weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Take a trip Back to the Future this Friday.

Photo via Universal Pictures

The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo will be wrapping up on Sunday, March 17, with Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen and returning champion George Strait closing things out at NRG Stadium.

To celebrate Strait’s return, Lupe Tortilla has concocted a trio of cocktails, including the Platinum Margarita (which features Strait’s favorite tequila — Código 1530 Blanco), and will donate $1 per cocktail to the HLS&R Educational Fund.

Aside from rodeo fun, here are some fun activities you can look forward to this weekend.

Thursday, March 14

Kiese Laymon at Project Row Houses
Kiese Laymon is an Andrew Carnegie Medal-winning author and essayist best known for his satirical time-travel novel Long Division and his collection of autobiographical essays How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. He'll be in town speaking on/signing copies of his 2018 memoir Heavy, where he writes about, among other things, his difficult relationship with his mother, his early experiences of sexual violence and growing up as a black man. 7 pm.

Monet X Change at Rich's Houston
We're sure we have fans of RuPaul's Drag Race around here. If so, Monet X Change, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 4, will be in town to do a live performance. She is known for competing on the show's tenth season, on which she placed sixth and won Miss Congeniality. Monet will have her first performance before the airing of RuPaul's Drag Race 11 at 8, do a Q&A session during commercial breaks and close things out with a final performance following the episode. 7 pm.

Friday, March 15

Back to the Future at Greenway Plaza
Can we all agree that the time-traveling, sci-fi comedy Back to the Future is one of the more classic, blockbuster movies to come out of the '80s? If you think so, a free screening will be going down at Greenway Plaza, on the courtyard between buildings 9 and 11. Before the movie, DJ Ramalama will begin play hits from the '50s and '80s at 5 pm. And, yes, a DeLorean will be on-site for photo opportunities beginning at 6 pm. 7:30 pm.

Madea's Farewell Play Tour at Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Tyler Perry has built a nice entertainment empire out of dressing up in drag and assuming the role of a no-nonsense, Southern sista named Madea. Hell, you can currently see Madea on the big screen once again with A Madea Family Funeral. But Perry/Madea is back where it all started: on the stage. Perry is touring the country, bringing Madea live and unleashed to audiences for the final time with this farewell play. 8 pm (Fri. and Sat.); 3 pm (Sat. and Sun.).

Saturday, March 16

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut Movie Party
South Park is right up there with The Simpsons in the category of long-running, continuously subversive, animated comedies. But this year marks the 20th anniversary of when Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny went to the big screen with a full-length movie musical that was actually nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. (The name of the song: "Blame Canada.") The Alamo is having a movie party for it this Saturday, where we're sure the audience will be encouraged to sing along. 10 pm.

Disrupt with Alexkid at Bauhaus
Disrupt is a new monthly night of music focusing on bringing quality underground minimal sounds in all forms. Kicking things off on this inaugural evening is special guest headliner Alexkid, a DJ/producer, multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer who is credited as an early protagonist of '90s Parisian underground culture. Hector Moran, Memo Sepulveda, and Gabo will also be spinning as the resident DJs. 10 pm-4 am.

Sunday, March 17

2019 AMAB Award Ceremony at Bisong Art Gallery
AMAB (better known as Autism Moms Are Beautiful) is an outfit whose mission statement is to encourage and uplift mothers raising children on the autism spectrum with positive expressions, motivational outings and weekly giveaways. They will be handing out awards at this second annual ceremony, where moms, dads, and community supporters will be honored. There will also be guest speakers, like Dina Alsaid, an autism mom who is also Ms. Elegance International 2019. 5-7 pm.

Doc Loc and the Swangers at the Preston Theater
You ever wanted to hear a swinging, big-band version of Paul Wall's iconic rap song "Sittin' Sidewayz"? Well, Doc Loc and the Swangers is a 15-piece outfit here to provide you with big-band ditties of your favorite, Houston hip-hop bangers. Led by veteran multi-instrumentalist/jazzman Henry Darragh, this group will be performing a lot of them this Sunday at the release party for the band's self-titled, debut album. 7 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

---

Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

movies film