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    weekend event planner

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

    Craig Lindsey
    Feb 16, 2023 | 6:00 am
    La Diabla Bar Houston

    La Diabla Retro Bar opens this weekend.

    La Diabla Retro Bar Houston/Facebook

    This weekend marks the last of Mardi Gras! Galveston, as the party on the island wraps up on Fat Tuesday, February 21. Those is Sugar Land don't have to head to Galveston to celebrate the season, as Pardy Gras hits the 'burb on Saturday.

    A cool retro bar dedicated to '80s and '90s Mexico City pop culture (how's that for niche?) opens this weekend, and a James Beard Award winner pops up for a special collab with a local restaurant. Look for some cool art openings showcasing Islamic and Asian art, plus an age-old comedy with a special twist for Valentine's Day.

    Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

    Thursday, February 16

    Musiqa Mixer | New Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

    To celebrate the upcoming opening of the Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds, enjoy a free Musiqa Mixer concert in the Kinder Building, with music selections inspired by the art that will be on view in the Law Building. The program features music by Aftab Darvishi, Erberk Eryılmaz, Gity Razaz, and Kareem Roustom. Performers include Caio Alves Diniz, Jackson Guillen, Jacob Schafer, and Sergein Yap. 6:30 pm.

    Cone Man Running Productions and Boiling Point Players present The Importance of Being Earnest

    The Importance of Being Earnest is a trivial comedy for serious people, just in time for Valentine's Day. Do you want to know how important it is to be earnest when in love? First performed on February 14, 1895 in London, this is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fake alibis to escape social obligations. What happens when they fall in love and their fake alibis are discovered? This production from Cone Man Running Productions and Boiling Point Players will feature an all-female cast. 8 pm.

    La Diabla Retro Bar Grand Opening

    La Diabla Retro Bar by La Calle Tacos, a bold, new nightclub and bar from the authentic Mexican street food masters, will open its doors in Houston’s Market Square Park this weekend. At its heart, La Diabla is an ode to '80s and '90s Mexico City pop culture, joyfully expressed through cocktails, chelas (beers), music, and art. The grand opening will feature local music artists Jaky Alarcon, Stereo Cover, and DJ Cris, while guests sip frozen margaritas, mojitos and piña coladas, and enjoy mouthwatering flautas. 8 pm.

    Friday, February 17

    BBCC Artist Showcase Opening Mixer at Project Row Houses

    This event will display artwork from seven Building Blocks of Creative Careers (BBCC) program participants and established local artists they were paired with, serving as mentors during this six-month process. Throughout the course of this program, the paired mentees and mentors have worked together to develop each mentees’ creative practice. Enjoy light bites by Shakti Baum, tunes by Mookie Copeland, and celebrate Cohort 2 and their growth in the Artist Mentorship Program. 6 pm.

    Asia Society Texas Center presents Mekong: SOUL

    In their new, multi-disciplinary performance piece, Emmy Award-winning musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ and composer Jonathan Berger tell three powerful and multi-sensory stories about life on the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. Joined by artists from Southeast Asia, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ and Houston’s Apollo Chamber Players present stories about one of this planet's greatest natural phenomena, which sustains not only life, but also mind, body, and soul. 7:30 pm.

    Houston Symphony presents Songs of the Earth Festival: "Debussy’s La mer"

    Debussy’s La mer is one of classical music’s most unforgettable and immersive experiences. Fragments of La mer ebb and flow throughout Tōru Takemitsu’s haunting concerto for two pianos and orchestra, Quotation of Dream. The conclusion of the Songs of the Earth festival, these concerts also offer the chance to experience Toshio Hosokawa’s breathtaking meditation on nature, Autumn Wind, which features a solo role for the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). 8 pm (2 pm Sunday).

    Saturday, February 18

    Chef Robert McGrath at Leaf & Green

    Local restaurant company Leaf & Grain will host chef/James Beard Award winner Robert McGrath for a special steak collaboration. The company is hosting a guest chef series to celebrate the return of steak to their menu next month. McGrath won the prestigious Best Chef: Southwest JBF award for his Roaring Fork restaurant, and will be collaborating with Leaf & Grain on a Texas "steak nicoise" salad, featuring a fire-roasted tomato vinaigrette. 11 am.

    Pardy Gras at Sugar Land Town Square

    Sugar Land Town Square will transform into the Big Easy for Party Gras! The Square is bringing the best of New Orleans with entertainment by Soul Rebels and DJ Flash Jordan, beverages and bites from The Rouxpour, a street art market, Mardi Gras style bingo, a king cake and oyster-eating contest, and more.Party Gras festivities will be located on Texas Drive. Admission is free, but an RSVP is required. 4 pm.

    16th Annual Houston Film Critics Movie Awards

    Now in its 16th year, the Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS) presents its annual “Oscars-style” event, where the critics vote on their year-end favorites in 17 categories. Hosted by local film critics and movie industry notables, the event also features live, abridged performances of the five Best Song nominees, the awarding of the Texas Independent Film Award, and a few surprises. 7 pm.

    Sunday, February 19

    Lake Houston Home and Outdoor Living Show

    The 3rd Annual Lake Houston Home and Outdoor Show will feature special guest appearances and over 100 exhibitors with the latest in-home products and services on the market. Tom Tynan (HomeShow Radio), Randy Lemmon (host of AM 740 KTRH GardenLine), and Diane Cowen (Houston Chronicle) will all be present. The featured speaker will be Patric Richardson as the Laundry Evangelist, who will share tips on how to wash everything and never use a dry cleaner again. 9 am.

    Alzheimer's Association presents Unforgettable Play

    From the creators of the stage play Forget Me Not comes a story about one family’s journey when a loved one seems to be fading in front of their eyes. After coming to grips with the journey that they must face, life has a new meaning. They see the importance of paying closer attention to warning signs and the importance of taking part in clinical trials in an attempt to cure a disease that has forced them to live in the moment and make unforgettable moments that they can cherish forever. 5 pm.

    Matt Andersen and Mariel Buckley in concert

    Powerhouse vocalist Matt Andersen teams up with indie roots singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley for a show at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands this weekend. The two Canadians will be touring the western United States together to promote their most recent albums – Matt’s The Big Bottle of Joy, coming next month, and Mariel’s Everywhere I Used To Be, released last summer. 7:30 pm.

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    Movie Review

    Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 26, 2025 | 2:30 pm
    Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda
    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.

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