I didn’t see anything in western releases, Anime has Kiddy Girl-AND, the sequel to Kiddy Grade. Taking place 25 years later, the galaxy is once more on the brink of chaos, and two new heroines need to step forward to save it. Squid Girl is also being released this week, silly fun for the aquatically inclined.
There are a number of choices this weekend, but top of the list in my mind is Pixar’s Coco, which just looks like too much fun to miss. It actually starts playing on Wednesday, to take advantage of the long holiday weekend. John Cusack’s new film Singularity could be interesting, but the trailer makes me think I have already seen this movie through a few dozen earlier iterations. I will have to see the documentary Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars, but I don’t think it requires the big screen to make it worthwhile, so I will catch it when it streams. Firangi on the other hand may need the larger venue, so I might have to check that one out this weekend as well.
Topping the list, Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets was an instant classic that didn’t do well in the US, since almost no one here was familiar with the French comic it was based on. We get another French film this week as well in the form of the animation Leap!, original title Ballerina. Birth of the Dragon is also out this week, and while it isn’t genre, The Hitman’s Bodyguard looks like a fun film. The Korean action-thriller The Villainess also hits the shelves this time around, if you haven’t seen it, now is your chance. TV brings us a couple of comedy favorites in the form of The Librarians, Season 3 and Red Dwarf: XII
This is the second DC Universe movie in a row I am excited about (at least I don’t think there has been another since Wonder Woman), I have been looking forward to Justice League for over a year.
There are some great films playing this weekend, but almost all of them seem to be at film festivals. The latest iteration of Murder on the Orient Express looks like the best option to me, but while the book was a masterpiece and the cast is world class, it really isn’t science fiction or even fantasy. I think I will probably spend the weekend binging on season two of Dirk Gently and other equally silly things like the latest Red Dwarf Season 12 episode.
I missed seeing it in the theaters, and it hasn’t been streaming anywhere that I could find (not even on Funimation who have the North American rights), but now it is finally available on Disc: Your Name. Featuring music by the Radwimps, it pretty much broke every theater record in Japan, and won multiple awards. Another winner this week is Westworld: The Complete First Season, an excellent reboot of the original franchise. You can stream at least some of the episodes at that SYFY link, if you haven’t seen it yet you should check it out. Project Itoh: Genocidal Organ is the latest Sci-Fi story in the Project Itoh series, dealing with some fairly current topics. Taken together, the series of feature films covers about 150 years of a parallel history, like yet unlike our own. Finally there is Trollhunters: Season One, with Season 2 available to stream beginning on December 15th.