Weekend Event Planner

Here are the top 9 things to do in Houston this weekend

Comedy shows, holiday markets, and concerts are just some of the fun events that will be going on around Houston this weekend. Plus, there's the opportunity to get the first glimpse of the new $84 million Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land and enjoy a holiday show at the same time.

This weekend roundup highlights events for everyone in the family to enjoy and offers a great look at the city's creative culture.

We've put together a curated list of nine of the best happenings in the city, but you can check out more events on the CultureMap Events Calendar.

Thursday, December 15

Slow Food Houston presents A Glean Taste

Prepare to "Eat & Drink to Reduce Food Waste" with Slow Food Houston, a group that celebrates and champions the foods and food traditions that are important to our region. This unique dining experience will feature such local chefs as Chandler Rothbard, Soren Pedersen, Pat Greer, Gina Lopez, Ara Malekian, and Jill Bartholome creating six dishes and drinks from items that would typically be considered throw-away food.

Chris D'Elia at Houston Improv

Fans of Chris D'Elia may be familiar with his role on the NBC sitcom Undateable and his other previous standup work. The comedian will bring his standup show to the Houston Improv for three shows this weekend, likely featuring work from his latest Netflix special Incorrigable.

Weird Sh*t New Works Festival

If you've ever had the desire to be a playwright, now's your opportunity. Rec Room is providing the platform for aspiring writers to submit plays (either a 10 minute or one-act) for a $10 fee; selected plays will then be read aloud at various times Thursday through Saturday.

Friday, December 16

Day for Night 2016

Travis Scott, Bjork, Odesza, and many other amazing musical acts are headlining the second annual Day for Night Festival. In addition to great music, mind-blowing art installations create an immersive and interactive experience for festival goers.

EaDo Playhouse presents A New Brain

Houston's newest arts venue and theater company debuts with the Off Broadway brainchild of theater masterminds William Finn and James Lapine, A New Brain. Examining an artist in crisis, the deeply moving, yet hilarious musical reminds us of the healing powers of art and the importance of appreciating every breath. The company's first production continues through Sunday.

Saturday, December 17

Holiday Market at The Four Seasons

Sip on Mexican hot chocolate and mulled wine while the kids build a gingerbread house at the Four Seasons Hotel Holiday Market. You'll likely be delighted by the build-your-own crepe station and the festive holiday decor that adorns the hotel. Since this is the "Season of Giving," guests can bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to Casa de Esperanza in exchange for a surprise gift from the Four Seasons.

Ruthie Foster in concert

Grammy-nominated blues singer Ruthie Foster has a soulful voice that has been known to emotionally move audiences, and is definitely a voice you'll remember. Also appearing at the concert at the newly renovated Heights Theater is Charlie Belle, an up-and-coming American indie pop duo from Austin.

Sunday, December 18

Taste of the NFL Brunch-Off Preview Party

It's a battle royale as Cafe Annie owner and chef Robert del Grande takes on chef Michael McKinney from Restaurant Orsay in Jacksonville in the Taste of the NFL-Brunch Off. It's a preview of the 26th annual Taste of the NFL party during Super Bowl week at the University of Houston on Feb. 4, 2017, when chefs from all 32 NFL cities will compete. Guests at the preview party are encouraged to wear their favorite team's jersey — we're betting there will be a lot of Texans fans — as they watch TVs showing the Texans-Jacksonville face-off at NRG Stadium.

Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular at Smart Financial Centre

This family-friendly happening will be the first event held at the new Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land in what officials are calling a "soft opening" of the new $84 million arena. The Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular features high flying acrobatics, breathtaking visuals, and holiday songs performed by the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra.

With so many amazing events going on this weekend, we're sure that you'll have a great time checking them out. Be sure to share your experience with us on social media.

Soulful singer Ruthie Davis brings her music to the Heights Theater.

Ruthie Foster/Facebook

Soulful singer Ruthie Davis brings her music to the Heights Theater.

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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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