Like the best Christmas movies, Candy Cane Lane goes full-throttle on the weirdness

“Hеre is the child that you left behind. Here is the kid with the curious mind. Here is the wonder we used to feel, back when the magic was real.” These are lines from “A World of Your Own,” a song performed late in Wonka, the 2023 movie starring Timothée Chalamet as a young version of Roald Dahl’s eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. The song keys into a frequently stated motivation for this movie’s version of the character: He wants to use his candymaking magic to create a feeling of childlike wonder in his customers, and indeed, the whole world.

The festive period is finally upon us, and what better time is there to kick back on the sofa and work through your watch list? As usual, too, this Christmas is jam-packed full of great new releases on streaming, meaning that there will be plenty to keep you occupied after stuffing yourself with turkey. Among the highlights are a festive Doctor Who special to kick off Ncuti Gatwa's season as the Time Lord as well as Zack Snyder's hugely-anticipated new sci-fi adventure, Rebel Moon Part One. 

A new update has been released for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Dubbed City Update 5: European Cities, the update has a trailer that you can check out below. As its name might imply, the update brings a host of European cities to the game.

’Tis the season for a million Christmas movies, new and old. Whether you’re taking a chance on something new, like The Holdovers or Candy Cane Lane, or revisiting a classic, likeIt’s a Wonderful Life or Elf, there are so many options, but most Christmas movies seem to fall into two categories: the silly ones and the serious ones.

The reboot of noughties gem Jet Set Radio teased with ruthless efficiency during The Game Awards has had a smidge of new information revealed. For being such a small detail, though, it’s a very intriguing - if perhaps a tad predictable - one indeed.

No one does Christmas quite like Disney. So Disney Plus seems like the natural first stop as the weather gets colder and we start to deck the halls ahead of the holiday season, but where do you start? That's where we come in. We've combed through everything the streamer has to offer and singled out the 10 best festive movies to tune into this December. 

It’s never a bad time to find your new favorite sci-fi movie, so why not check out a few new ones before the holidays? Netflix has plenty of great sci-fi picks to choose from, but this month we’re looking to a some surprising choices that you might not expect.

The Death Stranding movie won't be a direct adaptation of the original game.

By GameSpot Staff on

Hurry up and get your holiday viewing out of the way this year because the presents are arriving early. On Dec. 22, Mubi, the highly curated, cinema-forward streaming service, is unleashing a collection of films celebrating the high-impact fight films of Shaw Brothers Studio. Founded in 1958, the Chinese studio became synonymous with martial arts movies, with classics ranging from straight wushu fight dramas to more fantastical wuxia odysseys.

When the film world gets one of its unexpected cross-studio theme pairings — the way summer 1998 offered two “impending planetary apocalypse” movies in Armageddon and Deep Impact, or 2022 gave us two major Pinocchio movies — it’s rarely clear on the surface whether the projects stem from corporate copycatting, divergent evolution, or sheer coincidence. Ultimately, it’s rarely worth debating: What matters is whether the films are enjoyable and well-made, and whether they screen better together.

From Nintendo’s triumphant follow-up to Breath of the Wild to the hot pink perfection of Barbie and so much more, 2023 has been a landmark year for games and entertainment. Indeed, IGN has labeled 16 games, movies and TV shows a masterpiece over the past 12 months, with countless more worthy of your time and money. Admittedly, it’s also been a year of polar opposites, and Skull Island: Rise of Kong wasn’t the only stinker to receive a bad score (I’m looking at you, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey). The games industry suffered a huge number of lay-offs too, and Hollywood strikes put release calendars on hold as screenwriters and actors fought for better working conditions.