Movies Under the Stars

The 7 best outdoor movies around Dallas-Fort Worth in summer 2018

No matter your age, there's something fun about watching a movie on a big screen, outdoors, on a lazy summer night. Families have multiple opportunities to do just that around Dallas-Fort Worth this summer, from rooftop venues to parks, plazas, and even water parks. Bonus that many are free.

Here are seven of the best places to watch a favorite movie under the stars in DFW in coming months.

Sundown at Granada presents Rooftop Movie Nights
Sundown at Granada presents free Rooftop Movie Nights on Wednesday nights through June 20. Guests can enjoy a movie while sipping on some tasty treats from the rooftop bar and enjoying food off of the bar bites menu. Films coming up include Clueless (May 30), The Big Lebowski (June 6), Labyrinth (June 13), and Empire Records (June 20).

Downtown Dallas Movie Series
After presenting a series of kids movies in May, Downtown Dallas, Inc. will age up a little with their free outdoor movies in June. Taking place at various locations in the Dallas Arts District, the films will be shown on a giant inflatable screen. Guests can bring a blanket and chair, grab some food from one of the nearby restaurants, and enjoy the movies. Screenings include Chicago (June 11 on the lawn at Moody Performance Hall), Sister Act (June 18 next to Meyerson Symphony Center), and Hairspray (June 25 at Sammons Park).

Sundance Square presents Movie Nights
Sundance Square Movie Nights in Fort Worth will feature five movies that are celebrating special anniversaries, as well as a current release. Sundance Square’s new digital screen should make for an enhanced outside movie experience. Featured free movies include The Great Escape (June 7), American Graffiti (June 14), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (June 21), You've Got Mail (June 28), Bottle Shock (July 5), and Peter Rabbit (July 12).

Levitt Pavilion presents Movies Under the Stars
Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Arlington mainly hosts weekend concerts during the summer, but they'll also host a variety of free movies every Thursday night through July 5. While they'll host regular screenings of recent movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (June 14), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (June 21), and Early Man (June 28), they'll also put on sing-a-long versions of Frozen (June 7) and Mamma Mia (July 5).

Hawaiian Falls presents Dive-In Movies
Hawaiian Falls, which has four locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is now open for the summer. In addition to the fun you can have swimming in the wave pool, lounging in the lazy river, or riding the water slides, the area parks will take turns hosting a Dive-In Movie night. Garland will show Moana on June 15, Mansfield will show The Lego Ninjago Movie on June 21, Roanoke will show Wonder on June 22, and The Colony will show Sherlock Gnomes on June 26. All are free with park admission.

NRH2O presents Dive-In Movie Series
There's only one location of NRH2O in, wouldn't you know it — North Richland Hills — so you won't have to hop around to catch its Dive-In Movie Series. Taking place almost every Friday night starting on June 22, it will feature screenings free with park admission: The Wizard of Oz (June 22), Despicable Me 3 (July 6), Jaws (July 13), Coco (July 20), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (July 27), and Black Panther (August 3).

Coyote Drive-In
Okay, so technically Coyote Drive-In, which has locations in Fort Worth and Lewisville, has a never-ending movie series since it's an actual movie theater. However, going to the drive-in is a time-honored summer tradition, so you can't leave it off the list. Plus, it has the biggest screens, the ability to watch in the comfort of your car, and double features showing all the big summer movies. What more could you want?

Hawaiian Falls will host Dive-In Movies at each of its four area locations on various dates in June.

Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Falls

Hawaiian Falls will host Dive-In Movies at each of its four area locations on various dates in June.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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