Weekend Event Planner

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

If you love history, this is a good weekend to experience it in Dallas, as several events have it at the forefront. Among the offerings are two shows from a big Dallas band from the '90s, stand-up from two comics who've been around a long time, a festival featuring vintage airplanes, a tour of classic Dallas homes, and more.

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, May 11

Tripping Daisy in concert with Pearl Earl
Tripping Daisy was one of the biggest Dallas bands of the 1990s, dominating locally before scoring some national fame thanks to their hit "I Got a Girl." They're reuniting for the first time in 17 years at Saturday's Homegrown Music & Arts Festival, and they'll warm up for their headlining gig with this special VIP concert at Club Dada. They are joined by opening act Pearl Earl.

Friday, May 12

Improv Addison presents Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold has been a TV and movie actor for so long that it's easy to forget that he started out like many comedians — on the stand-up circuit. He returns to his roots to poke fun at his Midwest past and marital follies, and share absurd Hollywood stories. Arnold is a ball of chaos and charisma on stage, which he shows off at Improv Addison in five sets through Sunday.

Joe Rogan in concert
A stand-up comedian for more than 20 years, Joe Rogan has a unique and intense comedic style. He's also a versatile entertainer, having appeared as an actor in a variety of TV shows and movies, hosting Fear Factor, serving as color commentator for UFC fights, and hosting The Joe Rogan Experience, a popular comedy podcast. He performs at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Saturday, May 13

Cavanaugh Flight Museum presents 2017 Warbirds Over Addison
North Texas aviation buffs have the chance to see, touch, and even fly in a variety of planes from Cavanaugh Flight Museum. During its biggest weekend of the year, the museum flies many of its treasured WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam-era airplanes, including the P‐51 Mustang, AD-5 Skyraider, FM2 Wildcat, and more. Guests can also enjoy aircraft on display, plus a Naval carrier aircraft operation demonstration and a Sherman tank demo. The event takes place on both Saturday and Sunday.

Swiss Avenue Historic District Mother's Day Home Tour
The 44th annual Swiss Avenue Historic District Mother’s Day Home Tour is a weekend-long tribute to Dallas’ historic past, featuring seven early 20th-century homes, an art fair, a vintage auto display, a children’s play area, live entertainment on the Avenue, free horse-drawn carriage rides, complimentary air-conditioned mini-coaches, food, drinks, and more. The tour takes place on both Saturday and Sunday.

Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce presents Home Depot Asian Festival
The family-friendly Asian Festival, taking place at Fair Park, showcases Asian food trucks and cuisines from countries such as Sri Lanka, Philippines, Korea, and China. It also includes cultural performances like martial arts, acrobats, and lion dances; arts and crafts; a children's zone; and a cultural pavilion area for visitors to explore and learn about each culture.

Homegrown Music & Arts Festival
The annual Homegrown Music & Arts Festival is a great showcase for bands both local and national, headlined this year by the reunited Tripping Daisy. They are joined at Main Street Garden by Mutemath, White Denim, Porches, Lower Dens, Still Corners, Motorcade, RC and the Gritz, El Gato, Cure for Paranoia, Lizzie Boredom, and Greg Schroeder.

TITAS presents Command Performance Gala
The Command Performance Gala features 12 artists from leading companies who will light up the stage at Winspear Opera House. Among the performers during the program are Boston Ballet’s principals Dusty Button and Lasha Khozashvilli; Momix; aerial dance company Bandaloop; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Matthew Rushing, with Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Claude Alexander III; Beijing Dance Theater’s Linshu Feng and Jie Zheng; and SMU Division of Dance alumnus and Bruce Wood Dance Project’s Albert Drake.

Sunday, May 14

Texas Rangers present Triple Play Game Show Spectacular
The Texas Rangers are off to a rough start on the field this year, but this event is a fun way to get up close and personal with players while raising money for a good cause. The evening at the Hilton Anatole features players competing in a series of games, a live and silent auction, and more, all to support the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation's efforts to build the Texas Rangers MLB Youth Academy at Mercy Street Sports Complex in Dallas.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum presents Warbirds Over Addison on May 13 and 14.

Photo courtesy of Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Cavanaugh Flight Museum presents Warbirds Over Addison on May 13 and 14.

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Movie Review

Casting is a strong point in latest Marvel film Thunderbolts*

Photo by Chuck Zlotnick

Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Sebastian Stan in Thunderbolts*.

For the longest time, keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt essential for movie lovers, even if not every movie lived up to expectations. But since the end of the MCU’s Phase 3 in 2019 and the ramping up of related TV shows on Disney+, the quality of the films and the disparate nature of the storytelling has vastly brought down how important each new movie felt.

That disposable nature is on full display in the new Thunderbolts*(the asterisk makes sense by the end), which tries to make hay with a bunch of characters who’ve only been seen briefly before. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Ava Starr, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) are each mercenaries who work for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Caught up in a scandal, de Fontaine attempts to have them eliminate each other, a scheme that results in them teaming up together.

Plans for revenge, which grow to include Yelena’s father Alexei, aka Red Guardian (David Harbour), and now-Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), are waylaid by the presence of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who shows up mysteriously during the main trio’s escape attempt. It’s the powers that Bob displays that become the main thrust of the film, with de Fontaine trying to harness them for her own good and the others joining forces to prevent him from doing too much harm.

Directed by Jake Schreier and written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, Thunderbolts* does what most recent MCU movies have done: intrigue for a while before devolving into a confusing mess of CGI and poor storytelling. The filmmakers try for a light tone, especially through the comedic character of Alexei, but they never seem to find the right wavelength. The film takes a dark turn in its final hour, an interesting development that never reaches its full potential and comes to an abrupt end.

The collection of characters is as random as they come, with Yelena and Alexei last seen together in 2021’s Black Widow, John Walker last seen in the 2021 TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ghost last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier, is seemingly meant to be the main connective tissue that casual fans will know and enjoy, but his storyline fails to make sense, especially when he shows up out of nowhere at a crucial point in the film.

Ultimately, the film never makes a case for audiences to care about anything that happens. They throw a bone toward relating it to Captain America: Brave New World, and, of course, hint at upcoming movies, but Phase 5 of the MCU (which started with 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) has been so disjointed that it feels like the majority of it will never be spoken of again. If it doesn’t matter to those making the films, why should the audience invest in anything the characters are doing?

Despite the subpar nature of the film, it’s cast very well. Pugh is a great actor who far outshines anything she’s asked to do. Harbour hams it up amiably, and Russell finds a way to make the most of his character. John-Kamen doesn’t get as much to do as others, but she has a nice presence to her. Pullman (who, weirdly, played another funnily-named Bob in Top Gun: Maverick) has a tricky role, but he makes it work. And Louis-Dreyfus understands how to toe the line between corrupt and wholly evil.

If the next phase of the MCU (which starts with the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps) works, then the movies of the past few years will likely fade into oblivion. In the case of Thunderbolts*, it won’t be a big loss, as it showcases characters paired together for no discernible reason with forgettable results.

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Thunderbolts* opens in theaters on May 2.

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