The world's friendliest golf tournament

Even Tiger Woods might smile in a Houston Open

One of the first things you notice when you walk into the Shell Houston Open — especially if you've gone to other pro golf tournaments around the country — is the smiles.

There's no one shaking you down at the entrance, all but conducting a cavity search to ensure that no one brings in that always deadly-cellphone (yes, you can probably sneaks yours in, but don't let it ring). Instead, there's a self-check cellphone tent, an actual honors' system in the year 2010. Yes, it's shocking, but grown men and women are treated like adults. At least if you go through the red parking lot entrance, which isn't even the official media entrance (most tournaments shake down reporters, demanding authorization stickers for cellphones anyways).

The marshals at Redstone Golf Club also obviously need immediate retraining. Because these volunteers aren't the usual storm-trooper, power-hungry types you find at almost every other PGA Tour stop. They don't act like the fate of the free world depends on their raising of those little placards asking for quiet. They don't treat Houston golf fans the way police officers approach a drunk college kid, which is sadly standard tournament marshal operating procedure around the rest of the country.

Maybe, it's because Houston's marshals aren't all bitter 70-year-olds (sorry Arizona) who regard their little piece of assigned golf course turf like it's their own front lawn under siege from a bunch of punks.

But the loony differences of the Houston Open even extend to the security guys. They actually say hi to passing fans. It's so jarring at first, that I always have to remind myself that I'm in Houston (OK Humble). I've covered PGA Tour tournaments around the country. For years, golf was my beat — and I've seen Tour stops all around the country. And there's nothing else as relaxed, as welcoming, as the Houston Open. This attitude at the Houston Open probably helped lay a subliminal foundation for my decision to move here.

You just can't come to the Houston Open as an out-of-towner and not feel welcome. I'm reminded of that now even when I show up as a resident media member.

This type of sunny-side writing doesn't come easy to me (it's actually sort of making me sick — as anyone who's read me in even just my brief time at CultureMap can attest, I can be a harsh critic). I pride myself on being a measured cynic who never sugarcoats things. I'll tell you the truth about what a phony sports figure like Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is really like (the first thing most people ask you when they found out you've been a sportswriter is how the athletes and coaches really act and I've never understood why so many sportswriters lie with their answers).

Believe it or not, Tiger Woods didn't just suddenly turn grumpy when he backed into that fire hydrant. And University of Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades didn't suddenly start making dumb decisions in this comically-completed coaching search.

And the truth is no PGA Tour stop is more friendly and relaxed than Houston's. It's just run with class.

Now, I've been put in a good mood. Damn this place.

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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.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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