Weekend Event Planner

A Christmas Story and Usher top best weekend events in Dallas

As will be the case throughout pretty much all of December, holiday-themed events once again dominate the entertainment landscape around Dallas-Fort Worth. But there are a couple of non-holiday happenings going on, including the return of a hip hop master and special screenings of one of the best trilogies of all time

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, December 4

Dallas Summer Musicals presents A Christmas Story, The Musical
A Christmas Story, which tanked in its initial movie release, is an unlikely success story. But home video and years of airing on TBS have made it a holiday classic, and now fans have a new way to enjoy the story through this stage musical. You can see Ralphie pine for a BB gun and almost shoot his eye out through song at Music Hall at Fair Park until December 14.

Usher in concert with August Alsina
Despite the presence of many high-powered competitors, Usher has remained at or near the top of the hip hop/R&B charts for going on 20 years. The Dallas-born singer is on the verge of releasing his eighth album, UR, in 2015, so attendees of this concert at American Airlines Center can expect a good mixture of the new and the old. Usher is joined by opening act August Alsina.

Friday, December 5

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is another story that has become a holiday classic thanks to repeated showings of the Rankin/Bass TV special. This stage musical attempts to replicate the charm of the original, using puppets and some of the same songs to give a nostalgic feel to things. It plays at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth through Sunday before moving to the Majestic Theatre in Dallas next week.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents DSO Pops Christmas
It's one thing to sing along to your favorite Christmas songs on the radio and quite another to do so when backed up by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and a choir. That is the case for the next three weekends at Meyerson Symphony Center when the DSO Pops plays a variety of holiday favorites and Christmas classics. The show runs through December 21.

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is one of those holiday shows that will never go out of style, as it has almost the perfect appeal to both children and adults. Texas Ballet Theater present its annual rendition, taking the audience through the enchanted Land of Sweets with Clara and her Nutcracker Prince. It plays at Winspear Opera House through Sunday before moving to Bass Performance Hall next week.

Saturday, December 6

2014 Dallas Children's Health Holiday Parade
It's a been a long wait for the return of this annual holiday parade, as last year's edition was canceled due to a freak ice storm. There's zero chance of that happening this year, so guests can line Commerce Street and other roads in downtown Dallas to enjoy the plethora of floats, balloons, marching bands and more for the trek that culminates at Dallas City Hall.

Alamo Drafthouse presents Back to the Future Trilogy Feast
James Wallace, the head local programmer for Alamo Drafthouse, is a self-professed Back to the Future fanatic, so you know that this event showing the BTTF films back-to-back-to-back is worth the price of admission. Each movie has a full themed menu to make the experience even more fun. Great Scott, indeed.

Celebrate the Holidays at Klyde Warren Park / Reliant Lights Your Holidays
These two events in the Dallas Arts District are technically separate, but they are tied together in a unique way. The goings-on at Klyde Warren Park feature a variety of holiday activities, including music, live reindeer, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and a tree lighting. But right after they light the tree, Santa and Mrs. Claus lead visitors over to Sammons Park for Reliants Lights Your Holidays, which has performances by Jack Ingram and Los Lobos, fireworks, a snow hill and more.

Sunday, December 7

CultureMap Holiday Pop Up Shop
Only the ultra-prepared have already finished their holiday shopping, so we're presenting a chance to peruse the offerings of a slew of local retailers all in one convenient spot. Among the stores showcasing their wares at Sixty Five Hundred are Dirt, Gypsy Wagon, Life of Riley, Mizzen + Main, Scardello Artisan Cheese and Trousseau of Dallas.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents A Christmas Story, The Musical at Music Hall at Fair Park through December 14.

Photo courtesy of A Christmas Story national tour

Dallas Summer Musicals presents A Christmas Story, The Musical at Music Hall at Fair Park through December 14.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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