The end of the year is fast approaching, but NBC Universal’s Peacock streaming platform still has a ton of new movies in the market in December. From romantic comedies to action classics, with a few overlooked gems and, of course, a handful of holiday movies you won’t want to miss, there’s something for everyone.
While they don’t have any new original movies, they’re releasing a slew of new Hallmark holiday movies (A big family Christmas, a legendary holiday, the Christmas stocking, Christmas class reunion, the gift of peaceand more), in addition to the recent movie Brothers.
To help you sift through it all, here’s a list of the best movies coming out in Peacock this December.
Miracle on 34th Street
It’s not a holiday season without a few classics, and it’s hard to think of anything more classic than this 1947 film. Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for his performance as Kris Kringle, one of three Academy Awards Miracle on 34th Street taken home. The plot follows Kringle as he is forced to prove that Santa is real in a court of law, and the iconic shot of children’s letters to Santa being brought to court by the sackful is one of the most memorable in history. So if you’re a bit cynical about the Christmas season and looking for a really great movie to get you in the mood again, Miracle of 34th Street could just be a ticket.
Out of sight
This Steven Soderbergh hit has George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez at their best. There’s great chemistry between the two, along with a great supporting cast, gorgeous cinematography by Elliot Davis, and razor-sharp dialogue adapted from Elmore Leonard’s novel of the same name.
All this makes Out of sight arguably Soderbergh’s best heist film, which says something about the man who brought us Ocean 11. In the plot, Clooney’s jewel thief simultaneously tries to evade and seduce Lopez’ US Marshall in a movie that reminds us how cool and stylish movies can be.
True lies
Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the prime of his action movie heyday in this 1994 James Cameron film. Schwarzenegger plays Harry Tasker, a seemingly invincible super-spy who, perhaps improbably, masquerades as a computer salesman. However, Tasker embodies the everyday life of a traveling salesman so well that his wife, played by a show-stealing Jamie Lee Curtis, looks for excitement outside their marriage.
This marital drama coincides with Tasker’s attempts to take down a terrorist group in the kind of clever, well-crafted action film rarely replicated these days. True lies isn’t Cameron and Schwarzenegger’s best-known collaboration, but it’s definitely a throwback to the pre-superhero-era popcorn movies.
The Goonies
The Goonies is a 1985 collaboration between heavy-hitters Steven Spielberg, who provided the story for a script by Chris Columbus, from Home alone and Harry Potter fame, and director Richard Donner. The film is about a group of kids who try to save their neighborhood by finding a long-lost pirate treasure.
The Goonies was huge, it made $125 million worldwide on a budget of just $19 million and has become a cult film in the years since. The cast, which includes a young Sean Aston and James Brolin, takes the classic Spielberg action beats and injects them with an innocence and energy that has endeared the movie to generations.
Beautiful woman
Beautiful woman takes the plot of a gritty social drama about greed, class and prostitution and somehow turns it into one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time. This is mainly due to the dynamic chemistry between stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and Garry Marshall’s pitch-perfect direction, which adds a light-hearted touch to the material.
This is the movie that launched Roberts’ career, established her as America’s Sweetheart and made the “whore with a heart of gold” a Hollywood trope. Beautiful woman had more ticket sales than any other romantic comedy in history, and remains Disney’s highest-grossing R-rated film to this day.
Oh brother, where are you?
Named after a fiction film in the movie Preston Sturges Sullivan’s travels and ostensibly modeled on Homer’s OdysseyThis 2000 Coen brothers film follows three convicts, Pete, Delmar and Ulysses Everett McGill, as they escape a chain gang and search for buried treasure. Gradually they become singing sensations as the Soggy Bottom Boys. Oh brother, where are you? is delicious, toe-tapping fun; as in the film, the song “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” became a hit in real life, sparking a brief fad for traditional American folk music.
Kill Bill: Parts 1 and 2
Picking the best Tarantino movie isn’t easy, but when the conversation comes up, Kill Bill is always in the mix. A hyper-stylized, hyper-energetic pastiche of martial arts movies, samurai cinema, blaxploitation, spaghetti westerns, and other grindhouse genres. Kill Bill is Tarantino at his most enthusiastic.
The story follows Uma Thurman’s character, The Bride, as she seeks revenge against the team of assassins who tried to kill her at her wedding. Kill Bill was divided into two ‘volumes’ for release, but the two films are strikingly different in their tone and style, serving as interesting counterpoints to each other and marking a turning point in their director’s career.
Tombstone
Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, which essentially cover the same plot, based on a true story, were released within a mere six months of each other. Part of a brief renaissance for Hollywood westerns alongside movies like Dancing with wolves and do not forgive, Tombstone has proved to be by far the more enduring of the two films. This is largely due to the cast, which includes Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer in a career-defining turn as Earp ally Doc Holliday. Russell was also heavily involved in shaping the film’s direction, which skillfully blends the action movie beats of the early ’90s with the Western genre.