December isn’t just for eating mince pies and opening Christmas presents. Normal life still goes on, including the arrival of another new slate of films and TV shows on Prime Video.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that Prime Video isn’t about to miss the chance to contribute to the seasonal festivities; its new slate contains lots of Christmassy goodness. But there’s also plenty of regular, even occasionally quite miserable entertainment coming to Prime Video subscribers who haven’t caught the Christmas spirit.
As usual I’ll kick off with the new original Amazon Original film and TV productions Prime Video is adding to its slate, before picking out the best of the new catalogue titles coming on board. Note that all the details which follow are specific to the US Prime Video service; most of the new Original content coming will launch globally, but the situation outside the US is always much less straightforward when it comes to the added catalogue films.
Heading up the new Amazon Original additions is season 2 of Jack Reacher. Reacher fans will be hoping that this sophomore season, which shows Jack investigating the murders of members of his former US Army unit, continues to capture the feel and pacing of Lee Child’s novels as successfully as the first season when it arrives on December 15.
The most high profile new Amazon Original film is Candy Cane Lane, in which Eddie Murphy, no less, accidentally makes a deal with a mischievous elf while on a mission to win his neighbourhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest. This full-on festive fest drops on December 1st.
Having covered one of Amazon’s Original Christmas productions, we might as well get stuck into the rest. So December 8 brings Spanish-language movie Dating Santa (yikes…), in which a single mom tries to convince her ‘fiercely outspoken’ 6-year-old child that her (the mum’s) new boyfriend is Santa Claus. Double yikes. This charmer drops on December 8.
A bit more up my street, hopefully, will be Merry Little Batman. This animated DC series tells the story of a young Damian Wayne having to take on Gotham’s worst Super-Villains on Christmas Eve as he gets the chance to be a Super Hero like his caped crusader dad. This is available to stream from December 8.
Your Christmas or Mine 2 – yes, the first one apparently warranted a sequel – follows young couple James and Hayley (Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk) as they spend their second Christmas together accidentally stuck in the wrong accommodation with their family at a ski resort. You can join them for the apres ski from from December 8.
One final new blast of Christmas from the Amazon Original studios is World’s First Christmas. Streaming from December 8, this Brazilian production tells the story of a family that has to try and recreate the magic of Christmas and its traditions for the world after one of their children wishes it away.
Stepping away from Christmas, Amazon’s Originals slate gives us Season 2 of Coach Prime (arriving December 7), following the work of Deion Sanders and his University of Colorado Boulder team during the 2023 season; a mysterious sounding Baby Keem movie project called The Melodic Blue that apparently takes us through ‘fragments of Keem’s memory and temptation’ (December 5); Italian comedy series Gigolo Per Caso in which an ex gigolo who suffers a heart attack and tries to persuade his son to following in his gigoloing footsteps (December 21); and more straightforwardly, the latest games in Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football series. Which in this case kick off on December 7 with the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the New England Patriots, followed by the Las Vegas Raiders vs the LA Chargers on December 14, the LA Rams versus the New Orleans Saints on the 21st, and the New York Jets taking on the Cleveland Browns on December 28.
There’s one new Original production joining Amazon’s Freevee service for December, too: a new season of Hollywood Houselift, where ‘house flipper’ Jeff Lewis takes on home renovations for some of ‘Hollywood’s brightest stars’. This new season arrives on December 6.
The roster of catalogue movies being added to Prime Video’s December slate is much smaller than we’ve seen in recent months, coming in at just over 40 new titles. As usual, though, the latest film additions are headed up by a few recent theatrical releases – in this case, Andy Muschietti’s debut for Warners’ DC movie series, The Flash, Wes Anderson’s quirky but star-packed Asteroid City, and controversial ‘true crime’ thriller Sound Of Freedom. The Flash arrives on Christmas day, Asteroid City drops on December 12, and Sound Of Freedom opens to ignite family arguments over the festive season on December 26.
While shorter than usual, the list of catalogue titles being added to Prime Video US for December still finds room for a few good titles – including some capable of washing the sweet taste of Christmas away if you’re finding it all too much.
In The Heat Of The Night (1967), for instance, delivers a powerful Oscar-winning story of a black police detective wrongfully suspected of a local murder while visiting a Mississippi town who is then asked to find the true culprit after he’s cleared. You can get stuck into this from December 1. If you’re in the mood for something similarly deserving of your full attention, Japanese drama I Wish (also December 1) tells a powerful and charming tale of two brothers trying to reunite their family after it’s divided by their parents’ separation.
Jodie Foster’s Little Man Tate (December 1), meanwhile, which the acting legend also directs, is for me an underrated little gem about a working class mother trying to bring up her genius son in a world desperate to cash in on his talents.
Vying for the award for most non-Christmassy film arriving on Prime Video in December are memorable 2002 horror flick The Ring, and 2004’s The Machinist, in which a scarily skinny Christian Bale plays an industrial worker who hasn’t slept in a year and – not surprisingly – starts to doubt his sanity.
Picking the mood up a bit from here are a couple more golden oldies in the shape of Robert Aldrich’s classic 1967 war movie The Dirty Dozen, and timeless 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven, before we break out in to full on fun times with charming fairy tale Stardust, and brilliant comedy actioner Mr & Mrs Smith, starring a… pre-marriage Brad Pitt an Angelina Jolie.
Your Christmas sci-fi itch is scratched on Prime Video by the addition of no less than five Star Trek films to Prime Video US’s December slate: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: Insurrection; and Star Trek: Nemesis. All of the films covered over the past couple of paragraphs will be available from December 1.
Freevee has a few movie new December highlights worth picking out, too, namely fun ‘grown-up’ superhero film Kick-Ass, Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones comedy Men In Black, bawdy cuddly teddy bear comedy (!) Ted, 1955’s mesmerising and miles ahead of its time film noir The Night Of The Hunter, and 2017’s The Emoji Movie. Ok, that last one was a joke. Please do not, under any circumstances, watch The Emoji Movie.
To wrap up, here’s the full list of new additions, in date order, coming to Prime Video and Freevee in December 2023:
December 1
TV Series
7th Heaven S1-11 (1997) – Prime Video
FBI True (2023) – Freevee
My Three Sons S1-12 (1960) – Prime Video
The Middle S1-9 (2009) – Freevee
Movies
50 First Dates (2004) – Prime Video
Baywatch (2017) – Prime Video
Candy Cane Lane (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
Click (2006) – Prime Video
Cry Macho (2021) – Prime Video
Death Rides A Horse (1969) – Prime Video
Death Warrant (1990) – Prime Video
Earth to Echo (2014) – Freevee
Everybody’s Fine (2009) – Freevee
Forces Of Nature (1999) – Prime Video
Gods of Egypt (2016) – Freevee
Happy Christmas (2014) – Freevee
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021) – Freevee
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) – Prime Video
Hotel Transylvania (2012) – Freevee
I Wish (2011) – Prime Video
In The Heat Of The Night (1967) – Prime Video
Jason’s Lyric (1994) – Freevee
Joey (1997) – Freevee
Kick-Ass (2010) – Freevee
Kiss The Girls (1997) – Prime Video
Little Man Tate (1991) – Prime Video
Made Of Honor (2008) – Prime Video
Masquerade (1988) – Freevee
Men in Black (1997) – Freevee
Men in Black II (2002) – Freevee
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) – Prime Video
Murphy’s Law (1986) – Prime Video
Nicholas Nickleby (2002) – Prime Video
Peter Pan (2003) – Prime Video
Picture This (2008) – Prime Video
Repo Men (2017) – Freevee
Sahara (1984) – Freevee
Stardust (2007) – Prime Video
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) – Prime Video
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) – Prime Video
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) – Prime Video
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) – Prime Video
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) – Prime Video
Still of the Night (1982) – Prime Video
Support the Girls (2018) – Prime Video
Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990) – Prime Video
Tank Girl (1995) – Freevee
Ted (2012) – Freevee
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) – Freevee
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) – Freevee
The American (2010) – Freevee
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) – Prime Video
The Dead Zone (1983) – Prime Video
The Dirty Dozen (1967) – Prime Video
The Emoji Movie (2017) – Prime Video
The Gift (2015) – Prime Video
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) – Prime Video
The Machinist (2004) – Prime Video
The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Prime Video
The Night of the Hunter (1955) – Prime Video
The Proposal (2009) – Prime Video
The Purge (2013) – Prime Video
The Ring (2002) – Prime Video
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) – Freevee
The Turkey Bowl (2019) – Prime Video
The White Buffalo (1977) – Prime Video
The Wonderful Country (1959) – Prime Video
Think Like a Man (2012) – Freevee
Think Like a Man Too (2014) – Freevee
December 3
TV Series
Coach Prime S2 (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
Thursday Night Football (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
Movies
Mistletoe Mixup (2021) – Freevee
December 4
Movies
The Star (2017) – Freevee
December 5
Movies
Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) – Prime Video
The Melodic Blue: Baby Keem (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
December 6
TV Series
Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis S2 (2023) – Freevee
December 7
TV Series
A Lot Like Christmas (2021) – Freevee
December 8
Movies
Dating Santa (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
Dealing with Christmas (2023) – Prime Video
Merry Little Batman (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
The Fairy Princess & the Unicorn (2019) – Freevee
World’s First Christmas (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
Your Christmas Or Mine 2 (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
December 10
Movies
Copshop (2021) – Freevee
December 11
Movies
Spy Cat (2018) – Freevee
December 12
Movies
Asteroid City (2023) – Prime Video
Blue’s Big City Adventure (2022) – Prime Video
December 14
Movies
A Christmas Star (2021) – Freevee
December 15
TV series
Night Court S1-9 (1984) – Freevee
Reacher Season 2 (2023) – Prime Video (Original production)
December 19
Movies
Every Body (2023) – Prime Video
December 20
Movies
When Hope Calls: Hearties Christmas Present (2021)
December 21
TV Series
Gigolo Per Caso (2023) – Prime Video (Original Production)
Movies
Christmas Giveaway (2021) – Freevee
December 22
Movies
Sing 2 (2021) – Freevee
December 25
Movies
The Flash (2023)
December 26
Movies
Sound Of Freedom (2023) – Prime Video
December 27
Movies
Terminator: Genisys (2015)
December 30
TV Series
Baby Shark’s Big Show S1 (2021) – Prime Video
Blue’s Clues (S1) (1996) – Prime Video
Blue’s Clues & You S1-S2 (2020) – Prime Video
Hit The Floor S1-S4 (2013) – Prime Video
Moesha S1-S6 (1997) – Prime Video
Sister Sister S1-S6 (1994) – Prime Video
Team Umizoomi S1 (2010) – Prime Video
The Affair S1-S5 (2014) – Prime Video
Tyler Perry’s Ruthless S1-2 (2021) – Prime Video
December 31
TV series
Fringe S1-5 (2008) – Freevee
The Waltons S1-9 (1972) – Freevee
Movies
Stillwater (2021) – Freevee
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