Rodeo Lineup Revealed

The superstar acts among the Houston Rodeo's 2015 concert lineup are . . .

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo picked the midnight hour to reveal its full 2015 concert lineup — and what a lineup it is.

The list, which was sent out to media at 12:05 this morning, includes an eclectic lineup, ranging from country stars Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson to pop star Ariana Grande, rock band Fall Out Boy and the return of bilingual rapper Pitbull.

Sixteen of the 21 entertainers during set to perform is this year's edition March 3 – 22 are returnees.

The list includes Eric Church (opening night March 3 in his first RodeoHouston appearance), John Legend (March 6 on Black Heritage Day), La Arrolladora Banda El Limón and La Maquinaria Norteña on Go Tejano Day (March 15), Florida Georgia Line (March 18), and Luke Bryan (on closing night March 22 as part of the RodeoHouston Super Shootout). In all, there will be 15 shows featuring country stars, one R&B, three shows featuring pop/rock stars and 1 show featuring noteno and banda groups.

Tickets will go on sale Saturday, Jan. 17, 10 a.m., through AXS Ticketing via rodeohouston.com. The Virtual Waiting Room opens at 9 a.m. on Saturday, but fans can register any time at axs.com/rodeohouston_signup. The new AXS ticketing system is designed to handle the Rodeo's tremendous initial ticket sales demand, identify known scalpers and even detect "robot" activity of those brokers using computers to constantly hit the site.

AXS users will be directed to a virtual waiting room that allows customers to "arrive" an hour before ticket sales begin. Customers are shuffled and chosen at random to enter the next step, the virtual store, when tickets can be purchased in a three-step process and then even forwarded through the mobile app to a friend. As buyers complete their transactions, more customers in the waiting room can enter the store.

E-ticket buyers receive their tickets for free, while those using AXS will be charged $3.50 per ticket service fee, compared to the $4.25 that Ticketmaster charges. They can be purchased by phone, too (888-596-4201).

HLSR tickets may also be purchased without a service fee at BBVA Compass Stadium on Jan. 17 and at the SMG box office at NRG Stadium starting on Jan. 19.

The full Rodeo 2015 lineup:

Tuesday, March 3 ............................................................................................................................................................. Eric Church
Wednesday, March 4* – Armed Forces Appreciation Day sponsored by BHP Billiton ........................................ Hunter Hayes
Thursday, March 5 ................................................................................................................................................. Miranda Lambert
Friday, March 6 – Black Heritage Day, sponsored by Kroger ..................................................................................... John Legend
Saturday, March 7 .......................................................................................................................................................... Alan Jackson
Sunday, March 8 ............................................................................................................................................................. Fall Out Boy
Monday, March 9 ........................................................................................................................................................... Justin Moore
Tuesday, March 10 ........................................................................................................................................................ Tim McGraw
Wednesday, March 11* ............................................................................................................................................ Brantley Gilbert
Thursday, March 12 ................................................................................................................................................. Zac Brown Band
Friday, March 13 ....................................................................................................................................................................... Pitbull
Saturday, March 14 ................................................................................................................................................. Billy Currington
Sunday, March 15 – Go Tejano Day, sponsored by Diva Diamonds ......................................... La Arrolladora Banda El Limón/
La Maquinaria Norteña
Monday, March 16 ..................................................................................................................................................... Dierks Bentley
Tuesday, March 17 ......................................................................................................................................................Ariana Grande
Wednesday, March 18* .................................................................................................................................... Florida Georgia Line
Thursday, March 19 ..................................................................................................................................................... Blake Shelton
Friday, March 20 ....................................................................................................................................................... The Band Perry
Saturday, March 21 – RODEOHOUSTON BP Super Series Championship ................................................................ Brad Paisley
Sunday, March 22 – RODEOHOUSTON Super Shootout®, presented by Crown Royal ......... Luke Bryan, presented by Miller Lite

*Value Wednesdays include $10 upper level Rodeo tickets, plus values throughout NRG Park.

See the video announcing the lineup:

Pitbull's back, performing March 13.

Photo by © Michelle Watson CatchLightGroup.com

Pitbull's back, performing March 13.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

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.

movies film

Rodeo Lineup Revealed

The superstar acts among the Houston Rodeo's 2015 concert lineup are . . .

Pitbull's back, performing March 13.

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

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