weekend event planner

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

Welcome the sun and shop and stroll at the Montrose Morning Market.

It's been raining like crazy this week, which means there is a strong possibility several things that are scheduled for this weekend may not happen.

One thing we definitely hope will still go down is the Texas Hot Sauce Festival, which is celebrating 20 years of making people's mouths burn with all the hot sauce, salsa, dips, peppers, spices, marinades, rubs, and jams/jelly that will be available.

Here are some other things that'll be happening — rain or shine:

Thursday, September 19

Whiskies of the World at Houston Chronicle Building
It's that time of year again where, for one magical night, you can have all the whiskey you desire. Yes, Whiskies of the World is back, bringing together distillers from around the world to share their finest spirits and knowledge with whiskey enthusiasts. All the biggies will be there: Scotch, Bourbon, American Craft, Malts, Grains, World, Blends, Scottish, Irish, American, Texan, Canadian, Indian, Australian, and Japanese. Proceeds will benefit Helping a Hero. 6:30 pm.

Il Tuttofare (The Handyman) at The Italian Cultural & Community Center
The Italian Cultural & Community Center will close out its 2019 Contemporary Italian Film Series with this 2018 film, which sounds like a farcical good time just from the premise. A criminal law professor (veteran Italian actor Sergio Castellitto) gets his trainee-lawyer assistant (Guglielmo Poggi) to marry his Argentine lover (Clara Alonso), so she can acquire Italian citizenship. How much are you willing to bet things don't go as smoothly as planned? 7 pm.

Friday, September 20

Deb Never at House of Blues (Bronze Peacock)
Deb Never recently dropped her debut EP, House on Wheels, which showcases her grungy, punk-meets-rap aesthetic and features production work from Dylan Brady, Shlohmo, and D33J. She's also the first female featured vocalist on a BROCKHAMPTON song, titled "NO HALO." Pigeons and Planes says, "Her stirring lyrics and deeply emotive delivery recalls the Washington state music she grew up around, transporting old-school emo sounds into a modern context." So, why not see how she does live. With Dominic Fike. 7 pm.

Near Dark: Black Light Show at Insomnia Gallery
If you've ever lived in or visited a college dorm, chances are you've seen a black light poster — you know, one of those groovy art pieces where the ink's fluoresce under black lights. Insomnia Gallery will host a free art show featuring local artists creating work that will all be black-light sensitive. Guests are encouraged to wear neon colors, and highlighters will be on hand if you want to bedazzle yourself. 8 pm to midnight.

Saturday, September 21

First Annual Art Supply Drive at Emerson Sloan
Emerson Sloan, known as "the go-to modern party supply store in Houston," is hosting a week-long, art supply drive at both locations — Rice Village and Tanglewood — to benefit The Faris Foundation, which works in numerous ways to reach children diagnosed with cancer. The shops will accept new, child-friendly art supplies and/or monetary donations from Saturday through Sunday, September 29, benefitting the foundation’s Art Is My Life program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center. 10 am to 6 pm (Noon to 5 pm Sunday).

Vino at the Village at Lakeland Village Center
Bridgeland is an 11,400-acre, master-planned community located in Cypress, Texas, and is currently ranked as the No. 1 top-selling, master-planned community in Houston. This award-winning development will host a sip-and-stroll event that'll be open to the public. For a $10 purchase, guests will enjoy sipping wine samples along the center’s streets. The wine offerings have been selected to complement the flavors of the various dishes that are being prepared specifically for this event. 5-9 pm.

Sunday, August 22

Montrose Morning Market
Every Sunday, the Montrose Marking Market is out here, bringing together a collection of local farmers, bakers and tasty treat makers, as well as curated local makers selling an array of handmade goods. Products include produce, gourmet foods, baked goods, jewelry, clothing, home goods, photography, plants, and more. They also feature a local musician on select market dates. And, remember: complimentary mimosas for those who support local vendors. 10 am to 2 pm.

RoboCop at Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
It's hard to believe that RoboCop, Paul Verhoeven's insanely gory, over-the-top, dystopian actioner/satire from 1987 was such a success, it inspired an action figure line for kids. We're sure Verhoeven and screenwriters Michael Miner and Edward Neumeier weren't thinking of the kiddies when they came up with such notoriously bloody scenes as this one. Nevertheless, the movie is still 10 times better than that all-star remake trash that came out several years ago. 3 pm.

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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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weekend event planner

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

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Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.