Going Gaga

Super Bowl queen Lady Gaga launches global tour including 3 Texas shows

Lady Gaga is coming to Texas in December.

Photo courtesy of Interscope

Lady Gaga knows how to capture momentum. Fresh off her Super Bowl appearance, the pop star unveiled a new 2017 tour traveling the globe, with three stops in Texas in December.

The Joanne World Tour begins in August in Vancouver, British Columbia, veering through Europe and the United Kingdom in the fall, before returning to the United States in November.

Her sweep through Texas will start in Houston on December 3, when she'll perform at Toyota Center. She'll hit Austin's Frank Erwin Center on December 5, and visit Dallas on December 8 at American Airlines Center.

Tickets for the concerts in Dallas, Austin, and Houston will go on sale February 20 at 10 am at Ticketmaster.com. There will be a ticket limit of eight tickets per transaction for all first-day sales.

All arena performances will feature general admission on the floor. The four U.S. stadium shows, which do not include any of the dates in Texas, have reserved seating on the floor; reserved seating will be available in all venues in the stands.

For the three Texas dates, Citi cardmembers get a pre-sale from February 15-19; for details visit citiprivatepass.com. (There is still an eight-ticket limit per transaction.)

The tour supports Lady Gaga's fifth studio album, Joanne, which was released in October 2016. The record features songwriting collaborations with Mark Ronson and Father John Misty, plus a duet with English singer Florence Welch.

Lady Gaga's itinerary is as follows:

August 1 Vancouver / Rogers Arena
August 3 Edmonton / Rogers Place
August 5 Tacoma / Tacoma Dome
August 8 Los Angeles / The Forum
August 11 Las Vegas / T-Mobile Arena
August 13 San Francisco / AT&T Park (Stadium)
August 15 Sacramento / Golden 1 Center
August 19 Omaha / CenturyLink Center
August 21 St. Paul, Minnesota / Xcel Energy Center
August 23 Cleveland / Quicken Loans Arena
August 25 Chicago / Wrigley Field (Stadium)
August 28 New York City / Citi Field (Stadium)
September 1 Boston / Fenway Park (Stadium)
September 4 Montreal / Bell Centre
September 6 Toronto / Air Canada Centre
September 10 Philadelphia / Wells Fargo Center
September 15 Rio De Janeiro / Rock In Rio Festival
September 22 Barcelona / Palau Sant Jordi
September 24 Zurich / Hallenstadion
September 26 Milan / Mediolanum Forum
September 29 Hamburg / Barclaycard Arena
October 1 Antwerp / Sportpaleis
October 3 Amsterdam / Ziggo Dome
October 7 Paris / AccorHotels Arena
October 9 London / O2 Arena
October 15 Birmingham / Barclaycard Arena
October 17 Manchester / Manchester Arena
October 21 Copenhagen / Royal Arena
October 23 Stockholm / Ericsson Globe
October 26 Berlin / Mercedes-Benz Arena
October 28 Koln / Lanxess Arena
November 5 Indianapolis / Bankers Life Fieldhouse
November 7 Detroit / Little Caesars Arena
November 10 Uncasville, Connecticut / Mohegan Sun
November 13 Louisville / KFC Yum! Center
November 15 Kansas City / Sprint Center
November 16 St. Louis / Scottrade Center
November 19 Washington, DC / Verizon Center
November 20 Pittsburgh / PPG Paints Arena
November 28 Atlanta / Philips Arena
November 30 Miami / American Airlines Arena
December 1 Tampa / Amalie Arena
December 3 Houston / Toyota Center
December 5 Austin / Frank Erwin Center
December 8 Dallas / American Airlines Center
December 9 Oklahoma City / Chesapeake Energy Arena
December 12 Denver / Pepsi Center
December 14 Salt Lake City / Vivint Smart Home Arena

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Movie Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 plays to the interests of video game fans

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers — with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) — to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

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