Selena will be honored at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's Star Trail of Fame.
Photo courtesy of the MFAH
The Queen of Tejano music is receiving royal recognition at RodeoHouston. Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, once a young hopeful from Lake Jackson, Texas who quickly rose to international fame to become arguably the most famous Mexican-American celebrity of the late-20th century, will be inducted into the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s prestigious Star Trail of Fame.
The ceremony will take place 1:30 pm Sunday, March 8, at the second floor of NRG Center (near the entrances to the rodeo offices). Much like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Star Trail of Fame pays tribute to the stars who have made an impact on the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the community.
A fitting tribute, as the artist, actress, and fashion designer known simply as Selena performed at RodeoHouston three consecutive times — seeing a total of more than 180,000 adoring fans, who hung on every lyric of smash singles including “Dreaming of You” and the catchy “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.” Her last concert in Reliant Astrodome set the all-time attendance record in 1995.
Selena will be the ninth star honored with a plaque to commemorate her years of musical entertainment on the RodeoHouston stage, according to the rodeo.
Though the young, bicultural icon tragically lost her life at 23 when she was shot to death by her friend and former manager, Yolanda Saldívar, her presence is still felt each year at rodeo concerts. Several RodeoHouston entertainers, including Kacey Musgraves, Camila Cabello, Prince Royce, Cardi B, and most recently, Becky G, have paid tribute to Selena during their shows.
There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.
The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).
Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.
Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.
Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.
The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.
Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.
Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.
