Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

For the third time in four weeks, many people will enjoy a long weekend thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday. Since Americans are encouraged to make that day "off" a day of service, take time to enjoy activities like new plays, a dinosaur exhibit, a performance of Chinese music and dance, and a visit from one of the biggest pop stars on the planet during the rest of the weekend.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, January 11

Second Thought Theatre presents Hillary and Clinton
Hillary and Clinton is “a work of total fiction” about a woman named Hillary, a man named Bill, and the distance between who we are and who we’re meant to be. The woman who would be president finds herself questioning, for the first time, whether her dream will ever become her reality. Second Thought Theatre will present the play through February 3.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
The latest concert from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will feature pianist Behzod Abduraimov and organist Bradley Hunter Welch under the direction of Christian Mācelaru. Selections for the concert, performed through Saturday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, will include Barber’s “Toccata Festiva” and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and "Symphonic Dances."

Theatre Three presents I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
For the 18th and final time, Theatre Three will present I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which details the joys of falling in and out of love. Eighteen years ago, Theatre Three birthed this baby of a play, and now it’s all grown up and ready to move out of the house. Expect some surprises and special events as the theater says goodbye to this annual favorite, which will run through March 4.

Friday, January 12

Jurassic Quest
Jurassic Quest features over 80 ultra-realistic, life-size animatronic dinosaurs. Visitors can interact with these huge creatures, learn about them, and even ride a few. The exhibit also includes lots of fun activities for kids of all ages, including fossil digs, a “Dino Bounce” area, face painting, dino crafts, and more. The exhibit will be open at Fair Park on weekends, including MLK Day, through January 21.

Epic Waters Grand Opening
Friday is the first day the general public will be able to get into Epic Waters in Grand Prairie, billed as a “cruise ship on land.” It features three “first-in- the-industry” water slides, a climate controlled-interior, 600-foot lazy river, children’s area, 10,000-square-foot outdoor wave pool, surfing simulator, 45-game arcade, and more. The water park will open at 5 pm on Friday.

Chippendales 2018: About Last Night Tour
The Chippendales Touring Show is a worldwide whirlwind of sexy goodness featuring a variety of male dancers. Dallas is one of four Texas stops the tour is making this weekend, and each will feature not just the regular lineup of dancers, but also a special guest, model/actor Tyson Beckford. The bumping and grinding will take place at House of Blues Dallas.

Saturday, January 13

Music Hall at Fair Park presents Shen Yun
At Shen Yun, guests can visit a lost civilization. To make this journey possible, the group has pushed the boundaries of performing arts. They combine ancient legends with technological innovations, and historically authentic costumes with breathtaking animated backdrops. They let classical Chinese dance do the storytelling, and share beautifully diverse ethnic and folk traditions. They'll perform at the Music Hall at Fair Park through January 21.

Sunday, January 14

Katy Perry in concert with Carly Rae Jepsen
Between 2008 and 2013, Katy Perry was unassailable at the top of the pop charts, churning out hit after hit like "I Kissed a Girl," "Teenage Dream," "Firework," and "Dark Horse." While she hasn't exactly fallen on hard times, given that her latest album, 2017's Witness, went to No. 1, her lack of recent hits might be one reason she'll be headlining the upcoming reboot of American Idol. She'll attempt to show she's still got it with this concert at American Airlines Center. She'll be joined by Carly Rae Jepsen of "Call Me Maybe" fame.

Béla Fleck in concert with Brooklyn Ryder
The 15-time Grammy Award winner Béla Fleck has been nominated in more categories than any other artist in Grammy history, and remains a powerfully creative force globally in bluegrass, jazz, classical pop, rock, and world beat. He'll be joined by Brooklyn Ryder, which offers an eclectic repertoire of classical, world, and rock music. The concert will take place at Majestic Theatre.

Shen Yun will perform at the Music Hall at Fair Park through January 21.

Photo courtesy of Shen Yun

Shen Yun will perform at the Music Hall at Fair Park through January 21.

event-planner

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

---

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

movies film