weekend event planner

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

It's Easter Weekend, and while some will be celebrating the season by hunting down colored eggs, brunching, or devouring a giant Easter bun with processed Tastee Cheese, there are some fun events worth checking out:

Thursday, March 29

Avenida Houston’s “Party on the Plaza” kickoff
Avenida Houston’s free concert series known as Party on the Plaza has an amazing lineup of performers for its 2018 spring lineup: Fishbone, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, and The Waxaholics. So, it’s quite interesting that the first artist out the gate is YouTube personality-turned-pop diva Poppy. All we can say about this lady is, um, interesting. It’s best if you just go on YouTube and watch some of her out-there videos if you want a sense of what you’ll be getting. She’ll be at Discovery Green at 6:45 pm.

The Urbane Society's swanky launch party
The Urbane Society is a members-only network geared for all the upscale, plugged-in foodies who like going to sophisticated restaurants and getting their grub on with friends. (Their logo is a dapper-looking gent — with the head of an old-school pepper mill — holding what appears to be a laptop.) The Society is hosting a swanky, pre-launch party at B&B Butchers and Restaurant, where people can learn more about their new app, enjoy light bites, dance to music, and get tipsy at the open bar. It starts at 7:30 pm.

Friday, March 30

All things anime at the George R. Brown
Just when you thought the release of Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One was going to be the geekiest thing to happen this weekend, there is also an insane anime convention going on at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Known as Anime Matsuri, this four-day event will actually mark the 12th year the festival has brought in people looking to partake in Japanese animation, games, fashion, cosplay, and so much more. Expect some 300 exhibitors, vendors and artists, as well as more than 800 hours of programming. The event starts at 11 am.

Saturday, March 31

The Houston Food Truck Block Party
You gotta love food trucks. Whether they’re parked outside a sporting event, a public gathering or a nightclub after closing time, these automotive eateries are always around, ready to cook up some delights for hungry, on-the-go folk. Some 20 trucks will be lined up for the Houston Food Truck Block Party, happening on 5610 Richmond Ave. We’re talking Mama Neats Snoballs, Boogies Chicago Style BBQ, Planet Churros, Muddy Water Crawfish, Iced Cupcakery —just oh-so-much damn food to choose from. Things get rolling at noon.

Sing-along to Beauty and the Beast on the Green
It’s that time of year when more outdoor movie screenings on popping up, inviting couples and families to pull out the blankets and lawn chairs and watch a movie under the stars. Bank of America and Taquerias Arandas are presenting a free film series at Discovery Green called Screen on the Green. This weekend’s feature presentation is last year’s global box-office smash Beauty and the Beast. But, this time, it will be an all-new, sing-along version, so everybody can follow the bouncing ball and sing with Bella and them. It starts at 8 pm.

ARKA ART’s The Meet Up art market/disco party
Periodically, Midtown art/event space ARKA ART brings in local vendors who sell clothing, artwork, knickknacks, and more for an evening of art, music and fashion known as The Meet Up. For the latest open-market gathering, there is a theme, and that theme is “A Psychedelic DISCO.” People are welcome to show up wearing vintage threads and shop while DJ crew The Foundation plays funky, retro grooves, and Chris Cisneros of Labels Vintage Streetwear provides some far-out lights and effects. Beverages will also be hand to help you get loosey-goosey. The boogey starts at 6 pm.

Sunday, April 1

The World’s Largest Showcase of Homes
Are you the sort of person that gets all hot and bothered when you look at a fine, scintillating piece of real estate? If you answered yes, David Weekley Homes will be hosting the third-annual, World’s Largest Showcase of Homes in cities across the country, including Houston. All through April, people can visit any model or showcase home and enter for a chance to win prizes, like a smart watch or an electronics package. And Ronald McDonald House Houston will receive a $5 donation for each visitor who registers with a sales consultant.

My First Music Lesson at Discovery Green
If you’re one of those parents who wants your children to get in touch with their musical side — or you just want your kids to be preoccupied with something so they can leave you alone for a damn day — you can take your offspring to My First Music Lesson at Discovery Green. This free, hands-on class is led by professional musicians from talent agency Divisi Strings, whom will teach kids how to play instruments. Children grades 1 through 8 are welcome, and the parents can join in on the fun — or go somewhere and get a beer (we suggest the latter). Events starts at 2 pm.

Weird YouTube sensation Poppy pops up for a performance this weekend.

Courtesy photo

Weird YouTube sensation Poppy pops up for a performance this weekend.

event-planner

Movie Review

Glen Powell stumbles in remake of sci-fi classic The Running Man

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Glen Powell in The Running Man.

For all its cheesy ‘80s greatness, the original version of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very loose adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. For the new remake, writer/director Edgar Wright has tried to hue much closer to the story laid out in the book, a decision that has both its positive and negative aspects.

Glen Powell takes over for Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, a family man/hothead who can’t seem to hold a job in the dystopian America in which he lives. Desperate to take care of his family, he applies to be on one of the many game shows fed to the masses that promise riches in exchange for humiliation or worse. Thanks to his temper, Ben is chosen for the most popular one of all, The Running Man, in which contestants must survive 30 days while hunters, as well as the general population, track them down.

Given a 12-hour head start, Ben earns money for every day he survives, as well as every hunter he eliminates. Since he only has a relatively small amount of money to use as he pleases, Ben must rely on friendly citizens who are willing to put their own lives on the line to help him. That’s a task made even more difficult as the gamemakers, led by Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), use advanced AI to manipulate footage of Ben to make him seem like a guy for which no one should root.

Co-written by Michael Bacall, the film is shockingly uninteresting, working neither as an exciting action film, a fun quippy comedy, or social commentary. The biggest problem is that Wright seems to have no interest in developing any of his characters, starting with Ben. Our introduction to the protagonist is him trying to get his job back, a situation for which there is little context even after we’re beaten over the head with exposition.

The situation in which Ben finds himself should be easy to make sympathetic, but Wright and Bacall speed through scenes that might have emphasized that aspect in favor of ones that make the story less personal. The filmmakers really want to showcase the supposed antagonistic relationship between Ben and Dan (and the system which Dan represents), but all that effort results in little drama.

Ben has a number of close calls, and while those scenes are full of action and violence, almost every one of them feels emotionally inert, as if there was nothing at stake. It doesn’t help that Wright doesn’t set the scene well, making it unclear how far Ben has traveled or who/what he’s up against. There are times when Ben feels surrounded and others when he can walk freely, weird for a society that’s supposed to be under almost complete surveillance.

Powell has been touted as a movie star in the making for several years following his turn in Top Gun: Maverick, but he does little here to make that label stick. With no consistent co-star thanks to the structure of the story, he’s required to carry the film, and he just doesn’t have the juice that a true movie star is supposed to have. Nobody else is served well by the scattershot film, including normally reliable people like Brolin, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Lee Pace.

The Running Man is a big misfire by Wright and a blow to Powell’s star power. On the surface, it has all the hallmarks of an action thriller with a side of social commentary, but nothing it does or says lands in any meaningful way. Schwarzenegger’s one-liners in the original film may have been goofy and over-the-top, but at least they made the movie memorable, which is way more than can be said of the remake.

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The Running Man opens in theaters on November 14.

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