Weekend Event Planner

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

It'll be another eclectic weekend in Dallas, with fun events taking place all across the entertainment spectrum. They include concerts from two well-known singers, a big fashion exhibit, the return of a big-time comedian, the unofficial start to baseball season, and movies for the whole family.

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, January 21

Kacey Musgraves in concert
Country singer Kacey Musgraves has done nothing but succeed after finally securing a major record label deal following years in the independent music wilderness. Both of her first two major-label albums — 2013's Same Trailer Different Park and 2015's Pageant Material — hit No. 1 on the Billboard country charts. She'll play at the Majestic Theatre.

Colin Hay in concert with Heather Maloney
Songwriter and vocalist Colin Hay, familiar to millions as front-man for Men at Work, comes to Dallas in support of a new solo album entitled Next Year People. Hay has enjoyed a career rebirth in the 21st century thanks in part to actor/director Zach Braff using his songs on Scrubs and in his movies. Hay will be joined at The Kessler by special guest Heather Maloney.

Friday, January 22

Budweiser Clydesdales in Dallas
Everybody knows what Clydesdale horses look like, as they've been Budweiser's mascots since the early 1930s, but chances are you've rarely had the chance to see them in person. With Anheuser-Busch's annual convention in town, the horses will make multiple stops around Dallas, including Friday and Sunday at American Airlines Center.

Galleria Dallas presents Decadence: Fashions from the 1920s
Fans of Downton Abbey will be especially interested in this fashion exhibit at Galleria Dallas, which celebrates the beauty and elegance of the 1920s in a special display. The exhibit will showcase the allure of the 1920s in fashion and accessories, and is timely given the resurgence of 1920s-inspired silhouettes on the runways of designers such as Gucci, Marchesa, and Prada. The exhibit will be on display through February 28.

Patton Oswalt in concert
Like many successful comedians, Patton Oswalt has become much more well known for his acting ability in shows like Justified, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Veep than he ever was with his first love, stand-up comedy. But anybody who's seen his act knows he's still one of the funniest comics out there, as he'll prove with this show at the Majestic Theatre, which is a make-up date for one he had to postpone in September 2015.

TITAS presents BodyTraffic
TITAS presents the Dallas debut of Los Angeles contemporary dance company BodyTraffic. Named one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, BodyTraffic has in just three short years skyrocketed to international acclaim. With a diverse repertoire of some of the world’s most sought-after choreographers, their debut performance at Winspear Opera House is sure to be unforgettable.

Saturday, January 23

2016 Texas Rangers Fan Fest
Now that we've all had a few months to recover from the Texas Rangers' loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2015 playoffs, it's time to start getting excited about the 2016 season. The Rangers' annual Fan Fest will be held at Globe Life Park in Arlington, featuring autograph sessions with current Texas Rangers players and coaches; on-field events; tours; pitching, hitting, and fielding clinics; and more.

Bowlmor Dallas Grand Re-opening
Bowlmor Dallas will celebrate its grand re-opening, which will include a special appearance by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, along with complimentary bowling, giveaways, and more. The newly redesigned venue features brand-new amusements, amenities, enhanced VIP areas, and state-of-the-art sound and video systems.

2016 KidFilm Festival
The annual KidFilm Festival, presented by the USA Film Festival at Angelika Film Center in Dallas, is a completely free event that features movie screenings and appearances by celebrity singers and authors. Among the activities at the two-day fest will be a sing-along with Lisa Loeb, a read-along with Taye Diggs and Shane Evans, and a preview screening of Kung Fu Panda 3.

Kacey Musgraves will play at the Majestic Theatre on January 21.

Kacey Musgraves/Facebook

Kacey Musgraves will play at the Majestic Theatre on January 21.

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Movie Review

Death stalks a new generation in gory Final Destination: Bloodlines

Photo by Eric Milner

Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines.

On the surface, the Final Destination films really shouldn’t work. There is no villain other than the concept of death itself, and nearly every death that occurs is foreshadowed so heavily that it removes the normal suspense that comes in horror films. And yet the franchise was successful enough to spawn five films over 11 years in the early 2000s, and now a reboot, Final Destination: Bloodlines.

A fantastic opening sequence set in the 1960s sets both the tone and the plot of the film, in which Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has a recurring nightmare about a disaster that her grandmother, Iris (Gabrielle Rose), helped to avert. A visit to the reclusive Iris convinces Stefani that she and her family should not exist, and that each one of them is destined to meet a grisly end in the near future.

Met with resistance from her family members, Kaitlyn is unsurprisingly proven right as the film goes along, with different people dying in a variety of bizarre ways. A visit to William Bludworth (the late Tony Todd), a mortician who’s been the one constant in the series, provides a glimmer of hope that they can cheat death. But will they figure it out before it’s too late?

Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, the film does not try to reinvent the wheel for the concept. The entire point is to get as creative as possible with the death scenes, and the filmmakers take that mandate seriously, with each successive death becoming increasingly gruesome. The Rube Goldberg-like manner in which each death occurs makes the scenes come off as entertaining instead of off-putting.

The idea of Death hunting down an entire family line due to the actions of the family elder is a solid twist on the series’ central premise, and that change keeps the film from feeling repetitive. The story also introduces the possibility that the entire series is connected due to Iris’ actions, with the character possessing a scrapbook that references well-known incidents from previous films, a fun Easter egg for longtime fans.

The creativity of the kill sequences does not carry over to the overall story, though. Almost every character in the film only exists in order to meet a horrific end, so anything that they have going on outside of being stalked by Death is purely window dressing. Consequently, it’s hard to really care about anybody, even if they are all related to one another.

Because characters are so easily dispatched in the film, the cast is devoid of well-known actors. This is by far Santa Juana’s biggest role to date, and she does well enough to want to see more of her in the future. Adults like Alex Zahara and Rya Kihlstedt are character actors who bring some history with them, while the younger group is composed of people still trying to make names for themselves.

Final Destination: Bloodlines is a solid return for the franchise, even if it feels more like a one-off film rather than a justification for more stories in the future. But given how easily the concept can be adapted into new circumstances, don’t be surprised if another movie pops up in a couple of years.

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Final Destination: Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16.

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