The latest trailer for Amazon’s “Candy Cane Lane” is little different than the previous announcement teaser, just with more visuals and slightly more exposition offered up.
It’s the same beat, with Murphy as a husband/father who takes the concept of Christmas decorations way too far and accidentally sells his soul to an evil elf played by Jillian Bell. That wish brings about not world peace but the 12 Days of Christmas coming to life via unleashing PG-rated chaos on the town.
Directed by Reginald Hudlin and written by Kelly Younger, “Candy Cane Lane” co-stars Murphy and Bell alongside Tracee Ellis Ross, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Ken Marino, Nick Offerman, Robin Thede, Chris Redd, Genneya Walton, Madison Thomas, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Lombardo Boyar, D.C. Young Fly, Danielle Pinnock, Timothy Simons, Riki Lindhome and the always welcome Stephen Tobolowsky. Murphy is a producer alongside Brian Grazer, Karen Lunder and Charisse Hewitt-Webster while Doug Merrifield is executive producer.
As previously noted, Eddie Murphy has spent much of the last 27 years making kid-friendly flicks like “Imagine That” and “Daddy Daycare.” As such, it’s a little surprising that “Candy Cane Lane” represents his first Christmas/holiday flick. That’s the hook for this latest Amazon Prime original feature, as well as it being directed by Reginald Hudlin 31 years after “Boomerang.”
That (R-rated) rom-com, featuring Halle Berry in one of her earliest roles, was considered the first “comeback” for Eddie Murphy following a post-“Coming to America” commercial slump. His big-deal comeback came in 1996 with “The Nutty Professor. That also marked a turn whereby Murphy would go from being the creator of chaos in “comedies like “Beverly Hills Cop” or “48Hrs” to the straight man reacting to chaos in films like “Doctor Dolittle” or “A Thousand Words.”
That is a frankly normal progression as onscreen comics get older, as seen in the later works of Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey. If the first two trailers are any indication, it looks like Murphy will again be the guy who reacts in amusing ways to (holiday-related) antics and peril. We’ll find out when “Candy Cane Lane” debuts globally on Prime Video on Dec. 1.
