Weekend Event Planner

Here are the top 11 things to in Houston this weekend, and they're not all Super Bowl related

Super Bowl Week is finally here in Houston and here's plenty happening around the city leading up to the big game on Sunday.

While big-name Super Bowl events are happening all around town — think food, fashion and parties — there are also some spectacular non-Super Bowl-related events, too, like a concert by one of classical music's superstars and a couple of coming-of-age love stories.

Here are 11 of the top events happening this weekend around Houston, but you can view a full list of events on our CultureMap Events Calendar.

Thursday, Feb 2

The University Museum at Texas Southern presents Gridiron Glory: The Best of Pro Football Hall of Fame

Avid football fans will enjoy the traveling exhibit Gridiron Glory: The Best of Pro Football Hall of Fame on display at Texas Southern University through April. This exhibit gives visitors an up-close look at the history of the NFL, along with stories from pioneers in the game, including over 200 artifacts from the Pro Football Hall of Fame collection. There's even will an a room dedicated to the Houston Texans.

The Big Texas Party

Enjoy some of the best barbecue in the world from famed Houston spots like Ray's Real Pit BBQ Shack, Killen's Barbecue, and Feges BBQ while sipping Texas beers, bourbon, spirits, and wine at the Big Texas Party, hosted by CultureMap, ESPN Radio, and SB Nation. Texas country music sensation Bart Crow will get Silver Street Studios jumping and expect to see a large number of NFL players among the celebrities.

Love Jones, the Musical

For something non-Super Bowl related, check out the coming-of-age love story, Love Jones, The Musical, at the Hobby Center through Saturday. Tank, Chrisette Michele, Raheem DeVaughn, Dave Hollister, MC Lyte, and more join forces to tell the classic and iconic love story of Darius and Nina, whose lives collide in spectacular fashion in the upscale night club, Sanctuary, where an unassuming open mic event, quickly turns into an explosive spoken word give-and-take that leaves the audience speechless.

Houston Symphony presents Andrés conducts West Side Story

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts a program (also non-Super Bowl related) featuring the raucous rhythms and gorgeous melodies of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from the updated Romeo and Julie tale, West Side Story. The Houston Symphony performance on Thursday and Friday also includes music from the Americas, featuring Revueltas’ serpentine tone poem, Sensemayá, and Piazzolla’s brooding Tangazo.

Friday, February 3

Off The Field Players’ Wives Association presents 16th Annual Players’ Wives Fashion Show

Guests at the 16th Annual Players’ Wives Association Fashion Show at Tootsies can glimpse the latest fashions, mingle with current and former NFL superstars and their wives, enjoy delicious bites catered by Caswell & Co, and bid on silent and live auction items including sports memorabilia, jewelry, spa packages and more. A percentage of the event’s proceeds will benefit Off The Field Players’ Wives Association and support Houston’s homeless youth through Covenant House.

Bruno Mars in Concert

The sold-out concert at the Super Bowl pop-up Club Nomadic features the top-selling Mars, who will no doubt perform hits like "Uptown Funk," as well as selections from his new album 24K Magic. It may be worth securing admission through a ticket agency.

Saturday, February 4

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. presents Cellar-bration

This “Cellar-bration” offers visitors to Houston's hometown brewery a unique opportunity to taste some special beers before the big game on Super Bowl Sunday. Specialty small-batch beers along with previously released Divine Reserves and Bishop Barrel beers are featured.

Taste of the NFL

Extraordinary chefs from 32 NFL cities team up with Hall of Fame and current players at the Taste of the NFL's 26th Annual Party with a Purpose at the University of Houston. Besides tasting lots of good food, attendees can bid on more than 250 unique sports and celebrity memorabilia, vacation packages and other coveted auction items. The Band Perry will headline the evening, which benefits groups that fight hunger around the nation, including the Houston Food Bank.

Houston Symphony presents Yo-Yo Ma

Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform Dvorák’s powerful Cello Concerto, a masterpiece written during the time the composer spent in America. Gershwin’s jazz-influenced American in Paris will also be part of the non-Super Bowl-related program by the Houston Symphony.

Sunday, February 5

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. presents Super Beef Sunday

What better way to prepare for the Super Bowl than to enjoy some delicious Texas barbecue? Saint Arnold Brewing Co. delights meat lovers with its 4th Annual Super Beef Sunday event. Legendary Louie Mueller BBQ will be preparing and serving their finest smoked meats alongside Pinkerton’s Barbecue and Harlem Road Texas BBQ. Admission includes barbecue from all three restaurants, beer, and a Super Beef Sunday glass.

Super Bowl 51

Will the New England Patriots or the Atlanta Falcons take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy? More importantly to some non-football fans, what will you think of Lady Gaga's halftime performance and can Snickers pull off a live commercial without a hitch? Whether you're watching the game from NRG Stadium, at home, at a party or at one of the many bars around Houston, the biggest spectacle in America sports will be the topic of conversation all day Monday.

Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs with the Houston Symphony Saturday night.

Courtesy photo

Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs with the Houston Symphony Saturday night.

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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.

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