Event planner

Dave Matthews Band headlines the best events in Dallas this weekend

Forgive us if we sound like a broken record, but the Dallas-Fort Worth area is unparalleled when it comes to the sheer number and breadth of events it offers, especially when the weather turns warm. No matter where you turn this weekend, you're going to have one great option or another staring you in the face, making it hard to go wrong.

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 16

Dallas Summer Musicals present Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical
The 2013 Dallas Summer Musicals season has already included some fantastic productions, and the quality doesn't let up with this stage adaptation of the 1994 British film. Featuring show-stopping costumes and sets and popular songs like "It's Raining Men" and "I Will Survive," the musical is an all-out assault on the senses, in a good way. The musical plays at Music Hall at Fair Park through May 26.

Toad the Wet Sprocket in concert
It'll be another '90s flashback when Toad the Wet Sprocket comes to The Kessler Thursday night, but it won't just be a nostalgia trip for the sold-out crowd. That's because the alt-rock band is getting set to release their first new album in 16 years, so you can expect to hear a few new songs in addition to classics like "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean."

Friday, May 17

2013 Dallas Comic Con
Dallas-Fort Worth comic book and sci-fi fans no longer have to look with envy at other Comic Cons around the country because this year's version at Irving Convention Center is absolutely stacked with big-name celebrities. Among the many bold names making appearances are William Shatner, Nathan Fillion, Richard Dean Anderson and John Noble. You can stargaze Friday through Saturday, but check the schedule for individual times.

2013 Fort Worth Music Festival
If you don't live in or near Fort Worth, you may not know what a destination venue Panther Island Pavilion is. With a stunning view of downtown and a location right on the Trinity River, it plays host to a variety of music events, including, for the first time, this year's Fort Worth Music Fest. The two-day event features a slew of local and national bands, including Drive-By Truckers, Old 97's and The Walkmen.

2013 Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
Not to be outdone, Galatyn Park in Richardson, right next to Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts, hosts this annual arts and music festival Friday through Sunday. The eclectic event has something for everybody: art on display; kids areas; and six different stages, featuring such bands as Robert Earl Keen, the Toadies, Uncle Kracker and Reverend Horton Heat.

Barry Manilow in concert
If somehow nothing else going on Friday floats your boat, there's one final big star in town: Barry Manilow. The 69-year-old has been churning out music for more than 40 years, and he doesn't appear to be slowing down. He's done pop, classic standards and, with his 2011 album 15 Minutes, a rock opera. All of that is on display at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Saturday, May 18

Dave Matthews Band in concert
Things are about to kick into high gear at Gexa Energy Pavilion, and the Dave Matthews Band is indicative of the level of talent heading to the venue this summer. Their latest album, Away From the World, was their sixth to hit No. 1 in the U.S., one of only two American bands to hold that distinction. You can also commend them for their charitable ways, as they just donated $100,000 to the West, Texas disaster relief efforts.

Majestic Theatre presents Whose Live Anyway
Many lovers of improv comedy have been turned on to the art form by the TV show Whose Line is It Anyway?, either in its British form via reruns on Comedy Central or the American version on ABC. The much-loved show, which last aired in 2007, is about to make a comeback on The CW, and you can catch some of the stars in action live at the Majestic Theatre Saturday night.

Sunday, May 19

2013 Warbirds Over Addison
Aviation buffs have no shortage of flight museums to peruse in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but you want to be at Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison this weekend, as it hosts the annual Warbirds Over Addison. The two-day event, taking place Saturday and Sunday, features a variety of vintage aircraft in flight and opportunities to take a ride of your own.

Marc Cohn in concert
With all the excitement going on with the rest of the events, it's probably best to finish with a low-key outing. That's what you get when Marc Cohn plays at The Kessler, as the singer-songwriter behind the hit "Walking in Memphis" rarely blows you back in your seat. But his music is just as compelling as anyone else playing in the area, and it's the perfect way to cap a killer weekend.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical at Music Hall at Fair Park through May 26.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical at Music Hall at Fair Park through May 26.

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Movie Review

Remake of Schwarzenegger classic The Running Man stumbles

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Glen Powell in The Running Man.

For all its cheesy ‘80s greatness, the original version of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very loose adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. For the new remake, writer/director Edgar Wright has tried to hue much closer to the story laid out in the book, a decision that has both its positive and negative aspects.

Glen Powell takes over for Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, a family man/hothead who can’t seem to hold a job in the dystopian America in which he lives. Desperate to take care of his family, he applies to be on one of the many game shows fed to the masses that promise riches in exchange for humiliation or worse. Thanks to his temper, Ben is chosen for the most popular one of all, The Running Man, in which contestants must survive 30 days while hunters, as well as the general population, track them down.

Given a 12-hour head start, Ben earns money for every day he survives, as well as every hunter he eliminates. Since he only has a relatively small amount of money to use as he pleases, Ben must rely on friendly citizens who are willing to put their own lives on the line to help him. That’s a task made even more difficult as the gamemakers, led by Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), use advanced AI to manipulate footage of Ben to make him seem like a guy for which no one should root.

Co-written by Michael Bacall, the film is shockingly uninteresting, working neither as an exciting action film, a fun quippy comedy, or social commentary. The biggest problem is that Wright seems to have no interest in developing any of his characters, starting with Ben. Our introduction to the protagonist is him trying to get his job back, a situation for which there is little context even after we’re beaten over the head with exposition.

The situation in which Ben finds himself should be easy to make sympathetic, but Wright and Bacall speed through scenes that might have emphasized that aspect in favor of ones that make the story less personal. The filmmakers really want to showcase the supposed antagonistic relationship between Ben and Dan (and the system which Dan represents), but all that effort results in little drama.

Ben has a number of close calls, and while those scenes are full of action and violence, almost every one of them feels emotionally inert, as if there was nothing at stake. It doesn’t help that Wright doesn’t set the scene well, making it unclear how far Ben has traveled or who/what he’s up against. There are times when Ben feels surrounded and others when he can walk freely, weird for a society that’s supposed to be under almost complete surveillance.

Powell has been touted as a movie star in the making for several years following his turn in Top Gun: Maverick, but he does little here to make that label stick. With no consistent co-star thanks to the structure of the story, he’s required to carry the film, and he just doesn’t have the juice that a true movie star is supposed to have. Nobody else is served well by the scattershot film, including normally reliable people like Brolin, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Lee Pace.

The Running Man is a big misfire by Wright and a blow to Powell’s star power. On the surface, it has all the hallmarks of an action thriller with a side of social commentary, but nothing it does or says lands in any meaningful way. Schwarzenegger’s one-liners in the original film may have been goofy and over-the-top, but at least they made the movie memorable, which is way more than can be said of the remake.

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The Running Man opens in theaters on November 14.

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