Since its completion in 1973, Lake Conroe has been regarded as a recreational playground of boating, fishing, camping, birdwatching and more for the Houston region.
The lake covers a 21,000-acre area west of Interstate 45 in Montgomery County with the northern end reaching in to southern Walker County. Within the lake there are several distinctive islands each with its own character and purpose to recreation seekers and wildlife.
Here’s what to know about the six islands within Lake Conroe:
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Basics of Lake Conroe
According to a history of the lake from the San Jacinto River Authority, the lake was planned and constructed shortly after a record 7-year drought in the 1950s.
Through a partnership agreement, the river authority partnered with Houston and the Texas Water Development Board in 1968 to jointly construct a water supply reservoir, Lake Conroe, on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.
The Lake Conroe dam was completed in January 1973 and it was filled by Oct. 31, 1973, after the area received significant rain throughout the year.
Michael Hallett, a resident of the Harbour Town community on Lake Conroe, said when Lake Conroe filled there were shallow areas off the Seven Coves neighborhood that created Ayers Island and Bird Island, which rose up from the waters on the east side of the lake.
Ayers Island
Ayers Island is a well-known 1.5-acre island that can be reached by boat on the lake. There’s shallower swimming spots and several trees for a shady picnic. The island is maintained by the San Jacinto River Authority which mows, weeds and cleans up the island after major events like holiday weekends.
In 2004, a $50,000 rehabilitation project took place at the island to build a bulkhead along the shoreline to prevent erosion and leveling the terrain to keep the area manageable. Boaters leaving trash on the island was also an issue and greater efforts were made to keep the island clean.
Glass containers are prohibited on the island. Cruisin Tikis on Lake Conroe offers a three-hour swim cruise on their tiki vessel from Waterpoint Marina on the south end of the lake to Ayers Island.
Bird Island
Efforts are currently underway by several Lake Conroe residents to restore Bird Island off of the Seven Coves and Harbour Town neighborhoods.
The piece of land that rises up from Lake Conroe is a roosting spot for a variety of native and migratory birds such as white “cattle” egrets, black cormorants, gray herons, ducks and the Anhinga, a black bird known more commonly as “water turkeys.”
The migratory American White Pelican, a bird that is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, also pass through from February to May.
Hallett and Madi Bullock have launched a project to rehab the island. Hallett estimates the original size of Bird Island was at least 2 acres going back to the 1970s. He believes the island is now less than a quarter of an acre due to winds and erosion. It was three times that size when he moved in 17 years ago.
They have launched the Bird Island Rescue website and are working with local agencies and elected officials on a plan for Bird Island’s future.
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Bentwater islands
The Bentwater community on Lake Conroe is just south of FM 1097 on the western side of the lake.
The neighborhood has two islands that extend into the lake — Benthaven and Green Isle Beach. Both islands are attached to the main neighborhood by bridge and both are filled with nearly all waterfront homes.
Benthaven is the larger of the two islands with approximately 40 to 50 homes on the island. Bruce Sellers, resident of Bentwater and Realtor, said they were both high spots in the lake adjacent to Bentwater when the lake was built in the early 1990s.
Both are gated communities within Bentwater with their own homeowners groups. The groups own and maintain the bridges and the common areas of the island.
He said the islands offer exclusive, higher-end homes. When former president Donald Trump was campaigning prior to the 2016 election, he was hosted at one of the homes on Benthaven island.
Green Isle Beach is the smaller island with 10 homes and a park that juts out into Lake Conroe.
National forest islands
On the northern end of the lake, there are two undeveloped and unnamed islands within the Sam Houston National Forest. The islands are south of FM 1375 in Walker County and west of the Cagle Recreation Area.
According to Mandy Chumley, public affairs specialist with the forest service, the islands are 11 and five acres in size, respectively.
“These islands are both accessible by water and we encourage visitors to recreate responsibly. The shoreline areas have vegetation and shallow waters; we ask that visitors respect the natural environment to ensure these areas remain pristine for future generations,” she said.
Montgomery County has five Rotary Clubs spread throughout the county. The Rotary Club of Conroe was established in 1932 and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Huntsville. The Rotary Club of The Woodlands was established fifty years ago and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Conroe. Over the years, Rotary Clubs were established in the areas of Lake Conroe, Magnolia, and East Montgomery County.
These five Club have helped each other over the years with the Rotary Club of Lake Conroe extending its fellowship and support to all of the County’s Rotary Clubs. These Rotary Clubs traditionally host “Pigskin Previews” hosting the head football coaches of the local high schools to talk about their approaches in their athletic programs. Rotary Clubs in Conroe and The Woodlands heard about their local athletic programs. Tomorrow, the Rotary Club of Magnolia will host their local high school head football coaches at noon at 11659 F. M 1488 in the Magnolia area. All are welcome to attend.
The Rotary Club of Magnolia is also known for its annual Nature and Outdoor Fair. The Magnolia Rotary Club, in partnership with the Lake Creek Greenway Partnership, announces its 2024 Fundraiser project to take place on Saturday November 9th from 11am to 3pm at the Magnolia ISD Event Center. Eighty plus exhibitors will be there to provide information about the outdoors in Montgomery County along with exhibits on “Mother Nature.”
Exhibitors range from Air Alliance Houston to Wildlife Federation and in between including the Sierra Club along with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. This is a great Family Fun event. There will be a variety of live animals for you to learn about such as hawks, snakes, wolves, and more. One of this Club’s contribution to Montgomery County is its “pollinator gardens” which received special recognition in the Houston Chronicle. There is plenty of parking at this event located at 11659 F. M. 1488 in the Magnolia Area. Funds raised go to sponsoring high school junior students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA) and the Lone Star College Student Fund. Free tree seedlings will also be handed to this event’s visitors along with “handfuls” of information on Montgomery County.
Sponsorship to this events are still available by emailing GRBuckley419@comcast.net.
The Rotary Club of Conroe is gearing up to renew the Spirits of Texas featuring Texas Wines and Texas Beers on Tuesday evening, October 29, 2024. The recent pandemic sidelined this annual event until recently. This event features Texas Wines, Texas Beers, Texas foods, and Texas live music in historic downtown Conroe. This events pairs Texas spirits (i. e. wines and beers) with the spirits of Halloween and therefore, hence the name of Spirits of Texas. Costumes are optional. This will be a fun time for families with tickets at $50 per adult patron. Funds raised at this event will benefit the youth of Montgomery County.
For more information on Rotary service projects and Rotary values, please contact Ron Saikowski at rsaikowski@comcast.net.
The Conroe Noon Lions Club is “roaring” out of summer and into the future! This week’s meeting welcomed new members Mikayla Brennan, Madison Perry, Pablo Sanchez, Geren Sims and Justin Watkins. In the meantime, many “old” Lions received awards this past week for YEARS of perfect attendance ranging from one year all the way to 15 years! Fifteen club members represented 110 years of perfect attendance, congratulations!
With the new Lion year comes the drive to bring on Community Partners under our annual Community Partners program. This program began many years ago when Lion Monarch, Don Buckalew, led the effort to expand our reach by tapping community resources outside of the Lions Club circle.
This program is unique in that it allows local businesses and citizens to partner in our activities during the year by donating to our community services projects just once a year. These Community Partner charitable contributions are considered tax deductible, and they allow community businesses to share the burdens of meeting serious needs in our area. Community Partner sales are happening through the month of August! This is your one-time-a-year chance to contribute and receive a FULL YEAR of goodies in return which includes a free pass to some of the fun events the Lions put on during the year. You don’t want to miss out—contact Conroe Noon Lions Club to sign up today!
This month, the Lions Club is asking for nominations for our HOMETOWN MILITARY HERO of the year. This recognition is earned by a local active-duty member of our Armed Services whose hometown is the Conroe Community. Conroe Noon Lions Club cares for, respects and honors our military men and women. The person we adopt will be recognized, supported and sent little appreciation wherever they are deployed during the Club year. Please contact Lion Sharene Carr through the Lions Club Office for information.
This week’s program was a very moving presentation by Lion Christie Sproba about her battle with Multiple Sclerosis. She provided some great information about MS and her health journey through MS and cancer. Although MS is different for each person, Christie’s has progressed over the past 10 years and she has gone from using a cane, crutches, and now an electric wheelchair to get around. Christie highly recommends that any person dealing with trouble walking and maintaining balance swallow their pride and obtain any walking aids that will help—even a good wheelchair.
It definitely reduces the struggle to get things done. She believes in nutritional healing and has depended upon it for dealing with a recurrence of breast cancer as well as dealing with the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. Christie’s story inspires us all to eat right, exercise, and work on maintaining good health to get joy out of life.
Lest we forget our primary mission, our club has one of the largest eye-glass restoration programs in the country that allows us to improve the sight of hundreds of adults and children around the world. Lions care about eyesight! Our members routinely meet to receive, sort, clean, repair and distribute eyeglasses on mission trips.
Please come and join us any Wednesday at noon. The food is good, and fellowship is great! The Conroe Noon Lions Club meets on Wednesdays, at noon, at the Lone Star Convention Center. For more information about the Conroe Noon Lions Club, please visit our website, www.conroenoonlions.org, or call the club office at 936-760-1666.
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to what’s going on around you, you know that Bentwater’s growth is non-stop and, since we don’t have the ability to expand beyond our current footprint, the building inside our gates has us bursting at the seams. As you read this, there are already just shy of 2,400 completed homes “on the compound” and another 42 homes currently under construction. And, when you look outside our gates, the expansion across our area of Montgomery County is even more astounding. There’s a new housing development on pretty much every parcel of unimproved land, no exaggeration. There’s even one close by that hasn’t yet broken ground, but has created a lot of chatter in Bentwater because it’ll be just on the other side of FM 1097. So, in an effort to curb some of the speculation and rumors that you may have heard about what’s going on, I’ll share a bit of what I’ve learned.
To help you imagine what this new neighborhood might look like, this is the project of J. Alan Kent Development, a Houston-based developer, who has developed some other communities you might recognize, including Augusta Pines in The Woodlands and Shadow Creek which is nestled between FM 830 and League Line Road. Given that, the expectation is that their marketing activity is likely to attract a clientele who might also find the amenities and lifestyle of Bentwater to their liking as they explore and discover the area. Of course, such demand won’t materialize overnight because they reportedly won’t be breaking ground on the first section until early 2026. It isn’t yet known what levels and types of amenities might be planned, but it’s clear that their acreage isn’t sufficient to include a golf course.
But they do already have their Municipal Utility District (MUD) application filed and approved, so it appears to be the real deal. Once they get started, you can expect that it won’t be long before we have as many as 1,500 new neighbors, all living in high-end, single-family homes (no condos or apartments). And, by then, it’s reasonable to think that enough of the work on FM 1097 might actually be completed and capable of accommodating all those new residents. We can only hope.
Meanwhile, a quick reminder to all you aspiring board members. You only have a few days left to polish you resumes and submit your application to get on the ballot. Gotta get it done by next Friday, the 23rd at noon. Tick. Tock.
Send Bentwater fun news and social tidbits to Bruce at Bruce@TheLakeConroeGroup.com
The first week of school is in the books for the 2024-25 school year! Time to relax and enjoy what Conroe has to offer while getting ready for fall!
I found a few things coming up this week and next week you may enjoy.
Texas Red Fest featuring the Lacs, Justin Champagne, REHAB, Cypress Spring and Austin Tolliver will be at Heritage Place Park Saturday, Aug. 24 with gates open at 2:00pm. The show begins on stage at 3:00pm. TexRedFest.com for information and tickets.
The High Caliber Gun Show is both Saturday, Aug. 25 and Sunday, Aug. 25 at the Lone Star Convention Center. Entry is $10 and kids under 12 are free.
Get ready for the first game of the Fall Football Season at Conroe High School Friday, Aug. 30 at Moorhead Stadium against Alief Elsik. Kickoff is 7:00pm. Get pumped up for the Conroe Tigers!
Family Promise of Montgomery County will hist their Annual “Rise Up” Luncheon Thursday, Aug. 29 at 11:00am at Lone Star College, Maverick Center to celebrate families that have graduated from their 90-Day program to independence and to raise funds to assist their mission of helping homeless families with children to become self-sufficient and stable. Get tickets and information at www.FamilyPromiseofMC.org.
Our community theatres start their new 2024-2025 season on Friday, Sept. 6. The Crighton Theatre will premiere “The Play That Goes Wrong” and over at the Owen Theatre “Rock of Ages” will take the stage. Both shows will be for three weeks through Sunday, Sept. 22.
Stay safe. Shop local.
Margie Taylor may be reached at margie@taylorizedpr.com.
Conservation is one of the best solutions to reduce your water bills and reduce problems with your landscape plants and turfgrass during our current dry spell. Watering, fertilizing and maintaining your landscape properly can reduce your water bill by as much as 30 percent. Rather than going to extreme measures and not watering, try another approach that will give desired results and save water. I am sure there are some of you that have looked at your water bill with eyes wide open and said “OUCH!”. Now let’s see if we can help you not make some of the mistakes and save water and money.
The first thing is learning to identify symptoms of drought stress. Look for discoloration and wilting. Leaves can also roll up or close in the heat of the day. This can be true for both turfgrass and landscape plants. With turfgrass, a step test help in predicting moisture need. Grass blades that have adequate water will spring back up. If there is a lack of water, the blades of grass stay compressed from the compaction of walking across the lawn.
Walk across the lawn for about ten paces. Turn around and see if your footprints are still visible. If your footprints are visible from the starting point, water within 24 hours. With landscape plants, temperatures above 98 degrees can cause wilting during the heat of the day. If the plants look fine in the morning and again later in the evening (not wilting), then the plants are getting enough water from the soil.
Watering too little too often or too much can increase susceptibility to insects, fungus and root problems. Watering small amounts with more frequency causes turfgrass to develop shallow roots. With landscape plants, shallow watering will only impact the roots for a short period of time and then evaporates with the heat. Thus, causing permanent damage to the plants systems and ultimately resulting in dieback or plant death. On the other hand, excessive watering will result in run-off (especially with clay soils) or excessive soil moisture that leads to lack of oxygen for roots. Regardless, both methods can increase susceptibility to insects, fungus and disease. So, watering deeply and infrequently is your best and most productive option. On another note, use irrigation devices that produce large drops or heavy streams of water. Fine mists and small drops of water have a greater chance of evaporating and not making their way down into the soil.
So, how much water do you apply and for how long do you set the timer? Research shows that turf requires 1 inch of water per week to sustain healthy vigorous growth. With that said, if it rains 2 inches on any given day, we technically should not have to water for 2 weeks. You will notice I said “technically”. Other factors include evaporation, wind, soil type and plant water-use requirements just to name a few. Now back to the initial question. An easy way to determine how long you will need to water is to perform an irrigation audit. This can be done with an irrigation system or with hose-end devices.
Randomly place a couple of coffee cans or rain gauges in the yard (or irrigation station) and measure how much water is accumulated in a predetermined amount of time. This will allow you to gauge how long to water each time you irrigate. Established grasses with good root systems should be able to survive at least three days between water events.
After performing an irrigation audit you should be able to increase your conservation effort without sacrificing your lawn.
Cutting back on fertilization can also reduce water consumption. Applying fertilizer in the spring and fall will generally keep things healthy and attractive. Fertilizing during the heat of the summer or during droughts, especially with high nitrogen fertilizer, will increase growth but increases water consumption. However, with the current stress level in plants, fertilizing will only increase stress and ultimately result in more susceptibility to problems.
Lastly, avoid cutting back landscape plants until temperatures cool down and normal rainfall relieves plant stress. Hopefully plants will start to see some reprieve soon and can start the recovery process.
How to preform an irrigation audit
An irrigation audit involves inspection of all irrigation heads to determine that all function properly. Check each nozzle to make sure they are not clogged or that grass or other obstructions do not impede the distribution of water. After inspecting the nozzles, set out a series of cups in a grid pattern over the field or a specific zone of the irrigation system. Next, turn on the sprinklers for a specified amount of time. After the irrigation is off, measure the amount or depth of water in each cup or can. When all cups are collected, find an average amount or depth of water in each cup and use that to determine the application rate per hour.Example: 5 measuring cups were used and the irrigation system was run for fifteen minutes. All cups were measured as follows:0.25″ + 0.3″ + 0.27″ + 0.22″ + 0.3″ = 1.34″ ÷ 5 cups = 0.268″ avg. in fifteen minutes.0.268″ per 15 minutes = x”/60 minutes, x = 1.072″ per hour.
Don’t forget to send your garden questions to Plant Answers at 9020 Airport Rd., Conroe TX 77303 or e-mail me at mpotter@ag.tamu.edu.
Montgomery voters soon will decide whether elected officials will serve four years, instead of the current two-year term, as the city continues to grapple with growth.
For nearly a year, officials have been debating extending the term for council members and mayor to three or four years from the current two-year term. During a workshop meeting in October, council members said they find it hard to get a lot of work done with the growth the city has experienced.
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Term lengths debated
As the city of more than 2,000 residents continues to grow, officials said not enough work is accomplished within the two-year term.
“Residents and officials alike were seeing that you can’t get a whole lot accomplished,” said Mayor Sara Countryman. “We needed congruency just in a two-year term.”
On Aug. 13, council members moved forward with including an ordinance that would allow voters on Nov. 6 to choose whether to extend terms for elected officials to four years from two years.
Other Houston-area cities such as Friendswood, Manvel and Dayton have a term length of three to four years, officials said.
“In four years, there’s not as much change on the council side, so (any) initiatives can be seen through,” Countryman said. “And when somebody new gets on the council, there’s still some legacy there that will help guide them.”
‘It’s really hard to get things done’
Previously, council members aired their frustration on serving a two-year term.
“We swap out half the council every year, basically,” said council member Casey Olsen during the October 2023 meeting. “It really throws a (wrench) in agendas. You get a plan going and then, all of a sudden…we got three new members that have a whole new idea. It’s really hard to get things done.”
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Countryman said she expects a record turnout at the polls due to the presidential election this year. And it is “definitely up to us to get the word out and educate voters on what the city has on this ballot.”
“There’s a lot of education that needs to take place before they get to that ballot,” she said.
Montgomery residents will also be voting on whether to reallocate sales tax revenue toward a district to help support law enforcement by funding a new state-of-the-art facility, salaries and equipment.
While it has been nearly two years since Magnolia created a temporary moratorium on building permits for new residential and commercial projects, officials say that hasn’t slowed developer interest to build in the city.
Since 2022, officials have suspended applications for new building permits, with the exception of ongoing projects. This was to address a water capacity shortage caused by growth in the community.
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Booming growth from building
At the time, officials said they thought they could provide the needed water as demand for development spiked.The city of 2,800 residents is projected to increase by 600 percent in 2039 to a population of 53,000.
City Engineer Tim Robertson predicts the moratorium could end near the end of summer 2025 as developers are making changes to their planning.
“They’re not shutting down anything,” Robertson said. “They’re (just) slowing down.”
This comes after council members moved forward on Tuesday with plans to extend the moratorium on building applications for another 120 days, or until they lift the moratorium.
Shortly after, Developers of BCS Capital Group met with council members to try to create a partnership as a way to bring more restaurants into the city.
“They knew full well that we’re in a moratorium,” said Mayor Matt “Doc” Dantzer. “But it’s not stopping them from developing.”
Building more water infrastructure
To address the shortage, two water wells were planned to be built in 2023 as well as additional facilities, with plans to build additional wells each year to keep up with demand. Two wells have already been built with two other wells are in the process of being constructed.
An elevated water storage tank under construction and set to be built by summer 2025 and additional water infrastructure to build more capacity is planned. Currently, the city is in the process of building three ground storage tanks, two wells, two booster pump stations and the elevated storage tank, according to city documents.
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City officials will be holding public hearings between city council and planning and zoning, with a special meeting set for Aug. 21 to vote on a moratorium for 120 days. Council members met during a regular meeting Tuesday for a public hearing and planning and zoning met Thursday for its public hearing.
“We’re still currently in what I like to call ‘catch up mode,’ which is why we are still in a moratorium,” Robertson said. “We will continue to be until we have reached the level where we have regulatory compliance, (where) we have some cushion in there that we can handle the growth.”
Texas has a long history of growing grapes and making great wines. It started with the Spanish Monks successfully growing grapes in the El Paso area in 1682 in order to produce wine for sacramental use in the Catholic Mass. Others followed successfully producing grapes and wines, including the Qualia Family who established Val Verde Winery near what is today Del Rio. Nineteen wineries and vineyards flourished in Texas until the great social experiment called Prohibition began in 1920 and ended on December 5, 1933. Val Verde Winery survived Prohibition by making and selling Sacramental wine. It is in its fourth generation after 141 years of making wines. Their wines can only be purchased at the winery so the general public does not know much about the Qualia Family and Val Verde Winery.
Fast forward to 1968 when two Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) tried a great experiment in planting vitis vinifera grapes on the Texas High Plains on 15 acres of land on the south side of Lubbock at what is now the intersection of 88th Street and Martin Luther King Blvd. These classic European grapes were planted by Clint “Doc” McPherson and Robert Reed, including the first Sangiovese grapes planted in Texas. This experimental vineyard succeeded in transplanting cuttings from an earlier vineyard on the college campus which were doomed by college construction to this remote country location which is now urbanized. Several hundred different vines were researched on this tract named Sagmor Vineyards. It had a small six-foot by 10-foot barn on the property that was used to host Lady Bird Johnson and guests while she tasted their wines on August 25, 1975. Robert Reed was the horticulturalist with McPherson being a Chemistry Professor being the winemaker. The two documented the results of their research with over 100 pages to re-start the Texas Wine Industry. This information has shown that Texas can grow outstanding grapes just like other parts of the world!
In 1972, “Doc” received permission from the College to use a basement to establish Texas’ first state-supported experimental winery. The requirements with this permission is that it could only be used for research. Their efforts showed that Texas could grow grapes and make great wines. Eventually McPherson and Reed along with several investors established the first new winery in Texas since the end of Prohibition 43 years earlier and called it Llano Estacado. These two Texas wine pioneers worked with others to change the State’s antiquated laws on making wines and selling wines. “Doc” told me that there were three generations of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) personnel who had never permitted a winery so he ended up as their “professor” in teaching them how to permit wineries. In addition, “Doc” showed me the walls of the original winery building which house the large stainless steel fermentation tanks which were ten-inch thick cinder blocks. He told me that was protection for his fermentation tanks since Llano Estacado Winery was located in a “wet area” near the Hub of the Bible Belt. He was afraid someone would shoot and damage his tanks.
Dr. Clint McPherson’s son, Kim McPherson of McPherson Winery in Lubbock, continues his father’s legacy in making wine. He has provided to the Texas Historical Commission this wonderful story on the re-start of the Texas Wine Industry in an eleven-page historical narrative. The Texas Historical Commission has recognized this great history and is bestowing a historical marker commemorating the re-birth of the Texas wine industry at Sagmor Vineyard in Lubbock. This is the first Texas Historical Commission marker honoring the Texas wine industry which has grown into a $20.35 billion industry and employing over 100,000.
I encourage the Qualia Family to seek historical recognition for their family’s winery with a Texas Historical Commission marker. In order to receive such recognition, there must be fifty years of history. This means that in the next few years that Llano Estacado Winery, Fall Creek Vineyards, and Messina Hof Winery will also qualify for this distinction. Texas has a proud history!
Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net.
Alien: Romulus
Rated R for language and bloody violent contentIn TheatersAdding to the Alien franchise this week is this new tale from writer/director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe). Taking place sometime after the beginning of Aliens (our only clue is a destroyed Nostromo spacecraft and a mentioning of their being one survivor), the story begins with a young girl and her synthetic brother (Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson) as they find out that are stuck on their sunless mining planet while dreaming of traveling to a far-off location for a fresh start. When a friend in need of a synthetic gives her the opportunity to maybe make this happen, she agrees to a quick salvage trip to the Romulus, a giant ship that has been seemingly abandoned near their planet. But while there, they encounter our favorite xenomorphs who trap and hunt them. Although it seems that most of the films in this franchise are mediocre to bad, the first two films are so good that most fans hold out a lot of hope for the next one. While this one can’t hold a candle to Alien and Aliens, it manages to be both horrifying and entertaining, providing thrills and scares that are both expected and delivered. The narrative is strong enough to be effective, providing good back story with Weyland and a rationale for taking the risks these young men and women are willing to take. Production is also top notch with terrific creature effects, both CGI and practical. Where the film suffers a bit is in its character. The characters from 1 and 2 (and even 3) are vibrant and interesting. Here there is a group of frustrated kids who want a better life, but aside from the main two, there is nothing compelling going on there. That being said, I especially loved David Jonsson as the synthetic. He is a well-written character, and the performance capitalizes on this. The good news is that I wasn’t expecting great, but I was hoping for good, and I got it. I’ve always loved the claustrophobic horror that Alien provides, and this one uses that to its advantage big time. Once you get off the mining planet, the movie is a fast-paced nail-biter that jumps right into the fray and even has an unexpected and thrilling third act that will have audiences freaked out and spoiling it for their friends. So, with that in mind, see it early so that you’re not the friend who gets that ruined for you. B
Jackpot!
Rated R for pervasive language, violence and sexual referencesStreaming on Amazon PrimeIt is the near future (2030) and California has instituted a Grand Lottery where you can win a lot of money, but if you do, anyone can kill you for your winnings for 24 hours. Here, Awkwafina has just moved to Hollywood to try to kickstart an acting career when she inadvertently wins the lottery, triggering violent mobs to start chasing her down. Setting out to help her survive is John Cena who wants a mere 10% to help keep her alive. Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) the film has a high pedigree and a big cast. So why is it going straight to streaming? I would blame the awful premise. While it creates a space for lots of action, it is difficult to get past the basics of the story. That being said, they really go for it hard without flinching. While the action is certainly there in spades, the one thing missing is comedy. There were a couple of giggles, but no real laughs, not that there was really any attempt at comedy made. I’m not even sure if comedy was any part of the goal here. C
Danny Minton may be reached at danny@dannyminton.com.
