weekend event planner

Here are the top 10 things to do in Houston this weekend

A fun birthday bash pops off at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company.

Photo courtesy of Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company

The weekend is officially upon us and, judging by the dysfunctional weather we've had this week, it looks like we're gonna have some sunny, windy, sleety, freezing, sweltering days ahead. For indoor fun, head over to the Galleria on Saturday and Sunday where, to promote the upcoming sequel to The Lego Movie, there will be a Lego Mini-Room. Yes, parents and children can hang at this colorfully blocked area and pretend they're chilling with Lego Batman.

Here are some more fun options to stack your weekend.

Thursday, January 24

An Exchange of Noiz at Sound Exchange
Famed record store Sound Exchange has officially moved from its Montrose location to its new home in the East End. And they have several events planned in the next few weeks to bring in new and old customers, including DJ nights, listening parties, and a show on February 2 featuring metal bands Malignant Altar and Dirty Money. But things will kick off on Thursday with An Exchange of Noiz, a bi-monthly series of live performances dedicated to ambient, noise, electronic, and generally weird music. 7:30 pm.

Chippendales: Let's Misbehave Tour 2019 at House of Blues
Where are all my ladies at? How would like to see some buff, chiseled, Magic Mike-looking men taking off their clothes and shaking what their mommas gave 'em? Well, you girls are definitely in luck. The legendary Chippendales crew will be making a stop in Houston this weekend. Known for its male striptease performances and its dancers' distinctive, upper-body costume of a bow tie, collar, and shirt cuffs worn on an otherwise bare torso, this troupe will be in town, looking for lovely, lonely ladies to straddle. 8 pm.

Friday, January 25

CNCO at Smart Financial Centre
How many of y'all know about the Grammy-nominated pop sensation CNCO? Comprised of five Latino boys: Christopher (Ecuador), ErickBrian (Cuba), Joel (Mexico), Richard (Dominican Republic) and Zabdiel (Puerto Rico), this group formed three years ago from Univision's musical competition La Banda, executive produced by Simon Cowell and Ricky Martin. They're currently on their first headlining, North American tour, promoting their sophomore, self-titled album. 8 pm.

A Fistful of Soul at The Continental Club
After doing their last monthly show several months ago, the retro-R&B DJs of A Fistful of Soul is back at the Continental Club, ready to start up the first of their periodic funk/soul/dance parties. Archie Bell of Archie Bell & the Drells is scheduled to be there and make sure everything is tightened up. And if you can't attend the main event, there will also be an after-party/record swap Saturday afternoon at Insomnia Gallery. This just proves you can't keep a good party down. 10 pm-2 am.

Saturday, January 26

Miss Texas Early Draft Preview at Alley Theatre
After years of turning in stellar, investigative work in books and such magazines as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Texas Monthly, Pulitzer Prize-winning author/journalist Lawrence Wright has been writing for the stage as of late. His historical drama Cleo premiered last year at Alley Theatre. And, now, he's been working on a new production, Miss Texas, a new musical about Texas politics, which will have a dry run of sorts at — once again — Alley Theatre. 4:30 pm.

LAUNCH Fashion Show at Discovery Green
Downtown pop-up boutique LAUNCH will collaborate with Discovery Green to host its first fashion show featuring local designers. Free and open to the public, this celebration of style will give more than 40 Houston-based apparel and accessories designers the opportunity to showcase their talents on the runway. Designer Chloe Dao, winner of Project Runway's second season, will headline the show, which will also include Of Myth & Muse, Marilyn Biles, Magpies & Peacocks, and Kimono Zulu, among others. 5-8 pm.

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company 7th Anniversary Party
The Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company has given Houstonians some great beers over the years: Crush City IPA, Great White Buffalo, Smoke on the Bayou and, our personal favorite, the double IPA More Cowbell — just to name a few. Now, come celebrate the ale factory's seventh anniversary with a whopper of a party. Paid guests will receive a custom, commemorative, anniversary tulip glass, as well as access to 40 one-off, varietal, core, and brewery-only beers. 6 pm.

Sunday, January 27

Pon di Beat at Dance House Fitness
There is this fitness outfit named Pon di Beat that is out to bring "the best of dancehall and Afrobeat dance and dance fitness to Texas." It'll be doing this by flying in instructors from New York and Los Angeles to teach beginner-friendly classes. This weekend, Joe Brown, who was a choreographer for Beyonce's Coachella performance and has done moves for So You Think You Can Dance?, will be a doing a 90-minute step/stroll class (with a Caribbean vibe) in studios in Houston. 1:30-3 pm.

No Date, No Signature at Asia Texas Society Center
Screening as part of this year's Houston Iranian Film Festival, No Date, No Signature is the story of a forensic pathologist who faces a moral dilemma after getting in a car accident with another family. The Iranian entry for Best Language Film at this year's Oscars (it wasn't nominated), this soberly made piece of melodramatic neo-realism features just-trying-to-live characters who are forced to make decisions in a world where doing the right thing is a luxury that cannot be afforded. It's also a great film. 2 pm.

Porrón Pouring Competition and Basque-inspired BBQ at Camerata
In case you've forgotten, Texas Txotx, a celebration of cider and Basque beverages of El País Vasco, is still going on in Houston. On Sunday, Camerata will host Michelle Wallace of Gatlin’s BBQ, who will be serving Basque-inspired barbecue, and Álvaro de la Viña of Selections de la Viña, who will be pouring his imported vino natural. Later, there will be the annual Porrón Pouring Competition, where three celebrity judges will gauge contestants for creativity and skill of their porrón pour. 4 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