Your Cultural Place

Fall into seasonal fun at City Place near Houston as the holidays near

Celebrate Dia de los Muertos November 1-2.

Photo courtesy of City Place

Fall into fun this season at City Place, the north Houston business and leisure destination brimming with free-to-attend activities for families through the holidays.

The sustainable community, located immediately south of The Woodlands, combines a picturesque backdrop of waterfront green spaces, a variety of restaurants at varying price points, and a trio of popular hotels: Houston City Place Marriott, Courtyard Houston City Place, and Residence Inn Houston City Place.

At the art of it

Happening in The Meadow through November 10, As Water Falls is the third major pop-up installation — and first from an international group — to be featured at City Place since the community launched an ongoing initiative with Weingarten Art Group earlier this year to spotlight engaging and interactive temporary public artworks.

City Place As Water Falls Photo by Nicki Evans Photography

Designed by Montreal-based digital art studio Iregular, the dazzling, multi-faceted piece functions at the intersection of art and technology. The large-scale, virtual waterfall with accompanying soundscape was specially reconceived for its current exhibition. Reimagined in a cube format, its continually changing LED displays — each interactive by touch — allow participants to alter the digital cascades and sounds in an enticing reminder that nature is alive and ever-evolving.

City Place As Water Falls Photo by Nicki Evans Photography

Drawing inspiration from the piece’s vibrant bursts of color, City Place Mediterranean restaurant Island Grill has created a limited time cocktail called the Blue Falls to toast the temporary attraction.

From Coco to Calacas

City Place's fourth-annual Dia de los Muertos celebration kicks off November 1 at 7 pm with a complimentary outdoor screening of the Disney movie Coco (rated PG) on The Plaza, complete with complimentary popcorn while supplies last. Additionally, the first 100 guests will receive samplings of a special Dia de los Muertos cake from community restaurant Common Bond Bistro & Bakery.

City Place movies Photo courtesy of City Place

Programming continues on November 2 from 4-8 pm in partnership with Latino-focused and Houston-based non-profit ALMAAHH.

The day begins with the unveiling of a ceremonial altar for visitors to recognize their dearly departed loved ones.

Guests can shop at the open-air Mercado, where a variety of curated vendors and artisans will showcase an assortment of upscale accessories, art, jewelry, clothing, handcrafted ornaments, and more. Hands-on craft stations will allow guests to create flower crowns, piñatas, and papel picado (traditional decorative folk art).

City Place face painting Photo courtesy of City Place

Visitors can also enjoy activities such as face painting and a loteria house. Lively performances will take center stage with a headline show from Bidi Bidi Banda, Austin’s first all-star Selena Tribute band, in addition to traditional mariachis and pop-up dance performances.

Giant gingerbread men and a floating tree

Capturing a stunning seasonal selfie or holiday snapshot has become a tradition for many at City Place.

City Place Christmas tree Photo courtesy of City Place

Its iconic décor includes a signature, 35-foot, floating Christmas tree rising from City Place Park’s main pond, along with the Giant Gingerbread Village that welcomes guests down a gumdrop, lollipop and candy cane-lined path — guarded by two giant gingerbread men — to a raised clearing in The Meadow featuring cookie trees, a 16-foot-high gingerbread house, and a 12-foot-tall windmill. This year, visitors can also expect new, seasonal installations peppered around The Plaza.

City Place Gingerbread Village Photo courtesy of City Place

Get into the spirit starting at noon on November 23 and 24 with special Christmas activations featuring Andy Rooniverse and Mr. Leo Puppet Show. The annual holiday lighting is set for Sunday, December 1, from 3-7 pm, featuring elements spanning from real snow on The Plaza, photos with Santa, and a special music performance from Divisi Strings to a holiday artisan market and kids craft area.

As Christmas approaches, the Pix on The Plaza outdoor movie series spotlights the film The Polar Express, plus trackless train rides on December 13 beginning at 7 pm. Mr. Leo Puppet Show and Andy Rooniverse return to The Plaza on December 21 at 11 am and December 22 at noon, respectively, along with additional holiday programming.

Visit www.cityplacenow.com to plan your trip and discover all the exciting seasonal activities awaiting you.

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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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