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The 10 Best Things Coming to Amazon Prime Video in December

Eddie Murphy lights up a new holiday movie, plus a stocking full of classic films you'll want to watch all over again


spinner image Eddie Murphy wearing a Merry Christmas sweater in the film "Candy Cane Lane."
Eddie Murphy stars in "Candy Cane Lane."
Claudette Barius/Prime Video

Amazon plans to be more than just a destination for last-minute holiday shopping this December. Its streaming platform, Prime Video, along with its ad-supported free service, Freevee, has a wide variety of movies and TV shows making their debuts — everything from Amazon originals, like the latest season of Lee Child’s Reacher, to classic movies and up-to-the-minute blockbusters. Here’s a tip sheet of the 10 titles we’re most excited about in December. Mark your calendars!

Coming Dec. 1 

Candy Cane Lane (PG-13)

Everyone seems to be getting in on the original holiday movie trend, which the Hallmark Channel kicked off a decade ago. Now Prime Video joins the Christmas derby with a big splash and some heavy-duty star power, thanks to Eddie Murphy, 62, who stars in this family comedy as a guy who will stop at nothing (including teaming up with an elf) to win his neighborhood’s annual cutthroat house-decorating contest.

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Men in Black (1997, PG-13)

Director Barry Sonnenfeld serves up delirious joy-buzzer mayhem in this ’90s sci-fi blockbuster featuring one of the big screen’s great comedy odd couples: Will Smith, 55, and Tommy Lee Jones, 77. One desperately wants you to like him; the other couldn’t care less. And their interplay is aces — as are Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning makeup effects. Together, the bickering duo attempt to rid New York City of all the creepy aliens living undercover in their midst. Also available: the slightly less great but still enjoyable Men in Black II.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005, PG-13)

Brad Pitt, 59, and Angelina Jolie’s off-screen partnership didn’t last all that long, but their on-screen one lives on in this slick and sexy action thriller about a vanilla married couple who discover that not only is their other half a professional assassin, but they’ve each been hired to knock off the other. The action is great, the stars are impossibly gorgeous, and their chemistry is so white-hot it shoots off sparks.

The Dead Zone (1983, R)

Though Dead Zone is rarely mentioned in arguments about the best Stephen King movie adaptations, we’ve always had a soft spot for this eerie supernatural thriller about a man (Christopher Walken, 80 — hard to get eerier than that!) who awakens from a five-year coma only to discover that he has the psychic ability to foresee the future, including how anyone he comes into contact with will die.

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The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, R)

This Aussie import snowballed into a groundbreaking cult sensation thanks to its joyous empathy and its trio of perfectly over-the-top performances from Hugo Weaving, 63, Guy Pearce, 56, and Terence Stamp, 85. They team up to play traveling performers who crisscross the outback bringing their outrageously fabulous stage act to unsuspecting audiences in the sticks.

The Proposal (2009, PG-13)

On paper, The Proposal sounds like the sort of broad formulaic comedy that nine times out of 10 Hollywood would turn into flavorless tapioca mush. But here’s an example of how casting can save the day. Sandra Bullock, 59, plays a type-A businesswoman who convinces her personal assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so she won’t be deported back to her native Canada. What starts purely as a business arrangement soon … well, you can guess the rest. Can you see every twist coming? Sure. But Bullock and Reynolds manage to elevate this comedy into a true gem.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Actors who try their hand at directing are a hit-and-miss bunch. But no one had a better success rate than Charles Laughton, who got behind the camera for just one film and made a masterpiece. The Night of the Hunter is a haunting, slow-burn black-and-white thriller about an amoral ex-con (Robert Mitchum) posing as a preacher to get his hands on a $10,000 fortune that his former cellmate hid in a child’s doll. Don’t take our word for it. Everyone from Martin Scorsese to Spike Lee has championed this classic.

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Cry Macho (2021, PG-13)

Even at 91, Clint Eastwood proved that he still had the goods not just as a director but as a leading man, thanks to his quietly powerful performance as a former rodeo star and horse breeder who agrees to bring a powerful man’s son back from Mexico, where he is holed up with his alcoholic mother — and just happens to find a measure of personal redemption along the way.

Coming Dec. 5

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023 PG-13)

Harrison Ford, 81, has said that this would be his last turn as Indy. And if it truly is, he’s gone out in style. Is Dial of Destiny as rollickingly great as Raiders of the Lost Ark? No. How could it be? But it is a triumphant bounce back from 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Directed by James Mangold (instead of Steven Spielberg), the action sequences have energy and wit, and it’s interesting to get a peek at how everyone’s favorite archaeologist would deal with the ’60s counterculture (not well).

Coming Dec. 15

Reacher, Season 2 (2023)

Some longtime fans of Lee Child’s he-man military investigator complained when Tom Cruise, 61, stepped into Jack Reacher’s shoes on the big screen. Well, there’s been a lot less naysaying about Alan Ritchson’s brawnier portrayal of the bare-knuckle hero in this Prime Video original series, which rolls out Season 2’s first three episodes on Dec. 15, followed by a new episode every Friday thereafter. You’ll want to check out this season, since it’s said to be based on Child’s excellent 11th Jack Reacher novel, Bad Luck and Trouble.

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