Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's a throwback kind of weekend in and around Dallas, with multiple events featuring material or performers from years gone by. Among your choices will be a local production of an award-winning musical, not one but two co-headlining concerts featuring acts from different eras, a 30th anniversary celebration of a classic movie with one of its stars, and much more.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Monday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, August 10

Dallas Wings vs. Phoenix Mercury
The Dallas Wings have made some big strides in their second season in Arlington, currently sitting at 7th place in the WNBA standings after two recent wins at home. They'll go for three in a row and try to climb a little higher when they take on the Phoenix Mercury, the sixth place team, in this game at College Park Center at UT Arlington.

The Firehouse Theatre presents Pippin
Pippin is a Tony Award-winning musical twice over, winning five in its 1973 debut and then four more for its 2013 revival. The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch will take on the production about a young prince who learns the true meaning of glory, love, and war as he searches for the secret to true happiness and fulfillment through battle, temptations, and political power. The musical will run through August 20.

Friday, August 11

Rod Stewart in concert with Cyndi Lauper
Even though they became famous in two different eras, Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper are equals when it comes to the impact they've had on the music world. They both opened their careers with a string of hits, and each has remained relevant long past his or her prime. They'll perform a retrospective of their popular work at this concert at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Pegasus Theatre presents Women Playing Hamlet
Hamlet is a challenge for any actor, but when Jessica is cast as the title character in a New York production, it sends her into a comic and existential tailspin. How can Jessica figure out "to be or not to be" when she can't even figure out herself? Featuring an all-female cast performing multiple roles, Pegasus Theatre will present Women Playing Hamlet at Bath House Cultural Center through August 26.

Edwin McCain in concert
It's funny the mileage that a musician or band can get out of one great song. Edwin McCain's top five hit "I'll Be" came out almost 20 years ago, and even though he hasn't reached anywhere close to those heights since, he's still out there plugging away. His last official album was 2011's Mercy Bound, but he released an EP, Oh Edwin, Where Art Thou?, in 2016. He'll play at Granada Theater.

Saturday, August 12

2017 BvB Dallas Powder-Puff Football Game
More than 150 young professionals will take the field in the 10th Annual BvB Dallas Powder-Puff Football Game to Tackle Alzheimer's. Since its inception, passionate philanthropists have raised more than $2.8 million to support Alzheimer’s research and awareness in North Texas. The event, taking place at the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park, will include an after-party on the front steps of the stadium immediately following the game.

Blondie and Garbage in concert
The second co-headlining concert of the weekend featuring bands of different eras will take place at South Side Ballroom when Blondie and Garbage team up for the Rage and Rapture Tour. Blondie, which has been going since 1976, is touring in support of their new album, Pollinator, while Garbage, which debuted in 1995, released their latest album, Strange Little Birds, in 2016.

The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes
Rob Reiner's 1987 classic The Princess Bride has remained a touchstone for 30 years because of a fantastic story and a slew of great performances, including Cary Elwes as Westley. Elwes will be on hand at the Majestic Theatre for this special event, which will include a screening of the movie followed by a moderated discussion with Elwes, who will reveal hilarious and intimate behind-the-scenes stories.

Rod Stewart will play with Cyndi Lauper at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on August 11.

Photo by Denise Truscello

Rod Stewart will play with Cyndi Lauper at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on August 11.

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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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