Bowling Alley Showdown

Plano's new Pinstack bowling alley takes a strike at Main Event's home turf

The fight for your entertainment dollar is heating up around Dallas-Fort Worth — and, of all things, bowling is at the center of it.

Pinstack, a new concept that opened in Plano on January 30, is a bowling and entertainment complex designed to appeal to both kids and adults. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the also Dallas-based Main Event Entertainment has been at the forefront of that market in recent years, with five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth and 19 around the country.

That rivalry will soon come to a head in northern Fort Worth: Both companies have announced plans to open new locations in the next year within a couple of blocks of each other, at I-35W and Heritage Trace Parkway. Veteran Main Event (it was founded in 1998) will unveil its latest prototype there.

For now, Pinstack has the buzz with its Plano location. But both companies will open branches in Fort Worth within a couple of blocks of each other.

If you’re tempted to write that off as a coincidence, check out each company’s verbiage regarding what it offers:

Pinstack: “A 28 lane bowling experience, ropes course suspended 20 feet above the gaming center, two-story laser tag, bumper cars, LED lit six-lane rock climbing walls, hundreds of interactive games and simulator technology. For those that come with an appetite, a full-service restaurant featuring a chef-inspired menu of modern American classics, stacked bar and craft cocktails is perfect for enjoying before or after gaming.”

Main Event: “More than 20 cutting-edge bowling lanes, multi-level laser tag, a gravity ropes course that features a swaying bridge, tightrope walking and sky treks, all suspended over the game room, and more than 125 interactive video games. Other attractions include top-notch dining with chef-inspired menus, a full bar, billiards and private rooms with Wi-Fi and A/V capabilities for birthday parties and corporate events.”

For now, Pinstack has the buzz with its new West Plano location, situated off the Dallas North Tollway between Spring Creek and Windhaven parkways. Unlike most bowling alleys, you won’t initially know you’re in for a night at the lanes, because the front is dominated by the restaurant, complete with patio and private dining areas.

Those areas are set away from the rest of the building by design, to create a buffer between the restaurant and the mayhem of the game room and bowling alley, so diners can eat their meals in relative peace. In fact, the lanes are the very last things you encounter; they’re located at the back of the complex.

As with Main Event, televisions abound throughout Pinstack, both in the restaurant and in the bowling area. Although you may experience some déjà vu when you enter the gaming area if you’ve ever been to a Main Street, the massive Pinstack claims to have a few exclusive games you won’t find anywhere else.

Of the 28 bowling lanes, eight are housed in a private room that can be reserved for parties or corporate functions. If that area is not reserved, smaller groups can bowl there for a slightly higher cost.

The restaurant aims to impress, with menu choices like macaroni and cheese pops, hummus trio, grilled salmon, barbecue prawns, Sriracha chicken pizza and a big selection of craft beers on tap. A reduced version of the menu is available for bowlers.

“We’ve designed the venue with moms and dads in mind so that when they come to Pinstack for an afternoon or evening, they will enjoy themselves just as much as their kids, if not more,” said Mark Moore, president and CEO of Entertainment Properties Group, in a release.

For now, Pinstack and Main Event can peacefully coexist, as Main Event’s two closest locations — north of Main Street in Frisco and off Central Expressway in East Plano — are far enough away to draw their own distinct crowds.

But it will be interesting to see what happens when the respective Fort Worth locations come to fruition. Main Event plans to open its branch in late 2015, with Pinstack hot on its heels soon thereafter.

Let the games begin.

The new Pinstack in West Plano may seem a bit familiar to anyone who's gone to Main Event for their bowling fun.

Photo courtesy of Entertainment Properties Group

The new Pinstack in West Plano may seem a bit familiar to anyone who's gone to Main Event for their bowling fun.

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Movie Review

The End of Oak Street can't live up to its Spielberg inspirations

Photo by Daniel McFadden

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street.

Steven Spielberg is the iconic director of the last 50 years, so it’s no surprise that many other filmmakers have borrowed from his classic films. But most of the time those come in the form of references or homages, not straight up theft, which is what it feels like watching The End of Oak Street play out in front of your eyes.

Set in the early 1980s in an idyllic suburban neighborhood of an unnamed city, Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are parents to two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). They’re also possibly heading toward divorce, as Audrey is secretly writing a novel with a thinly-veiled plot about their life, and Brian is cagey about having to earn extra money with a pizza delivery job.

That all gets put on the backburner when a mysterious event takes their entire neighborhood back to the time of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a shotgun and sledgehammer, Audrey and Brian do their best to keep the family safe in their house. But the longer the ordeal goes on, circumstances force them out onto the streets and into the increasing danger that’s all around them.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film tries immensely hard to be like the Spielberg movies its filmmaker clearly adores, but fails at almost every turn. It never earns the broken family in ‘80s suburbia vibes that were prevalent in E.T., going all in right away in the opening scene with a neighborhood block party that feels forced. Other elements like a bully who has it out for Brian, the family dog that disappears, and an angry neighbor come across as the tropes they are and not as organic parts of the plot.

When it finally gets to its dinosaur sequences, they pale in comparison to those found in Jurassic Park. The strange manner in which the dinosaurs appear is a big part of that, but the action involving them forgoes ominous moments that could build tension for those that play up gore in an unexpected way for a PG-13 movie. Many of the attacks have so little emotional meaning that they come off as comical, which is entertaining but in a hollow way.

As if those weren’t enough, Mitchell - perhaps at the behest of producer J.J. Abrams (who made his own Spielbergian film, Super 8) - tries to honor Spielberg in other ways. Just like in Jaws, he employs the use of a split diopter lens, which keeps characters in both the foreground and background in focus. But instead of using it judiciously, it’s brought out in three separate scenes, including a laughable one with the four family members where it turns into overkill.

Hathaway, coming off of a role in The Odyssey that could earn her an Oscar nomination, is the best part of this film. But even her evident skills are dragged down by the ridiculousness of the story, which requires hysterics that even she can’t sell. McGregor can normally be counted on for a good performance, but he gives several line readings with strange cadences that make his already-underwritten character come off worse. Stella and Convery are okay, but their roles are unmemorable overall.

Mitchell and his team can never settle on exactly what type of film they were trying to make, and so even though The End of Oak Street has a few moments that work, they’re surrounded by many others that don’t. In trying to emulate Spielberg - there’s even a blatant Back to the Future (produced by Spielberg) rip-off towards the end - all Mitchell has done is show how difficult it is to be the master.

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The End of Oak Street opens in theaters on August 14.