This weekend is pretty much the same as any other weekend. I get to get up late, not having to go to work over the weekend, read a book accompanied by a cup of "home brewed" instant coffee and do the occasional DVD marathon once I get home from hanging out with friends and family.
And living in Jakarta has its limitations for activities that we can do over the weekend. Most of Jakartans hang out in the malls during the weekend, as we don't have parks and other outdoor activities that we can enjoy, especially not in this hot and humid and polluted air of Jakarta.
But lately we are faced with an even more limited activities to do over the weekend: going to the movies. Jakartans, or Indonesians for that matter, can no longer enjoy watching those Hollywood box office movies that everybody else around the world can enjoy at the movies. This is because THERE IS NONE of these 2011 box office movies released at the Indonesia theatre up to this day. How sad. Normally at this time of year, I usually get quite excited to go to the movies, because May usually marks the start of releases of summer blockbuster movies from Hollywood. I was looking forward to watching Box Office movies such as Transformers, Thor and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II... But I can no longer do that.
And as a result, this makes the mall a lot less crowded at Friday and Saturday night in Jakarta, because we have nothing to do after dinner. This is what I experience yesterday. We did visit the movies but we went out the door in just 3 minutes... There's just nothing worth seeing.
Luckily we can still get those box office movies on DVD, although at a much later date, usually 3 - 6 months after the movie was first released. But, for the sake of the continuity of the cinema business in Indonesia, I do hope that this matter will be resolved soon. We seriously do not want to watch the Indonesian local movies, because it's just not worth paying money to watch them.