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.

Katy Perry will play at American Airlines Center on January 14.

Katy Perry/Facebook

Katy Perry will play at American Airlines Center on January 14.

event-planner

Movie Review

Disney remake Lilo & Stitch offers up nostalgia but little else

Disney

Lilo & Stitch

The project to turn every single Disney animated movie into a “live action” film has rarely seemed like anything but a money grab by the movie studio. Most of the films have failed to update the original in any meaningful way, and in many of the cases, they’re almost shot-for-shot remakes, making the reason for the new film’s existence even more confusing.

Having almost exhausted the supply of their 20th century movies, Disney has now remade 2002’s Lilo & Stitch. The film follows an alien experiment, originally known as 626 (voiced by Chris Sanders), created by Jumba ( Zach Galifianakis) for the benefit of an alien race led by the Grand Councilwoman (Hannah Waddingham). Unfortunately, 626 is too uncontrollable for them, and is banished to the faraway planet known as Earth.

Landing in Hawaii, the creature soon to be known as Stitch gloms on to a young girl named Lilo (Maia Kealoha), who mistakes it for a dog while looking for companionship following the death of her parents. Tracked by Jumba and fellow alien Pleakley (Billy Magnussen), now in human form, Stitch leaves a trail of destruction wherever he goes, much to the chagrin of Lilo’s older sister, Nani (Sydney Agudong).

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp and written by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, the film will surely be a blast of nostalgia for anyone who was a kid when the original came out. The now-3D Stitch is just as chaotic as ever, and they even included cast members from the first film like Tia Carrere (now playing a social worker for the orphaned sisters) and Amy Hill as a kindly neighbor.

But for all of the frenzied fun that Stitch offers, there’s very little else that holds the story together. For one, the Lilo character as a real person doesn’t work as well as she does in animated form, as there’s something fluid that happens in animation that feels stilted when it’s an actual little girl. Perhaps sensing this fault, the film is loaded to the hilt with bite-sized moments that try to make the audience laugh, but do little to give the story any meaning.

The difference between animation and live action is never more evident than with Jumba, Pleakley, and CIA agent Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance). Characters that are goofy and enjoyable in animated form come off as weird and off-putting in human form. They’re supposed to bring a sense of fun and even suspense to the film, but instead they feel like characters who are getting in the way of a better story.

Kealoha, making her professional debut, is definitely cute and offers up some interesting moments opposite Stitch and Nani, but her lack of experience shows. Agudong turns in the best performance, giving a bit of emotional weight to a film that needed more. Galifianakis and Magnussen would have been better served as voice-only roles; neither comes off well when their characters turn into humans. Hill is like a warm hug every time she comes on screen, and the story could have used more of her.

The new Lilo & Stitch is not an abomination, but like most of the Disney live action remakes before it, it fails to stand on its own merits. Never given a chance to be its own thing and featuring storytelling too disjointed to be effective, the film is another so-so effort from a studio that knows how to make much better movies.

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Lilo & Stitch is now playing in theaters.

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