Weekend Event Planner

Queen, Lionel Richie and KISS top a throwback weekend of Dallas events

In a summer that's full of great concerts in Dallas-Fort Worth, this weekend manages to jam no fewer than six major shows in its four days. And there seems to be a bit of something for everybody, with blasts from the past dominating the landscape.

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, July 10

A Hard Day's Night 50th Anniversary screening
If you haven't caught one of the onslaught of news reports this week, the classic Beatles film A Hard Day's Night came out 50 years ago on July 6, 1964. The film, essentially a 90-minute music video, took the already popular band and turned them into legends in their own time. Both the Angelika Dallas and Angelika Plano hold two screenings of the film — one Thursday and one Sunday.

Asian Film Festival of Dallas
Other local film festivals have been known to include the odd Asian film or two, but fans of cinema from the Far East will be in hog heaven for the next eight days when the Asian Film Festival of Dallas takes over the Angelika Film Center. The festival includes 38 feature films and six separate short film showcases through July 17.

Queen and Adam Lambert in concert
Queen and Adam Lambert have been in a mutual admiration society ever since Lambert's time on American Idol. But it wasn't until they performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival last year that they decided that going on tour together would be a good thing. You can judge for yourself when they take over the stage at American Airlines Center.

Friday, July 11

Lionel Richie in concert with CeeLo Green
Kids, a little history lesson: In the early to mid-1980s, the only singer bigger than Lionel Richie was Michael Jackson. Richie put out 13 singles between 1981 and 1986, and every one of them was a top 10 hit, and five went all the way to No. 1. Richie relives those glory days with his All the Hits All Night Long tour, which stops by Gexa Energy Pavilion with CeeLo Green in tow as the opening act.

Summerland Tour 2014: Everclear, Soul Asylum, Eve 6 and Spacehog
There will be much more reminiscing at South Side Ballroom when the Summerland tour rolls in. That's because it features four bands — Everclear, Soul Asylum, Eve 6 and Spacehog — whose heydays were in the ’90s. But all four are still making new music today, so you can either enjoy their past or see what they having cooking in the present.

Saturday, July 12

Rascal Flatts in concert with Sheryl Crow and Gloriana
Country fans won't be left out in the cold when it comes to big-time concerts this weekend, as superstars Rascal Flatts headline at Gexa Energy Pavilion on Saturday night. Few other country artists can match their 12 No. 1 hits, a list that will surely be added to with their current album, Rewind. They are joined by fellow superstar Sheryl Crow, making her second area appearance in a month, and the up-and-coming Gloriana.

New Edition in concert with Joe
Another trip in the way-back machine comes courtesy of New Edition, which once again features all six members — Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, Ronnie DeVoe, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill — who helped make the R&B group a powerhouse in the '80s. They play at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie with the singular-named Joe as opening act.

Sunday, July 13

FIFA World Cup championship game viewing party
The U.S. men's soccer team couldn't hang with the big guns at the World Cup, but that doesn't mean the final won't be worth watching. The pairing of Germany and Argentina is about as royal as you can get in the world of soccer, although I'm sure Brazilians disagree. You can take in the game for free at Main Street Garden alongside hundreds of other fanatics. You can also see Brazil and the Netherlands fight for third place on Saturday.

KISS and Def Leppard in concert
If you haven't gotten your fill of nostalgia by Sunday night, you can make one more trip out to Gexa Energy Pavilion for the inspired pairing of KISS and Def Leppard. The two bands have been rocking for a combined 78 years, and neither one shows any hint of throwing in the towel anytime soon.

KISS will be in full regalia when they play alongside Def Leppard at Gexa Energy Pavilion on July 13.

Photo courtesy of KISS

KISS will be in full regalia when they play alongside Def Leppard at Gexa Energy Pavilion on July 13.

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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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