Macbook advice re: Final Cut & Canon EOS 5DII

Hello everyone.
I intend to purchase my first Apple Mac soon. It will probably be the Aluminium Macbook with 4GB RAM.
I am an avid photographer and use the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I can handle all the processing of the still photographs without a problem but I would like to take advantage of the cameras HD video capability. I know nothing about video editing but I have read that Final Cut is about the best video editor out there. My PC struggles to even play the movies from my camera, let alone edit them.
I have the following questions that I hope some of you can answer:
1. Will the standard Macbook with 4GB RAM be able to handle and edit the large video files (1.2GB for a 5 minute video clip)? I would prefer not to buy the Macbook Pro if possible. The comouter will only be used for video editing occasionally. I will not be making 90 minute Hollywood style productions... just 5 minute short films.
2. Does the cheapest version of Final Cut (Final Cut Express) handle files from the Canon 5D2?
3. I know the video from the Canon 5D2 is generally disliked because it is 30fps and is in a strange format. However, I am not able to change this and I will not be buying a dedicated video camera as I rarely shoot video. So, I need to know if the Macbook and Final Cut Express can do the business with these files.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

See my reply in the FCE forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9453294#9453294

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