton Meester was also wearing Brian Reyes — a black-slip corset dress. FYI: Blake's orange maxi was Gucci and Alexis's ruched one shoulder dress was Mischen. But back to America. The blue is just Fab, the black-banded belt flattered her figure and her dazzling accessories were perfection. God bless America.

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It's been a long few years since their first movie together for the girls of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Blake Lively, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, and Alexis Bledel all came together for their big red carpet premiere last night looking gorgeous in dresses. Beautiful in orange Blake was joined by most of her Gossip Girl costars like Leighton, Chace, and Ed, but noticeably absent from the red carpet was her boyfriend Penn Badgley. As for the stars of the movie, America stood out in her daring blue dress and Alexis in sexy black while only Amber actually went for pants at all. These girls have all come a long way since the first Traveling Pants hit the big screen and if anything, that only means bigger and better things for the sequel. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see another fun-filled flick from these four fabulous ladies.

To see more from the premiere including Ali Lohan, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, and others, just read more