the movies

#7: There is exactly one movie theater in the entire country of Belize (in Belize City), and due to tax issues, they don't sell normal dvds in the stores. So how do Belizeans keep up with the entertainment industry? They bootleg. Everything. I have yet to find a movie on sale that is not a pirated version of the film, and movies cost an average of around $1.50 to $2 each. It sounds like the deal of a lifetime, but this is a classic instance of getting what you pay for. Because the films are videotaped in the theater, the quality of sound and color is usually a little sketchy, and you generally hear background sounds such as coughing or laughing every once in awhile. Copies of a film appear on store shelves about a week after it is released in theaters, but the longer you wait to purchase a movie, the better quality you typically find. Sometimes you luck out and find excellent quality, and sometimes you make a bad purchase that cuts off the end of the movie 5 minutes before the final climactic scene (I was furious). It's a toss up, but for $2 a movie, there's not a lot of room for complaints.