weekend event planner

Here are the top 10 things to do in Houston this weekend

Things get trill at Axelrad.

We've somehow arrived to the end of 2021, so expect celebrations from Thursday through Friday (find them all here). Aside from those New Year's Eve bashes, look for some fun standup comedy, a party just for kids, dinosaurs in downtown, an epic house music party, and a trill music show.

Stay safe this weekend and have the happiest New Year. Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, December 30

La Orquesta Salmerum at Sambuca Houston
Kick off the weekend with dinner and salsa vibes from the 12-piece orchestra, complete with a full complement of horns and Latin rhythm section. This musician ensemble is the best at their craft and are recognized internationally, as they have been asked to accompany some of the biggest names in salsa when they come to Texas. This is definitely for all the people who want to close out the New Year on a spicy, sexy note. 7 pm.

Improv Houston presents Steve Treviño
Steve Treviño is fast becoming one of the country’s hottest comics and the new voice for the 21st century Mexican American. Finding his way from a Hispanic upbringing in a small South Texas town to living his dream in Hollywood has infused Treviño’s comedy with a “Tex-Mex” sensibility. As a performer, he has a uniquely American voice that transcends anything about ethnicity, making him universally relatable. 10:15 pm (7:30 and 10 pm Friday).

Friday, December 31

Children’s Museum Houston’s Rockin’ New Year’s Bash
Kids finally don’t have to stay up until midnight to celebrate the New Year. This daytime bash is the city’s longest-running, New Year’s Eve celebration just for them. This end-of-year party will ring in the New Year at the stroke of 11 am, noon and 1 pm with ball drops, just like in Times Square. Musical talents will spotlight this celebration, complete with countdowns, ball drops and a DJ dance after-party. 11 am.

“KISS ME @ Midnight” New Year’s Eve Dinner Party Affair
KISS, Houston’s newest vibe dining hotspot, is inviting guests to ring in 2022 with this swinging party. The sleek new social dining experience in Washington Heights is accepting reservations for its NYE celebration, featuring a decadent prix fixe menu (curated by Chef Ossume Collins), champagne, vibe beats, and some very cool photo ops to capture and share those ‘countdown to 2022’ moments. 5 pm.

New Year's Eve at Margaritaville Lake Resort
Looking for a fun and festive place to dine on New Year’s Eve? Head to Margaritaville Lake Resort for a lineup of tasty options at several of the resort’s tropical-inspired restaurants. LandShark Bar & Grill will have a full menu, along with live music from Dan Golvach. Meanwhile, License to Chill Bar & Café is offering an exclusive four-course, prix fixe menu for guests that would like an elevated, NYE dining experience. 5 pm.

Saturday, January 1

Dino and Dragon Stroll at George R. Brown Convention Center
This Saturday and Sunday, Dino and Dragon Stroll is the only North American tour that lets spectators get up-close to life-like and life-size dinosaurs and dragons. Nowhere else can you encounter colossal-sized dinosaurs ranging from babies to the huge Brachiosaurus standing 20 feet tall and 36 feet long, the massive Mamenchisaurus standing over 2 stories high and 60 feet long, and the gigantic Apatosaurus that is 24 ft. tall and 65 feet long, just to name a few. 10 am.

Praia Urbana New Year's Day 2022
After great success at its new location, Praia Urbana ("urban beach" in Portuguese), the longest-running and largest outdoor house music and techno festival in Texas, returns to Bauhaus on New Year's Day as your first daytime party of 2022. Begin the new year with headliners Mark Knight, Junior Sanchez, David Berrie, and Scotty Boy, as well as more than 20 of Urbana's favorite local and regional artists. 2 pm.

Still Trill at Axelrad
If you want to start the New Year by checking out live music for a worthy cause, Axelrad Beer Garden and Trills the Season has got this show, which benefits Houston Food Bank. BNG (Brew Nosaprise Grinch), Tony Badd, Free Radicals, Frank Synato and Shrey Day will be giving the live performances, while Comp One, Hiram and Ichihara Valdez will be providing DJ sets. The whole day's events will be outside and distanced. 4 pm.

Sunday, January 2

The Menil Collection presents "Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960s" closing day
The Menil Collection is about to wrap up the first show to focus on the experimental and prolific work of French American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), featuring numerous works from European collections displayed in the United States for the first time. This exhibit brings together major paintings, assemblages, and sculptures from this prolific chapter in the artist’s career, as well as extensive film and photographic documentation from the Menil Collection Archives. 11 am.

The Riot Comedy Show presents Current with Patrick Eady and Chad Alexander
The Riot over at Rudyard's British Pub presents this new, Sunday comedy show (produced by comedians Brian Gendron & Drew Jordan), where current events, trends and topics are open to jokes. Patrick Eady and Chad Alexander will host this contemporary showcase of up-to-date jokes and the witty comedians who wrote them. 8 pm.

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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.

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

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Movie Review

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