weekend event planner

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

Head to Uptown on Thanksgiving Day for the Uptown Lighting.

Photo courtesy of Uptown Houston

Thanksgiving weekend is here, Houston. Whether that means time with family and friends or time alone, look for plenty of events to burn off that pumpkin pie and dressing.

Have a safe, happy, Thanksgiving. Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Griff's Thanksgiving Feast
If you don't have family and/or friends to hang with this Thanksgiving, Griff's has got you covered. The pub will have turkey and ham and all the fixings, including Layne's World Famous Broccoli Cheese Casserole.

The best part of all — other than being with your Griff's family — is that it's all free. It's starts on time and ends when the food is gone. So come celebrate with the folk at Griff's and have a great holiday. 12:30 pm.

33rd Annual Uptown Holiday Lighting
Here's another holiday light show that's happening. It will begin with the illumination of Uptown’s 300 custom, 20-foot holiday trees along Post Oak Boulevard, from the West Loop to Richmond Avenue.

The family event will feature festive holiday shopping and treats, unique street entertainment, and the sights and sounds of the holiday season, along with a special appearance from Santa.

Following the ceremonial lighting of Uptown’s holiday trees, the evening will culminate with a fireworks display, followed by a light show. 4 pm.

The Riot Comedy Show presents Live LAUGH Love Thanksgiving Special
It appears this monthly tradition will have a Thanksgiving theme this time around.

The evening will feature stand-up comedy from some of Houston's funniest comedians share their takes on holiday dating and relationships.

Relationship questions will be answered by comics during the comics' panel. If you're looking to break away from the family for a hot minute, these comics are here to get some of that tension outta you. 8 pm.

Friday, November 26

TFTI - Houston Selfie Museum
This interactive selfie experience will catch the eye of Houston holiday shoppers with a limited-time experience opening at The Galleria. The novel, fun-filled activation will offer over 15 themed, picturesque studios designed specifically with Instagram feeds in mind.

The exhibit features a range of out-of-the-box rooms such as the seasonal Upside-Down X-Mas Tree Room, Pillow Fight Room, Infinity Mirror Room, DJ Confetti Room, Space Room and more. Through Wednesday, January 1. 10 am (11 am Sunday).

Downtown District presents Thing-A-Ma-Jingle
The Houston Downtown Management District (Downtown District) is shutting down Main Street on Friday for the return of this night of festive fun. The giant block party will feature a night market, carol-oke, photo ops with hipster Santa, lighting projections, and more.

Event goers will enjoy food and drink specials and live music at area bars and restaurants. This event is recommended for ages 21 years old and above. 5 pm.

The Grand Ol' Christmas Show
Will Hearn’s Grand Ol’ Christmas Show is a raucous, rollicking, one-of-a-kind musical comedy featuring Americana standout Blue Water Highway. The retro radio show brings sketch comedy antics and Christmas classics to a traditional Christmas Eve broadcast, led by Nick Brown’s Radio Orchestra and Gospel Singers.

Made for music and comedy lovers, this tribute to American Christmas traditions cleverly and progressively blurs the lines between heartfelt nostalgia and contemporary pop-culture satire. 7:30 pm.

Saturday, November 27

Trill Burgers Pop-Up
Bun B's Trill Burgers will be hosting a pop-up at Sticky's Chicken this weekend. The pop-up will include Trill Burgers' new vegan smash burger — a 100 percent, plant-based Beleaf burger made with Impossible meat — plus the “OG Classic” burger and Grilled Onion Smashburger.

Burgers will be available to first-come, first-served at the restaurant until supplies last. Vegan burgers are expected to sell out quickly. 2 pm.

Waterparks in concert
Off the back of their highly anticipated album Greatest Hits, pop-punk trio Waterparks is bringing their infectious energy on the road and they are ready to rock out in Houston, where it all started.

This band excitedly blends genre lines — jiving between fits of rock, alternative, and electronic with pop ambition and hip-hop’s bold and blatant disregard for the rules. They have garnered a massive cult following and amassed over 195 million streams and over 175,000 US album sales to date. 6 pm.

No Limit Reunion Tour
No Limit Records was an American record label founded by Master P. The label included artists such as Snoop Dogg, Silkk the Shocker, Mystikal, Mia X, C-Murder, Romeo Miller, and more.

The label is often credited as forebearers furthering the rise of southern hip-hop and laying the blueprint for independent ownership in rap music. And, now, they're back on tour, featuring Master P, Mystikal, Slikk The Shocker, Mia X, Fiend, Mercedes, and Mr Serv-On. 7:30 pm.

Sunday, November 28

Hanukkah Film Festival
The Hanukkah Film Festival will celebrate the Hanukkah season with eight nights of exclusive, award-winning new films.

The Austin Jewish Film Festival is joining with film festivals, synagogues, and Jewish organizations across the U.S. and Canada in partnership with Menemsha Films in this new, virtual holiday celebration.

Opening night will feature the world premiere of the animated Hanukkah short The Broken Candle. Through Sunday, December 5. 9 am.

Parkway Market Days at Regent Square
In partnership with The Art Cellar of Houston, the popular, outdoor local artisan market series is set to stock you with gifts for the holidays.

Grab a bite from one of the onsite food trucks and a cocktail from Jo’s Mini Mobil Bar, as you listen to the sounds of Keith Vivens Due and peruse curated vendors selling specialty jewelry and accessories, artwork, candles, culinary treats and more.

It's free to attend, and the first 25 attendees will have the opportunity to decorate a kite to fly at adjacent Buffalo Bayou Park. 2 pm.

Youth Soul Love presents Sounds of the City
This show is presented by the Art of Soul and Wear Models and hosted by Houston hip-hop artist/fashion influencer Youth Soul Love.

Expect a dynamic cultural experience reanimates the urban music scenes of the cities that birthed today's music culture and highlights music influence on the fashion and art created in the respective periods of time.

Fashion designer Nicholas Phat Nguyen's Mysterious line will be honored, while Love, Julian Caesar, and other artists will perform. 6 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