weekend event planner

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

Things get buzzy at the Houston Zoo on Thursday.

Photo courtesy of Houston Zoo

In all likelihood, many Houstonians will be clogging up multiplexes this weekend to see Avengers: Endgame, the supposedly final chapter in the Avengers saga. (We've seen it, and let's just say it's the biggest — and longest — freakin' curtain call for a blockbuster franchise we've ever seen.)

For those not geeking out, look for a boozy zoo shindig, unique shopping experience, and a fun scavenger hunt. Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, April 25

The Peanuts Project: The Heavens and the Earth at Space Center Houston
If you're a fan of both Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip and space travel, there is an event happening that's tailor-made for you. Join the Peanuts Gang as they celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 10, featuring out-of-this-world festivities in this groundbreaking, arts initiative launch event. The event will unveil a temporary, new art installation of an ISS Module, wrapped in an original Charlie Brown and Snoopy motif by artist Kenny Scharf. You can watch Scharf paint a piece of art live, participate in hands-on Pop-Up Science Labs and meet Snoopy in-person. 10 am.

Brew at the Zoo at Houston Zoo
This event gives beer drinkers the opportunity to sample some delicious beers (and get a little buzzed) while looking at some exotic animals. Some of the best beers from Texas and surrounding areas will be highlighted. And, as you sip, stroll through parts of the Houston Zoo and check out some of your favorite animals. You can see special presentations with elephants, jaguars, sea lions, and more. Plus, enjoy live music by local artists. Pub-style grub will also be available for purchase throughout the event. 7 pm.

Friday, April 26

Soliloquy at 14 Pews
Here is something for African-Americans quietly struggling with their mental health. In observance of National Sexual and Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, this performance art installation translates personal narrative to examine the complexities of the mental health as it relates to the African-American community. Four artists, through the mediums of visual art, song, dance and spoken word, will detail their experiences with anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and depression to engage the audience in a raw, transparent, and candid conversation about mental health. 7 pm.

Darlene Love at Miller Outdoor Theatre
If you're a fan of the great Darlene Love, you know that the '60s soul legend used to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra on Late Show with David Letterman every holiday season. Letterman's not on the air anymore, but perhaps his successor Stephen Colbert could start a new yuletide tradition with Love and have her perform another Christmas tune she recorded, "Christmastime for the Jews," for Saturday Night Live in 2005. (Just throwing that out there.) 8:15 pm.

Saturday, April 27

So What?! Music Festival at White Oak Music Hall
The So What?! Music Festival began in 2008 in Dallas, back when it was called South by So What?!. For a decade, this rock fest was a usual spring attraction there until it took some time off last year to regroup. Now, the fest is back and will be taking over White Oak Music Hall this weekend. Among the bands that will be performing on Saturday and Sunday: Beartooth, Of Mice and Men, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Crown the Empire, Wage War, After the Burial, Fit for a King, and oh-so-much more. 4 pm.

Super Gayla 2019 at The Ballroom at Bayou Place
We have a fantabulous spectacle popping off this weekend. This soiree will allow participants to mix and mingle with over 500 community leaders and friends. There will be an open bar, wine and champagne, dinner with an inspiring program, and local and international talent on stage. Hosted by local performer Blackberri, the featured acts will include vocalist/songwriter Eric Michael Krop and world-renowned musical duo Amy and Freddy. Ticket sales and sponsorships will support rapid rehousing services for local LGBTQ homeless youth. 6 pm.

Sunday, April 28

The 2nd Annual MAI Outdoor Market at Houston Design Center
Memorial Antiques & Interiors is hitting folks with its second annual Outdoor Market, a unique shopping experience reminiscent of open-air European markets. Guests can shop premier vendors and designer goods, including antiques, art, furnishings, jewelry, textiles, and more. Look for more than 40 premier trunk show vendors and showroom surpluses, delicious treats from Picnic on the Green and Tila's Taco Truck, activities for kids (including face painting), pet adoptions benefiting a local charity, and more. 9 am.

Susan's Rally in the Fight Against Cancer
For the 26th consecutive year, drivers and their fun-loving passengers will set off for a combination scavenger hunt/historical tour in support of Susan's Rally and the fight against cancer. Susan’s Rally is a 501(c)(3) organization founded by Houston designer Bruce Roberson in memory of his sister, Susan Roberson Wade, whose life was taken by breast cancer. Supporters in teams of two or more, guided by written instructions, will follow a pre-determined route that will take them to some of the city’s best examples of art deco architecture and design. Noon.

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.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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