4th of July Fireworks Guide

The official guide to the biggest and brightest 4th of July events in Dallas-Fort Worth

As befitting the unofficial motto of Texas, when it comes to Fourth of July fireworks displays in Dallas-Fort Worth, it's go big or go home. Although there are plenty of options for viewing colorful explosions this Independence Day, the following list only includes the biggest and brightest.

Most of the events are free, some cost a nominal amount, but all of them guarantee grand entertainment, both in the sky and on the ground.

Addison Kaboom Town
Kaboom Town, which actually takes place on July 3, has been the standard bearer in the area for years, but recently Addison has had to install measures for crowd control. If you haven't already secured a free ticket to get into Addison Circle Park, you're out of luck, because they've all been claimed. However, the fireworks can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Addison, and many local restaurants and businesses host their own watch parties, so there are still plenty of options if Addison is where you want to be.

Denton Kiwanis Fireworks Show
The Denton Kiwanis Club has been putting on a fireworks show for over 40 years, but it wasn't until Apogee Stadium was built a couple of years ago that they had the perfect venue for the celebration. The event features an array of live music leading up to the fireworks.

Fair Park Fourth
Another stadium, the Cotton Bowl, is the optimal place to view the fireworks at Fair Park Fourth, but the event is an all-day celebration. It features performances by the Razzmajazz Dixieland Band and ZZ Top tribute band Trio Grande, rides, games and concessions along the Midway, and more. Attendees are not limited to the Cotton Bowl for fireworks viewing, though, as pretty much anywhere in Fair Park is a great spot.

Fort Worth's Fourth
Taking place at the riverside Panther Island Pavilion, Fort Worth's Fourth is an extravaganza full of activities like Jet Ski shows, Flyboard shows, pony rides, bounce houses, miniature golf, water slide, levee slide, face painting, tubing and more. Throw in a concert by Larry G(ee) and the fireworks, and you have a helluva free event.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Old-Fashioned Family Fireworks Picnic
Just down the river at Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra hosts not one, not two, but three straight days of Independence Day celebrations, starting July 2. The orchestra performs the usual array of marches and military salutes, followed by fireworks. Clever Fort Worthians can enjoy both this and Fort Worth's Fourth by placing themselves in just the right position along the Trinity River.

Frisco Freedom Fest
The celebration in Frisco is a two-fer, as Simpson Plaza outside of City Hall has activities like a zip line, Euro bungees, rock climbing wall, bounce houses and a Taste of Frisco, and FC Dallas hosts the Philadelphia Union for an all-American soccer match at Toyota Stadium later in the evening. Those with tickets to the game will have prime seats for the fireworks show emanating from the stadium at the end of the night.

Grapevine July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza
There's just something about seeing fireworks explode over a lake that makes the experience extra special, which is exactly what you get at Lake Grapevine. There are no extra activities with this one, but it's one of the longer shows around, and people come from miles around to see it, so it's best to try to claim your spot as early as possible. If that's too much of a hassle, they're putting on shorter fireworks shows every Friday night through Labor Day.

Irving Independence Day Fireworks Show
Taking place on a (much smaller) lake is Irving's celebration at Lake Carolyn. You'll want to go to this event not only for the great fireworks and entertainment from the likes of Journey tribute band Escape and Jennifer Nickerson, but also to revel in the fact that Irving was named one of the best cities for Fourth of July celebrations by WalletHub.

Lone Stars & Stripes Celebration
Along with the fireworks at Joe Pool Lake, which cost $20 per car, Grand Prairie residents can get their fill by heading over to Lone Star Park. In addition to the fireworks, entertainment includes live horse racing, family activities and a concert by Incognito. As an extra incentive, free tickets can be had at local Ford dealerships, along with an entry form to try to win a brand new 2014 Ford F-150 SuperCrew Truck, which will be given away that night.

McKinney Red, White and Boom
Last but not least, McKinney's Fourth of July celebration takes place at the massive soccer complex at Craig Ranch, featuring live music by Zane Williams and other family activities. The goings-on there are actually the culmination of a day-long event that also includes a parade and car show in downtown McKinney that morning.

The fireworks at Fair Park Fourth can be seen from anywhere around Fair Park.

Photo courtesy of Fair Park

The fireworks at Fair Park Fourth can be seen from anywhere around Fair Park.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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