weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Look forward to a spirited Saturday.

Houston's diversity is in the spotlight this weekend, with festivals celebrating Iran and Turkey. Speaking of festivals, Texas Txotx runs Friday through January 31. Bars, restaurants, and bottle shops throughout Texas will be pouring fine ciders and wines from the El Pais Vasco region and establishments will host tastings, dinners, and happy hours.

Here are some other fun events happening this weekend.

Thursday, January 17

College Night at Main Street Theater
For the next three Thursdays, Main Street Theater has some free theater for y'all. The theater will be having free showings of the offbeat comedy The Secretary. Visit the website to reserve your ticket and bring your ID to the show so you can get it. This is good for those who love theater but can't afford the prices or those who just want to have an entertaining night with their friends, family, or significant other. 7:30 pm.

Friday, January 18

26th Annual Iranian Film Festival
Houston's annual Iranian Film Festival, established by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Rice Cinema, is back again for its 26th edition. This year's collection of films will be screened at both locations as well as Asia Society Texas Center. The first movie out the gate, which will be screened at the museum, is 3 Faces (Se rokh), the latest film from Jafar Panahi, who has been banned from making films in Iran. This one has him traveling to northwest Iran to help an aspiring actress. 7 pm.

2nd Annual Turkish Music Festival
Turkey isn't just a part of the world that gave us coffee, baths, and confectionery delights. There is a rich history of music that has come out of there, much of which will spotlighted at this two-day festival. This will feature a wide range of Turkish traditions, from folk music and Ottoman court music to the contemporary music of Turkey. It will be presented by The Hoppa Project and feature award-winning musicians from the traditional Turkish music and classical music worlds. 7:30 pm (8 pm Saturday).

10th Annual Yaga’s Chili Quest & Beer Fest
This two-day extravaganza will feature 100-plus varieties of craft and imported beer selections and over 65 chili cook-off teams. There will also be live music, a variety of vendors, a 5K fun run, a strand merchant walk-about, margarita and washers contests and, more importantly, a diverse crowd. 8 pm (9 am Saturday).

Saturday, January 19

Memorial Park Conservancy presents Memorial Park Arbor Day
In celebration of Arbor Day, local nonprofit Trees for Houston will host its 4th annual, Arbor Day community planning event. Volunteers will plant over 870 native trees along Memorial Park's northeastern border that will help the park's ongoing, ecological restoration efforts. Volunteers are invited to join and be part of a planting that will leave a multi-generation legacy and will impact thousands of Houstonians. 9 am.

Whiskey, Cigars and Gumbo at Barge295
It's gonna be a smoky Saturday over at Barge295. It all starts off with a First Annual Gumbo Cook-Off, where teams will be prepping their signature pots of creole magic before they get judged on aroma, consistency, color, taste, and aftertaste. There will also be a whiskey and cigar social on the same day, where folks can dive into the world of fine cigars while six whiskey brands (Larceny Bourbon, Devil's River Whiskey, etc.) pour from 3 to 6:30 pm. 10 am.

Da Camera presents Jazzmeia Horn Septet
Da Camera of Houston will be bringing in Jazzmeia Horn for a special show at Wortham Theater Center. Winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Competition, this Texas-born young singer arrives after recording her debut, A Social Call, an album that reveals a performer ready to take her place alongside the best headlining jazz vocalists of today. 8 pm.

Sunday, January 20

Dave Fenley at The Rustic
Dave Fenley, singer/songwriter and a finalist on The Voice, will give a free concert in Houston on Sunday. Born and raised in Lufkin, Texas, Fenley began trying his hand at guitar as a teenager, playing in bars and small music venues. He became serious about songwriting during college and, after his time on The Voice, Fenley was ready to take on the country music scene with new songs and a band to back him up. He is now taking his sound on the road, performing songs from his album The Spread Love Sessions, Vol. 1. 9 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

---

Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

movies film

weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Stylish new lounge shakes up Houston with art-inspired drinks and caviar

These are the 6 most affordable ZIP codes for Houston renters

Bank of America closes branches across U.S., including 1 in Houston

Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero