Weekend Event Planner

Funny or Die's Oddball Comedy Festival tops best weekend events in Dallas

With one week to go before the State Fair of Texas starts, there are lots of interesting event options around Dallas-Fort Worth. That includes a bevy of high-profile comedians, theater in the open air, art gallery open houses and more.

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, September 18

2014 Shakespeare in the Park: Antony and Cleopatra
With the official start of fall coming next Tuesday, there's no better time to take in Shakespeare Dallas' Shakespeare in the Park fall offering, Antony and Cleopatra. The tragedy documenting the struggle for love, loyalty and power between two of history's greatest figures plays at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre through September 27 before moving to Addison Circle Park October 1-12.

Undermain Theatre presents Tomorrow Come Today
When done right, theater can transport you unlike any other medium. We're crossing our fingers that Undermain Theatre's season opener comes off as planned, because the world premiere story, in which members of the elite have the ability to switch from one body to a newer one at will, sounds fascinating. The play runs at the downtown Dallas venue through October 11.

Tim and Eric & Dr. Steve Brule in concert
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have become cult comedic figures through a variety of shows featured on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. For this live show, they are joined by Dr. Steve Brule, aka John C. Reilly, a character whose awkwardness knows no bounds. You can experience the laughter all three bring at the Majestic Theatre.

Friday, September 19

Funny or Die's Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival 2014
2013's Oddball Festival was headlined by Dave Chappelle and Flight of the Conchords, but the comedian quotient has gone up quite a bit in one year. The stand-ups performing at Gexa Energy Pavilion this time around include Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman, Jeff Ross, Marc Maron, Hannibal Buress, Julian McCullough, Whitney Cummings and Brody Stevens. You won't find more comedy bang for your buck anywhere.

Limp Bizkit in concert with Machine Gun Kelly
Limp Bizkit had their heyday in the early 2000s, thanks to hits like "Nookie," "Re-Arranged" and "Rollin'." But their popularity has waned through the years, which is one reason why they're playing at the South Side Ballroom instead of a bigger venue. They play in support of their forthcoming album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants, with Machine Gun Kelly as opening act.

Saturday, September 20

2014 Plano Balloon Festival
The annual Plano Balloon Festival actually starts on Friday, but Saturday is the only full day of activities at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve. Those activities include an early-morning balloon lift-off, a kids zone, concerts and more during the day, culminating with a balloon glow and fireworks that night. The festival continues through Sunday.

Fall Gallery Walks
Saturday is also the day for dueling art gallery events, as the galleries around both Deep Ellum and those affiliated with the Dallas Art Dealers Association throw open their doors for a special art appreciation day. DADA's version also includes a Bike Swarm from Oak Cliff Cultural Center to the Dallas Design District.

Sunday, September 21

2014 Autumn at the Arboretum
As if by magic, the Dallas Arboretum transform into a fall wonderland on Sunday, complete with thousands of fall flowers and more than 50,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash scattered throughout the grounds. Activities include a hay bale maze, scavenger hunts and the requisite pumpkin patch. Autumn at the Arboretum remains on display until November 26, the day before Thanksgiving.

Dallas Pride Day
Dallas Pride, an annual day to celebrate the local LGBT community, includes two big events. Going on most of the day is the Festival in Lee Park, featuring performances by DJ Ryan Tiffin, Mi Diva Loca, Chaz Marie and the Voice of Pride winners. There's also the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, going down Cedar Springs Road from Wycliff Avenue and ending at Lee Park.

Dallas Contemporary presents Mario Testino: Alta Moda
Photographer Mario Testino has had his work published in some of the most famous fashion magazines in the world, but he turned his trained eye toward a different type of culture with this exhibit. All of the photos feature traditional and festive costumes worn by people in the Cusco area of Peru. The exhibit is on display at Dallas Contemporary through December 21.

Louis CK is one of many headliners at Funny or Die's Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival on September 19.

Courtesy photo

Louis CK is one of many headliners at Funny or Die's Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival on September 19.

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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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