weekend event planner

Here are the top 12 things to do in Houston this weekend

Throw on those costumes and head to some fun Halloween events.

Photo by Getty Images

This weekend, the one costume we imagine most Houstonians will don is that of a Houston Astros jersey, as our boys in blue (and orange) head to Atlanta to take it back and bring home a World Series title.

But it's also Halloween, meaning a ton events await to scare up some fun. Don those costumes and get out there (in-between Astros games, of course). Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, October 28

CityPlace presents Día De Los Muertos Black Dinner
CityPlace will host a four-day Dia De Los Muertos celebration that will be kicked off with an exclusive Black Dinner, featuring Mexican chef and restaurateur Eduardo Palazuelos in collaboration with Houston’s own David Cordúa. A curated, four-course dinner paired with unique cocktails will be served. There will also be Catrina face painting, flower crowns, and an unveiling of a traditional altar to honor passed loved ones. Seats are limited to 50 guests. 6 pm.

Tahirih Justice Center presents Journey to Justice – Hope & Healing
This gala will be an evening of hope and healing where guests will virtually come together to honor the resiliency of immigrant survivors of gender-based violence on their journey to justice after an especially difficult year. The program highlights recent achievements and includes special messages from Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Entertainment will be provided by Houston poet laureate “Outspoken Bean,” local singer songwriter Kristine Mills, and world-renowned salsa performer Tito Puente, Jr. 7 pm.

Czech Center Museum Houston presents Musical Tribute to Holocaust Survivor, Dr. Ervin Adam
The Czech Center Museum Houston will honor 99-year-old Holocaust survivor, Dr. Ervin Adam, of Czech origin. This event will feature a musical tribute to Holocaust victims and survivors by Houston Symphony cellist Louis-Marie Fardet and pianist Sherry Cheng. The evening will further Houston’s commitment to celebrating its diverse cultural landscape. This in-person event will include Czech hors d’oeuvres and other refreshments. 7:30 pm.

Friday, October 29

Holocaust Museum Houston presents "Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare" opening day
Holocaust Museum Houston will host this multi-sensory exhibition, highlighting issues of persecution, loss of civil liberties and the dangers of propaganda. The exhibition explores the intersection of politics, art, economics, and the social dynamics that impacted the American First Amendment rights of speech, religion, and assembly, during Hollywood’s Red Scare. On display through Sunday, February 20. 10 am.

Project Row Houses present Howling on Dowling
Celebrate the past, present, and future of the historic Eldorado Ballroom as Project Row Houses is set to revitalize the iconic building. There will be a gathering in the parking lot for a casually elegant night of music, drinks, and fun. Music curated to celebrate the golden era of Eldorado by DJ Elevated of Soul Control will be accompanied by cocktails, wine, and food courtesy of Lucille's 1913. 6:30 pm.

The Roots and Wings Project and Houston Coalition Against Hate present Matriarch
The Roots and Wings Project, in association with the Houston Coalition Against Hate, presents this two-day, transformative theatre experience that explores the roles women play in our patriarchal society and the urgent need to transform that dynamic. Following the performance, HCAH executive director Marjorie Joseph will host a panel discussion featuring performers and local domestic violence prevention advocates who are also Coalition members. 7 pm.

Saturday, October 30

8th Wonder Brewery presents Otaku Festival
8th Wonder Brewery will host a vibrant, two-day celebration of Otaku culture and street food featuring a market with rows of food vendors, live music, a Kawaii Zombie costume contest, trick-or-treating for the kids, and more. Modeled after popular street food markets found across Asia, the Otaku Food Festival will offer a dizzying array of mouthwatering dishes, many of which are prepared before visitors' eyes. Noon.

The Alta Arts presents David Hacker: "Inarticulate Paradise" opening day
The Alta Arts presents the first major exhibition of all new works in over a decade by American abstract painter David Hacker, and his first showing in Texas. Hacker’s paintings are purely abstract, featuring bold color choices against natural tones, and heavy marks both in the form of brush strokes and scrapes. The organic blocks of color and meandering brushwork together create a psychedelic space that is also reminiscent of the deep forests in the Catskills around Hacker’s studio. On display through Saturday, December 18. Noon.

Houston Arboretum presents Halloween Sip & Stroll
The Houston Arboretum’s Sip & Stroll outdoor event is taking on a spooky spin this Halloween. Guests can walk along the Arboretum’s dimly lit trails where they may encounter creatures of the night. The final destination will lead attendees to outdoor music and mingling with charcuterie and dessert provided by Cotton Culinary and beverages from Saint Arnold Brewing Company. Costumes are encouraged for this fun event for ages 21 and older. 7 pm.

Sunday, October 31

Cigna Sunday in the Park
Cigna Sunday in the Park, a slight twist on the block party concept of Cigna Sunday Streets, launches this weekend at Moody Park. Celebrate Halloween and/or Dia de los Muertos with bounce houses, a haunted house, a costume contest and something called “Trunk or Treat.” Cigna Sunday in the Park will relocate each month throughout the fall to neighborhood parks across the Houston area. Noon.

Premier Productions presents Elevation Nights
Elevation Nights is a new tour featuring Elevation Worship and Steven Furtick that brings the powerful worship experience of Elevation Church into arenas. The tour is more than a concert, but a full worship experience as Furtick preaches and Elevation Worship leads some of their hit songs including “Graves Into Gardens,” “Rattle!,” “Do It Again,” “The Blessing,” and others. 7 pm.

PMT Pop Up: Halloween Cabaret
As part of its Pop Up: Cabaret series, PMT Productions will present PMT Pop Up: Halloween Cabaret. There will be Halloween-inspired live performances from Houston-area vocalists, all accompanied live by The PMT Band. From Hocus Pocus to Rocky Horror to "Thriller," they are on theme for Halloween. Guests can go all out with their costume and compete to win the best costume of the evening. 8 pm.

event-planner

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.

---

Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

movies film