weekend event planner

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

Sinatra and Beyond brings Rat Pack charm to Houston.

It's a new year — and a new decade.

It's time to reflect on the past and think about the future. It's time to have a positive outlook, go outside and get some exercise, eat healthy, set new goals, lay off the social media, and do something meaningful with our time.

It's also time for some fun, especially on the first weekend of the New Year:

Thursday, January 2

13th Annual Houston Film Critics Society Awards
It’s time once again for the Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS) to hand out honors during the group’s ticketed, “awards-style” program. But not only will they be awarding the best films and performances of the past year. They will also honor B-movie legend Roger Corman. First, they’re gonna give him a lifetime achievement award. Then, the following night (also at MFAH), there will be a screening of his 1964 film, The Masque of the Red Death, at 7 pm. Corman will be around afterwards for a post-screening discussion/Q &A, moderated by longtime, local film scribe Joe Leydon. 7 pm.

Steve Byrne at Improv Houston
Coming from New Jersey (aka Springsteen territory), comedian Steve Byrne has built a nice career out of being a half-Irish, half-Korean comic for the people. He starred as a lawyer who goes back to his working-class roots and takes over his father's bar in the short-lived TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son (which he also co-created). And, since he's a big supporter of the troops, he's also headlined several USO tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and more. Catch him doing some red-blooded jokes this weekend. 8 pm (7:30 and 9:45 pm Friday; 7 and 9:30 pm Saturday).

Bewitched '90s Goth Klub Party at Etro Lounge
Who wants to start off the New Year by going back in time to the '90s, when Houston kids were truly goth, reading Sylvia Plath, dressing in black and mostly hanging out at Numbers? Well, this retro party will be playing all things goth, industrial, darkwave, and more — from Nine Inch Nails to The Cure to Type O Negative to Siouxsie and the Banshees. DJs Damon & Franki will play the music, while art-house films, classic horror chillers, and music docs will play on the screens all night. 10 pm-2 am.

Friday, January 3

Every Night's a Saturday Night: The Bobby Keys Story at 14 Pews
Hailing from Slaton, Texas, Bobby Keys was considered one of the best rock-and-roll saxophonists in the world. He played with The Rolling Stones (that was him on "Brown Sugar"), John Lennon, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and a number of Texas musicians, including Joe Ely. He passed away in 2014 from liver cancer, at the age of 71, but you can find out more about the man and his musical legacy with this documentary, which covers everything from playing with Elvis to his heroin addiction to playing with the Stones in the last decade. 7 pm.

Sinatra and Beyond at Jones Hall
Who wants to ring-a-ding-ding the New Year in? Houston Symphony will be serving that up with a weekend of shows. Tony DeSare, one of today’s leading Sinatra interpreters, recreates the Rat Pack swagger and timeless magic of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, delivering showstoppers like "Come Fly with Me" and "New York, New York." All we gotta say is if he doesn't do Sinatra's swinging, Quincy Jones-arranged version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Wives and Lovers," we'll be really bummed. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, January 4

Saturday Discovery Camp at The Health Museum
For kiddos between the ages of 5 to 13, The Health Museum will host a one-day, Saturday Discovery Camp for all curious youngsters. Participants will take part in a full day of science and medical-focused experiences, including viewing a real human brain, live dissections of a sheep brain, practicing basic surgical skills such as suturing and stitching, learning how to start an IV and take blood, as well as how to properly read and analyze x-rays, among various others. 9 am-3 pm.

"Urban Observations: Joel Anderson" at Archway Gallery
It seems Joel Anderson is a big fan of "encaustic painting" — beeswax mixed with damar resin — which was practiced by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century B.C., and later revived by Diego Rivera and Jasper Johns. Anderson incorporates modern digital methods in his new show, which captures his love for this city. He even became a FAA-certified drone pilot to get a bird’s eye view high above the power lines. Will run through January 30. 5-8 pm.

Sunday, January 5

Texas Center for the Missing Fundraiser at Poison Girl
Yes, Poison Girl is a nice, little hangout where people can go after work, drink and look at all the velvet paintings they have. But, once in a while, they'll put on a gathering that's more about doing some good in this community. This weekend, the bar will hold a fundraiser for Texas Center for the Missing, which provides crisis intervention, prevention and community education to the missing and their families. Food will be for sale between 4 and 7 pm. 3 pm.

Moonrise Kingdom at Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
While people may feel that The Grand Budapest Hotel, which won several Oscars in 2015, is the best film acclaimed filmmaker (and proud Houstonian) Wes Anderson dropped this past decade, excuse us for having a soft place in our hearts for this 2012 romantic comedy. An all-star cast (we're talking Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, etc.) basically turn a New England island upside down trying to find a couple of missing preteens in love. 3:15 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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