It's my birthday, part 2

I finally got to celebrate my birthday the way I had originally wanted to -- by going to the movies at Cinepolis. Now, a lot of you might think that having dinner and drinks with your s.o. and without your small child would trump a family movie day, but not so in my book. I haven't gone to the movies since son was born, almost four years ago now. In fact, the last movie we went to see was also at the Cinepolis VIP for a Christmas shindig put on by the Mucho Gusto/Pets y Mas magazine people; it was The Last Samurai, which I really had no interest in seeing, though it was nice to get out because I was just barely pregnant and knew we wouldn't be doing this again for a long time (and I was right).

Anyway, we went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was really good! If you like the original Indiana Jones movies, which I do. This was heavy on the alien stuff, and that was ... interesting, to say the least. Best part is having a waitress bring you popcorn and beer and sushi and a glass of wine to your big, cushy seats that recline and even have footrests. I was worried that they might not let son in because it's rated PG-13 (or "B" here), and he is, uh, um, well... three.... but I guess as long as the parents don't mind, kids can go. He's seen the original Indiana Jones movies and loves Star Wars in all its many incarnations, so I thought he would be fine with it. I also wanted to go during the day on a weekday, so that there would be fewer people to bother should he get bored and start acting up, but we had the "it's a movie so that means you have to be quiet and talk in only whispers" discussion, and honestly, he was better behaved than some of the adults in the audience (who "forgot" to turn off their cell phones and had the nerve to actually answer them during the movie! sheesh...). He loved the movie, too, but we did promise to take him to Kung Fu Panda next time. Even if it's only overdubbed in Spanish.

So if you haven't gone to Cinepolis, I'd like to plug the VIP theater. Tickets, I forgot to mention, were 4300, or about $8.50, which is the price of a regular movie in the U.S. without the cushy seats and waitstaff. I guess in some places it's even more. And you don't pay $10 for a bucket of corn here, either. Well worth it if you ask me! Right now Cinepolis is the nicest theater in the country, located east of San Jose at Terramall (just follow the highway to Cartago and you'll see the signs).

One nice thing I've noticed here lately is that movies open on pretty much the same schedule as they do in the U.S. At least the major releases. So you don't have to wait months and months to see movies that are already in video in the States. I guess that's because if the theaters didn't do it that way, we'd already have the DVDs by the time the movies were showing.