need for speed

New mega-gaming and indoor go-karting playhouse speeds into Katy

Orlando, Florida-based entertainment facility Andretti Indoor Karting & Games will be hitting the Houston area with thrilling attractions and racing experiences.

On Tuesday, March 3, the family entertainment and gaming center will open up a new location in Katy, located adjacent to the newly opened, University of Houston Katy campus and Katy Asian Town at the corner of Grand Parkway and I-10.

Named after the legendary Andretti racing family, the nearly 88,000-square-foot complex will showcase high-speed electric superkarts, laser tag, mini golf, VR gaming, a ropes course, unique dining options, over 4,600 square feet of exceptional event space, and more.

Here are the features and attractions attendees can look forward to:

Multi-Level race track
Experience the adrenaline rush of electric go karts on a ½ mile of multi-level tracks with sweeping downward spirals, multiple sharp turns, and long straightaways that take you all the way to victory lane.

Laser Tag
The two-story 2,053-square-foot black light battlefield transports you inside the engine of a race car with the latest laser tag technology from Delta Strike, the leader in laser tag equipment industry.

Arcade games
Guests can enjoy over 80 of the latest and greatest video, redemption and prize games in the state-of-the-art arcade. After racking up all of the tickets, guests can redeem their winnings at the Redemption Counter with a wide range of prizes for all ages.

Ropes course
Andretti offers an indoor high adventure ropes course which can be found well above the arcade with multiple challenging obstacles for both the beginner and advanced adventurer.

Hologate VR
Hologate is a four-player virtual reality attraction that takes you to a new dimension with advanced graphic technology and immersion. The open-air layout allows spectators to see the players and take in the action on the monitors above the playing space.

Hologate Blitz
This four-player virtual reality experience immerses players in full sensory heart-pounding thrills by combining state of the art virtual reality graphics with a motion simulator that rises a full meter in height and can tilt in every direction. The chance of motion sickness that some players may feel in other virtual reality attractions has been almost completely eliminated due to extremely low latency and next-level network and code design.

Omniverse
Explore virtual reality like never before with a 360-degree-moving treadmill platform, state of the art graphics optimized for multiplayer interactive gaming and an adjustable harness that allows players to move full speed without hitting walls. Guests can play for the sheer thrilling fun of the experience by participating individually or competitively as teams in weekly and monthly Esports world competitions.

Mini-Golf
Lucky Putt is nine custom high-tech holes of mini golf reimagined that blends the nostalgic joy of classic mini golf with exclusive technology to deliver an unforgettable social experience. The scoring system is digitized to streamline score tracking and allow players to focus on the experience. At the beginning of each hole, players select their names on a digital tablet, and sensors automatically track the movement of the ball and tally scores for each player. As for food, this spot offers several dining options including a Food Truck Plaza, sit-down dining, a dessert bar and two bars. The Indoor Food Truck Plaza will feature three different food trucks and a Dessert Bar:

Fusion Bowl featuring Asian cuisine including bowls hot off the wok, cold bowls and spring rolls.
Mama Andretti’s featuring Italian cuisine including salads and brick oven pizzas and calzones.
Let’s Roll Diner featuring American cuisine including wings, burgers, sandwiches and chicken tenders.

The Main Bar area will feature the full restaurant menu including salads, Asian bowls, burgers, sandwiches, brick oven pizzas & calzones, chef-crafted entrees and desserts, along with gluten-free bread, pasta and pizza dough for those with special dietary restrictions.

Andretti also welcomes corporate events, birthday parties and any special occasions of any size, offering a wide variety of birthday party packages and add-ons to customize each event. Event spaces include:

Total Event Space Grand Room & VIP Rooms: 307-person capacity
Mario Room: Viewing Area with two glass walls overlooking the Arcade and Track.

Andretti Karting is hiring for approximately 350 positions, including game and attraction attendants, culinary, janitorial, mechanics and much more. Applicants must be at least 18 years old. A job fair will take place at the Best Western Premier Energy Corridor on January 15 through February 21. The Job Fair hours will be Monday-Friday 9 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays 10 am to 4 pm.

For more information on open positions and to submit your application in advance, visit the official site.

The karts are electric.

Photo courtesy of Andretti

The karts are electric.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain gets in a tangled love story in new drama Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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