Meet Me at City Place

Discover the magic of fall at City Place in Spring, Texas

As autumn graces the Lone Star State, City Place transforms into a vibrant tapestry of seasonal delights.

Whether you're a local or visitor, the sustainable north Houston community in Spring — located immediately south of The Woodlands and a short drive from George Bush Intercontinental Airport — offers a perfect blend of entertainment, dining, and outdoor exploration that promises to make your fall getaway or staycation unforgettable.

Family-friendly fun
City Place is a fantastic destination for families looking to enjoy quality time together. A busy fall calendar of mostly complimentary events and activities caters to all ages, with offerings that span yoga and fitness classes to outdoor movie nights, wildlife education workshops, and puppet shows.

Spotlight programming for the season includes the Water Lantern Festival and the debut of interactive temporary artwork As Water Falls on Saturday, October 5. A festive Dia de los Muertos celebration is set for Saturday, November 1, and prepare for bustling holiday lighting starting on Sunday, December 1.

The Dia de los Muertos celebration is happening November 1.Photo courtesy of City Place

A seasonal wonderland
As the temperatures cool and winter starts to sneak in, City Place becomes a haven of seasonal festivities.

Stroll through the beautifully landscaped, waterfront City Place Park and gaze at the Plaza's holiday decorations, which include City Place’s signature, 35-foot, floating Christmas tree rising from the park’s main pond. The giant Gingerbread Village welcomes guests down a gumdrop, lollipop, and candy cane-lined path — guarded by two giant gingerbread men — to a raised clearing featuring cookie trees, a 16-foot-high gingerbread house, and a 12-foot windmill.

With its picturesque setting and welcoming ambience, City Place is the ideal spot for enjoying December’s charm.

Outdoor adventures
Pedestrian-oriented City Place provides a picturesque backdrop for outdoor enjoyment, regardless of the season.

Within the community, visitors can take advantage of easy access to 290 acres of parks and natural corridors via a network of smooth paths and natural trails. Utilizing RunGo, an ad-free placemaking app, users can select from nine verified and protected trail routes, ranging in distance from just over a half mile to 7.7 miles, with turn-by-turn voice navigation and location-based information.

Take a stroll around City Place Park.Photo courtesy of City Place

City Place also offers a direct connection to the Spring Creek Greenway, which connects and protects approximately 7,000 acres of forest, preserving this ecological gem as a mecca for ecotourism, education, and outdoor recreation. Users can explore more than 19 miles of natural forests and white sandy beaches brimming with local wildlife and plant species while enjoying activities including canoeing, kayaking. and archery, plus nature trails perfect for hiking and biking.

A taste of Texas
No matter your taste or budget, City Place serves up myriad dining options that showcase a variety of Texas-based, fast-casual concepts and independents. These include Sushi Rebel, Torchy’s Tacos, SwitcHouse Plates & Pours, Common Bond Bistro & Bakery, Jinya Ramen Bar, Island Grill, Noe’s Café, Tarka Indian Kitchen, Yi Cha Tea and Coffee, and Urban Bird Hot Chicken.

Also on the menu is dine-in movie indulgence at Star Cinema Grill, which also boasts a chic central lounge.

Explore your options at Sushi Rebel.Photo courtesy of City Place

Photo courtesy of City Place

Enjoy Texas fall weather on a patio.

Area attractions
While there’s lots to do inside City Place, the community also benefits from its prime location and proximity to an array of nearby excursions such as Market Street, Old Town Spring, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown (home of The Light Park during the holiday season), and Lake Conroe.

Plan your visit
This fall, make City Place in Spring your go-to destination. In addition to its unique blend of dining, shopping, and entertainment, there are three premier hotels — the AAA Four Diamond Houston City Place Marriott, Residence Inn Houston City Place, and Courtyard Houston City Place — where you can rest and relax while create lasting memories.

Visit www.cityplacenow.com to plan your trip and discover all of this fall's exciting activities.

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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.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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