I had a simply wonderful birthday weekend!  It started with a lazy Saturday morning at home followed by a trip to San Diego to see Mom.  We had a delicious pot-roast sandwich lunch and decided on a movie for the afternoon's activity...thus embarking on the theme for the birthday weekend.

Dan was a bit nervous when we entered the theater for what I'd advertised as a "romantic-comedy"--The Jane Austen Book Club (or, as our ticket stubs read: Jane A Boo).  The reason for his nervousness?  A movie theater chock-full of women.  By his last head count, there were only four men attending the movie and all with their wives.  Still, in the end, he gave it a C plus in recognition of appealing characters and good lines.

I thought the movie was entertaining, engaging and well-acted by an extraordinary ensemble cast.  The plot was a bit of a contrivance, but that befits a movie about people engaged in reading "all Jane, all the time."  The film was fun for Austen insiders but accessible to folks who, like me, have a passing acquaintance with Austen's books.

After breakfast with Mom's coffee group and 2nd breakfast at The Crest Cafe with just Mom, we headed up to play golf at Arrowood Golf Course in the Oceanside area.  It was a long round, but we had an enjoyable time and were paired with a very nice couple.

Since Dan had yesterday off, the movie fest continued after our golf hiatus, with the viewing of two very different films.  First was Eastern Promises, a serious and brutal look at inner workings of the Russian mafia in London.  The website calls it a "thriller" but for me it was more meditative than thrilling and thoroughly engaging throughout.  Viggo Mortensen was spot on in his role as was Ozzie Actress Naomi Watts--but it was Armin Mueller-Stahl's portrayal of Semyon as a charming, completely amoral "King" that made the film.

Since I have fairly eclectic tastes in movie genre, our next viewing was quite different fare, the zombie/sci-fi/game-based film Resident Evil-Extinction.  Dan was very sweet to go with me to this film as he is not a zombie movie fan like I am.  As zombie flicks go, this one was pretty good up until about the last 15 minutes of the film when the plot took a sharp left turn, completely losing any semblance of creditbility (which was thin to begin with).  Still it was worth seeing if you like zombies...even zombie-philes can wait for DVD though...and then it will be a rental.

Eastern Promises, on the other hand, will likely find a home in our DVD collection and not just because Viggo Mortensen has a naked knife fight.  As for Jane-A-Boo?  Well, Mom said she's going to buy it for her collection, so I'll watch it again in a girls' movie fest at a future date.

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