Weekend Event Planner

Country stars, tequila festival and summer solstice celebrations headline the best weekend events

Even with all the rain this week, outdoor events are still where it's at in Houston this weekend, as nearly every event you see below has an outdoor component to it. So whether you're celebrating a new park, sipping on tequila, enjoying great country music, seeing a classic movie or welcoming summer, you'll want to be outside to do it.

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, June 18

Evelyn's Park Groundbreaking Celebration
After several years of planning and fundraising, the first phase of Evelyn's Park in Bellaire will finally begin with this groundbreaking celebration. The event will feature food trucks, kids activities, music and more, and attendees are encouraged to participate in a community paint project to paint a temporary art installation for the park to be used during construction.

Obsidian Theater presents Hypocrite: A Sketchy Comedy
Obsidian Art Space will re-brand itself as Obsidian Theater starting with a limited run of Hypocrite, a semi-autobiographical performance piece exploring the nature of memoir. An intimate and electric evening of entertainment, Hypocrite’s co-creator, director and actor Melissa Flower digs deep into her personal life to expose the lies we all tell ourselves — and others. The piece will run through June 27.

Friday, June 19

Neon Trees in concert with Yes You Are
If you're not already on the Neon Trees bandwagon, this is the perfect time to start. The band behind hits like "Animal" and "Everybody Talks" has yet to truly make the jump to the big time, which is why you can still see them play at a venue like the House of Blues. They'll play songs from their latest album, Pop Psychology, with support from opening act Yes You Are.

2015 Texas Tequila and Margarita Festival
For lovers of tequila and/or margaritas, there's never a wrong time to indulge in a few drinks, and this festival at Moody Gardens Hotel will offer plenty of opportunities to do so. The three-day event will feature a Tour de Tequila, a Margarita Grand Tasting and an outdoor music festival with performances from bands like Texas Tornados and Wild Moccasins.

Saturday, June 20

Darius Rucker in concert with Brett Eldridge, Brothers Osbourne, A Thousand Horses, Chase Bryant, Drake White, Casey James and Michael Ray
This concert at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion is labeled "A Day in the Country," and it will certainly be that as no fewer than eight different country acts will take the stage by the time the day is done. While hardcore country fans will undoubtedly enjoy all of the music, the headliner by far is Darius Rucker, who comes to town in support of his latest album, Southern Style.

Bank of America Screen on the Green: Jaws
Forty years to the day after it set the stage for all future blockbusters, the greatness of Steven Spielberg's Jaws will be celebrated with this free screening as part of Discovery Green's Screen on the Green series. As always, the screening will also feature contests and other activities prior to the show.

Sunday, June 21

Summer Solstice Celebration at Rothko Chapel
Although the temperatures have been high for a while, June 21 — in addition to being Father's Day — is the official first day of summer. Rothko Chapel will celebrate the summer solstice with two separate events: A sunrise Tibetan yoga practice at 6:20 a.m. and a sunset performance by Kaminari Taiko of Houston, the premier Japanese drumming group in the Gulf Coast region.

Summer Solstice Celebration at The Flat
The popular Montrose bar The Flat is hosting a party to celebrate the longest day of the year with music. DJ Sun will play special solstice tunes from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and a surprise guest is promised.

2015 Texas Outlaw Challenge
The five-day Texas Outlaw Challenge, an event in and around Kemah Boardwalk that honors horsepower in its many different forms, will come to an end on Sunday with a special custom motorcycle show at Jackie's Brick House. Other days will feature boat displays, Corvette shows, fireworks and more; in other words, dads will love it.

Neon Trees will play at the House of Blues on June 19.

Photo by Mathew Hartman

Neon Trees will play at the House of Blues on June 19.

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Movie Review

Ben Affleck cooks the books in chaotic sequel The Accountant 2

Photo by Warrick Page/Prime

Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck in The Accountant 2.

In this Hollywood era of franchises, finding one to call their own is a priority for many movie stars. Over 30 years into his career, Ben Affleck had yet to find one; he did star as Batman in multiple movies, but that role has been interchangeable. He seemed to get a prime action hero role with 2016’s The Accountant, but somehow it’s taken nine years for The Accountant 2 to come out.

Affleck’s character of Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man whose abilities to comb through mounds of data quickly and efficiently are matched only by his fighting skills. When Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a former Treasury agent who had previously hunted Christian, is murdered, King’s replacement, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls on Christian to help figure out what happened and track down his killer.

The search quickly finds multiple criminal conspiracies, including a hitman ring, a scheme to abduct migrants, and more. Naturally, Wolff claims to need help in the endeavor, so his mercenary brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) soon joins in on the quest. The two brothers work together to figure out the puzzle while also stopping to have some fun every now and then.

Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (both returning from the original), the film feels like it is missing many connective scenes. It often starts down one road and seems to be making good progress when it suddenly veers into another storytelling lane with no explanation. This happens multiple times throughout the film, to the point that it becomes almost impossible to tell what the main story is supposed to be.

In the first film, the oddity of having an autistic math genius also being a world-class marksman and fighter somehow made sense. This film leans much more into Christian’s physical skills, with the autistic side of things showing up in his (mostly) emotionless demeanor. While that works to a certain degree, the choppiness of the story undercuts the character traits that Affleck does his best to impart.

The best examples of the messiness of the film come in the multiple scenes that serve as nothing more than comic relief, with not even an attempt at connecting them to the main plot, such as it is. Two of them involve Christian proving himself to be a ladies man despite his lack of conversational skills, both of which fall flat as they seem to be making fun of his autism rather than highlighting positive aspects of it. Each of the comic scenes is so disparate in tone from the rest of the film that they essentially bring the story to a screeching halt.

Affleck is fine in the part, although he’s much better when Christian turns toward action hero mode than when he has to display the character’s autistic traits. Bernthal is great at being an over-the-top macho guy, and he gets to indulge that side of him throughout the film. Addai-Robinson is disserved by a role that doesn’t give her character any autonomy despite her high-powered position.

Affleck’s career has been one of the most up-and-down ones of any supposed A-list actor, and The Accountant 2 marks another down moment for him. He may have finally gotten his first sequel for a film in which he’s the main character, but don’t expect there to be a third installment.

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The Accountant 2 opens in theaters on April 25.

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