I think both of these movies portray a great story about friendship and family values. Both of these movies, as well as the books, do a great job giving us an insight of the issues many young women face on a daily basis. I would recommend showing this movie to any young person, both young men and young women.

The third season of "Gilmore Girls" offers a lot of ups and down for Lorelai and Rory, not to mention pretty much everybody else at Stars Hollow or Chilton. I was prepared to declare that this was my least favorite season of the series because I did not like Jess and I though Rory's choice to ditch Dean for Jess was the lost of the innocence that made the character so endearing in the first place. Then I took into account that "Gilmore Girls" airs on the WB and from Felicity choosing Ben over Noel and Joey picking Pacey over Dawson I have been nothing but disappointed with the romantic choices of their ingénues. Buffy chose Angel and then she ended up killing him. If Lorelai and Luke do not end up happily ever after I might be compelled to give up on the show (consider this fair warning, WB), but if Rory could dump Dean I knew Jess could never go the distance and I could take heart in that fact.

What defines this third season for Lorelai and Rory are not the men (or boys) in their lives but rather their goals of realizing their dreams. For Lorelai this means opening up her own inn with Sookie. That dream gets put on the front burner when a fire damages the Independence Inn ("A Tale of Poes and Fire"), but buying the Dragonfly Inn (the house from "The Waltons" if you know your television history) proves to be a problem ("Say Goodnight, Gracie"). When Lorelai insists on spending the money she got from her father on her daughter's education at Yale it is Rory who has to cut her own deal with Richard and Emily so that her mother can get her dream too ("Those Are Strings, Pinocchio"). It is supposedly a "win-win-win" situation, but that remains to be seen.

Of course, Rory getting into the college of her dreams is the real defining element of the season. I came to the show late (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) so I knew that Rory was at Yale and wondered what on earth had happened to keep her from going to Harvard. Well, in Season 3 we find out. The dream starts to turn into a nightmare when Rory's application for Harvard has to be put together ("Application Anxiety"). When Paris did not get into Harvard ("The Big One"), I was terrified the same fate awaited Rory. But when Richard manipulates Rory into an interview at Yale ("Let the Games Begin") my biggest surprise was that Lorelai was actually wrong in an argument with her father (the end of the episode indicates she knows that too). This one has two of Rory's best moments in this season are when she tells Richard he did the right thing the wrong way in this episode and when she apologizes to Dean and I could feel she was still a good kid at heart. I also like it in the season finale when she tells Emily she is being stupid in shutting out Lorelai and if I could use my one free spin in this life to get Rory to say something it would be to tell Emily, "Grandma, I love you, but no matter what you do I will never love you more than I love my mother."

The best part of Rory and Jess was Lorelai giving Luke lessons on what it means to be a parent of a teenager in love. Other big moments are the dance marathon ("They Shoot Gilmores Don't They?"), the poignant flashback's to the pregnant young Lorelai ("Dear Emily and Richard"), and Emily standing up to Trix ("That'll Do, Pig"). For me the funniest moment of the entire season is in "I Solemnly Swear" when Emily reads the transcript of Lorelai's deposition. I almost busted a gut on that one. Yes, I cried when Rory talked about her mom in her graduation speech, but the sweetest moment of the season was when they came up with the great payoff for the running gag about the t-shirts Kirk was selling at the end of "A Tale of Poes and Fire" (Admit it: You wish you have a "Rory's Going to Yale" t-shirt). Now we can send Rory off to college in Season 4 so that Luke and Lorelai can finally get on the same page and kiss already.

The DVD offers up extra scenes, which is certainly ample justification for fans of the show to check it out in this format. Besides, if you have waiting to see baby pictures of Lauren Graham or Alexis Bledel, Liz Torres and Kelly Bishop in their dancing days, or having a burning desire to see Sean Gunn do the robot again, then the featurettes on the childhood stories from the cast and their best 1980s dance moves are going to allow you to move on to having other images on your visual wish list.

This is a truly amazing film brought to life by four truly amazing girls-- Alexis Bledel as shy Lena, Amber Tamblyn as rebel Tibby, Blake Lively as fun-loving Bridget, and America Ferrera as writer Carmen. Each girl has a different story to deliver from different parts of the world. Lena's in Greece with her grandparents, Tibby's at home working a dull job at Wallman's, Bridget is at soccer camp in Mexico, and Carmen is visiting her father in South Carolina.

Together, they form the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants after discovering that a hot pair of Levi's fits each of their different body types perfectly. They decide that the best thing to do is to share the jeans since they'll be spending the summer apart, wearing them for one week and then mailing them to the next person. Lena gets them first, almost drowning the first day she wears them, only to be rescued by a cute Greek boy, who will no doubt get her out of her shell. Tibby gets them next, who is staying home to work to get money for more camera equipment to make her "suckumentary." She meets a vivacious 12 year old named Bailey, a girl who loves life as opposed to Tibby's "life sucks" attitude. Carmen then gets the jeans-- she learns that her father (who left her when she was young) is remarrying a woman with two children. She feels like an outcast in a see of blonde Brady Bunchers. Then the jeans head to Bridget. She's still coping with her mother's suicide, and flirts with the off limits soccer coach because it gives her something to do other than be sad.

So the jeans travel between each girl throughout the movie, each time getting a new story and opening up new chapters in these girls' lives. This is a wonderful movie. Very well played out and extremely well written, surprisingly so for a film about girl power... it stacks up much better than films like Sleepover or New York Minute, which absolutely stink compared to this rare summer jewel. RECOMMENDED!!