The holiday season is finally here, and the best streaming services, including Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney Plus, are sharing their gifts of new movies to curl up and watch while the weather outside is frightful.
We've rounded up some of the best new movies that have just landed on streaming. The first of these is "Candy Cane Lane" (Prime Video), Eddie Murphy's first foray into the world of holiday comedy.
Meanwhile, Disney Plus adds "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Doom," the latest film about everyone's favorite treasure-hunting archaeologist, starring Harrison Ford and the quick-witted Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy's estranged goddaughter. Other new releases include Netflix's body-swapping comedy "Family Switch," starring Ed Helms and Jennifer Garner. Here are the top new films available this week.
Here's a fun fact that might surprise you: in a career spanning over 40 years, Eddie Murphy has yet to make a holiday movie. Until now, that is.
In Murphy's latest film, "Candy Cane Lane," he plays Chris, a recently laid-off father of three. He is determined not to let a bad year end ruin his chances of winning the annual Christmas home decorating contest. In an attempt to make his house the most Christmas-ready in town, Chris strikes a deal with the mischievous elf Pepper (Jillian Bell). She casts a spell that enlivens the 12 days of Christmas and wreaks havoc throughout the town. Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their children race against time to break Pepper's spell.
Available on Prime Video
Harrison Ford's final attempt as the whip-wielding, fedora-wearing archaeologist Indiana Jones did not break box office records. Tom's Guide's Rory Mellon described the streaming release of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Doom" as "definitely a film that can wait."
This time Indy is joined by his estranged goddaughter Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge of "Fleabag" fame, in a race through time. Dial of Destiny opens in the mid-1940s, when Indy and archaeology colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) recover from scientist Juergen Voller (Mats Mikkelson) a time travel device called the Archimedes Dial, stolen by the Nazis. Then we jump to 1969, where Voller is working for NASA and trying to get the dial again while the aging Indy is looking to retire. Of course, before he can put his treasure-hunting days in the past, he gets caught up in yet another adventure, this one stemming from his days kicking Nazi ass in World War II.
Available on Disney Plus
After wreaking havoc in Vacation Friends 2, John Cena continues to be the world's worst vacation buddy in Freelance. Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken), the action comedy stars Cena as Mason Pettitz, a retired Special Forces operative stuck in a desk job after being injured in a botched assassination attempt.
But when he reluctantly agrees to take on a freelance job providing private security for brainwashed journalist Claire Wellington (Alison Brie), who interviews ruthless dictator Juan Venegas (Juan Pablo Raba), this combat veteran's ordinary life is turned upside down. Just as she is about to get the scoop of a lifetime, a military coup erupts and the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive in the jungle and each other.
Buy or rent on Prime Video or Apple
Netflix's latest comedy, Family Switch, can be considered a double trouble spin on Freaky Friday. Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms play Jess and Bill Walker. Jess is a parent who tries her best to maintain a bond with her teenage children CC (Emma Myers) and Wyatt (Brady Noon), who have become more independent and distant.
As the children struggle to spend their last Christmas together before going off to college, the family goes to the Griffith Observatory to see the unusual sight of the planets aligned. Then, a chance encounter with an astrological soothsayer causes the family to switch whole bodies on a critically important day in each of their lives. They will have to work together to get a promotion, a college interview, a record contract, and a successful soccer tryout.
Available on Netflix
Director David Gordon Green, who rebooted the "Halloween" series, returns with a new treatment of another classic horror series: The Exorcist. Believer is the sixth installment, but it is a direct sequel to the 1973 direct sequel to the original film, and is intended to be the first film in a new trilogy.
Leslie Odom, Jr. stars as Victor Fielding, a photographer on his honeymoon in Haiti with his pregnant wife when a massive earthquake strikes, forcing him to make the impossible decision to save his unborn child over his injured wife. 13 years later, his teenage daughter Angela (Lydia Jewett) and her friend (Olivia Markham) disappear into the woods; when the two begin to show signs of demonic possession, Victor seeks out the only survivor who has previously witnessed something similar: Chris and Regan McNeil, Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair, who each reprise their roles from the original production. reprising their roles.
Available on Peacock
Young Air Force pilot Freddie Hook (Ben Radcliffe) faces his biggest challenge yet when his scheduled Christmas Eve flight is compromised. His plane loses communications and electricity and is left adrift with dwindling fuel. John Travolta plays the enigmatic Good Samaritan, showing a depressed and panicked Freddy the way out. Produced by Academy Award winner Alfonso CuarĂ³n, this short film is about hope and the ability to find miracles in unexpected places.
Available on Disney Plus.
Remember Mary Kay Letourneau, the sixth grade teacher who had sex with a 12-year-old student, was convicted of rape, and had a child in prison? Todd Haynes' latest melodrama is loosely based on that true story. Twenty years after their infamous romance, Gracie Atherton Yu (Julianne Moore) and her 23-year-old younger husband Joe (Charles Melton) are preparing their twins for high school graduation. Hollywood actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) visits to better understand the controversial woman she plays in an upcoming movie. As she grows closer to these women, the family dynamics unravel under the gaze of an outsider.
Available on Netflix
.
Comments