Hottest headlines of 2024

The 10 biggest CultureMap stories that had Dallas talking in 2024

Readers had a lot to keep up with in Dallas this year.

Photo by Sean Pavone/iStock

Editor's note: What was Dallas reading this year? Let's take a look. We've already covered the hottest headlines in dining, entertainment, real estate, society, and city life, as well as the year's best and worst movies. Now we turn our attention to the most-read stories of all.

This year, readers clamored for news about car inspection and registration changes; they were eager to keep up with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas opening and closures; and, of course, they wanted to know which hot restaurants Guy Fieri visited for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Here, we present the most-read stories of 2024 in Dallas:

1. How the new Texas car inspection law affects end-of-year stickers. Beginning January 1, 2025, Texas vehicle owners will no longer be required to obtain a safety inspection prior to vehicle registration. House Bill 3297, passed during the 88th Legislature in 2023, abolishes the vehicle safety inspection program for regular cars and trucks. Here's what it means for stickers expiring at the end of this year, and here's what to know about changes to the vehicle registration process.

Texas inspection sticker Changes are coming to Texas vehicle registration laws. Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

2. All 5 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations in Dallas-Fort Worth close. June 6 was a sad sad day for Dallas moviegoers: All five Dallas-area locations of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain closed. Two is One, One is None, LLC closed the six franchised Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas that it (and its affiliates) operated, and had filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. But that wasn't the end. On June 27, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain was back in business in Dallas-Fort Worth: The company announced it would reopen all five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth.

3. Dallas suburb blossoms as America's 29th most livable small city. Some Dallas suburbs stick out from the rest, and now Flower Mound is getting time in the spotlight, thanks to its ranking of No. 29 most livable small city in the country. The tiny but mighty North Texas neighbor was the only Texas city to earn a top-50 ranking in SmartAsset's 2024 "Most Livable Small Cities" report, released in July.

Flower Mound, Stone Creek Park Flower Mound's wellness and recreational activities are abundant. Facebook Flower Mound Parks and Recreation

4. 3 Dallas high schools rank among America's best in 2024, says U.S. News. Three Dallas high schools dominated U.S. News and World Report's prestigious annual list of the country's best public high schools. The 2024 rankings from U.S. News, released April 23, ranked nationally Dallas ISD’s School for the Talented and Gifted, Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, and Science and Engineering Magnet School.

5. 3 Dallas suburbs shine on new list of best small cities in America. Living in the big city isn't for everyone, which is why many are flocking to the suburbs and less-populated cities around Dallas. To demonstrate the popularity of suburban and rural communities, a new study by WalletHub has singled out three of Dallas' top suburbs on their 2024 list of the "Best Small Cities in America," released October 1. Leading the pack as the best small city in Texas was Rockwall, followed by Allen and Flower Mound.

Rockwall is the best small city in Texas. Facebook/Rockwall Texas Homes

6. Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 1 with highest inflation rate in the U.S. Inflation has certainly rattled the national economy, but some cities are feeling that sting harder than others — especially Dallas-Fort Worth. According to January study by personal finance experts WalletHub, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had been saddled with the No. 1 highest inflation rate in the U.S.

7. North Dallas roadway to close for a year for DART Silver line construction. In January, a portion of a major thoroughfare in North Dallas was about to be shut down for a year: Beginning Thursday, January 25, a portion of Hillcrest Road between McCallum Boulevard and Wester Way in North Dallas was set to be closed for a 52-week period as construction continues for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Silver Line project.

8. Texas tree group issues dire warning to Dallas owners of oak trees. In January, a nonprofit dedicated to trees issued a warning to Dallas citizens who own oak trees: Put down the pruning shears. Homeowners and landscaping types may have been tempted to do some spring pruning, but when it came to oak trees, then was not the time. The reason: oak wilt, a devastating, incurable fungus that had been slowly spreading over a large part of the U.S.

Dallas' live oak trees needed TLC. Getty Images

9. Booming Dallas neighbor was the fastest-growing U.S. city in 2023. One Dallas suburb experienced the most rapid growth spurt in the country in 2023: Celina, whose population grew by 26.6 percent, more than 53 times that of the nation’s growth rate of 0.5 percent. According to U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2023 Population Estimates, released Thursday, May 16, Celina - which straddles Collin and Denton counties - topped the list of fastest-growing cities with a population of 20,000 or more.

10. Which 7 Dallas restaurants did Guy Fieri visit for Diners Drive-ins & Dives. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri used a meet-and-greet in support of Santo Spirits, a tequila brand he owns in partnership with rocker Sammy Hagar, as the cover for his visit to secretly tape episodes at seven Dallas restaurants for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, his massively popular long-running show on the Food Network. Everything was off the record, but we sussed out the secret seven.

Guy Fieri in Dallas on December 7. Santo Spirits

alamo drafthouse cinema celina growth dallas high schools dallas suburbs dart silver line flower mound guy fieri restaurants hot-headlines popular stories texas car inspection

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.

---

Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

movies film