Neon Camera Reviews

Trick 'r Treat  By Calum Whitfield  A spooky anthology that makes for the ultimate Halloween night viewing. 4/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥🎥   Directed by: Michael Dougherty  Starring: Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, et al  Where to find it: Rent on Amazon Prime Video  No Copyright Infringement Intended Halloween is often seen as a significant time of year for horror fans, the spookiest time of year being a good excuse to release and watch horror movies. The classic Halloween-themed horror is of course John Carpenter’s seminal work, Halloween (1978), but a cult film from 2007 might just be the best. Trick ‘r Treat follows a series of connected stories taking place around the town of Warren Valley on Halloween night. These include a school headteacher with a dark side, a group of children getting a little too into the Halloween spirit, 22-year-old Laurie who arrives in town for a party with her sister and friends looking to lose her virginity, and a Halloween hat...

Hocus Pocus  By Emily Hubbard Bette Midler and crew are a bewitching delight in this underappreciated Disney spooktacular  4/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥🎥 Directed by: Kenny Ortega  Starring: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy Where to find it: Dinsey + No Copyright Infringement Intended  Everyone has seasonal traditions, whether it’s decorating the Christmas tree on the first Saturday in December or making resolutions on New Years’ Eve. For me, my favourite holiday tradition, and one I think everyone should adopt, is watching Hocus Pocus at Halloween time. Disney Halloween films, especially those released in the 1990s (The Nightmare Before Christmas, for example) have a knack for conjuring up a sense of nostalgia in audiences by perfectly encapsulating the spirit of Halloween in a way that takes you right back to the days where you’d go Trick or Treating, and Hocus Pocus is no exception. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, 300 years have gone by since the Sanderso...

Suspiria (1977)  By Calum Whitfield A spooky, dread-filled, yet staggeringly gorgeous nightmare put to film. 4.5/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥🎥.5 Directed by: Dario Argento  Starring: Jessica Harper, Joan Bennett, Stefania Casini et al Where to find it: Amazon Prime Video No Copyright Infringement Intended  Suspiria (1977) is perhaps the most famous film directed by the great Dario Argento. Written by him and his partner, Daria Nicolodi, it brings some of the traits of classic Giallo cinema, Argento’s own unique cinematic flair, and a spooky supernatural story together to create an intriguing and unique visual experience. After all these years, is it still worth a watch? Suspiria tells the tale of Suzy Bannion, an American dancer who has moved to Germany to join a famous dance school. While getting a ride to the school she witnesses another student leaving the building, seemingly running away in terror. This student flees to a friend’s apartment where she is brutally, yet beautiful...

Only Murders in the Building (Season 1) By Emily Hubbard An unlikely trio band together to solve a murder and make one of the best shows of 2021.  4.5/5 Cameras🎥🎥🎥🎥.5 Created by: Steve Martin and John Hoffman Starring: Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez Where to find it: Disney + No Copyright Infringement Intended  Turner and Hooch, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, Meryl Streep and 50 Cent. No, I’m not writing invites to a ‘last supper’ scenario, I’m giving examples of friendships that, on paper, seem absurd, but have somehow defied all the odds and worked. If someone had told me months ago that Steve Martin and Martin Short would team up with ex-Disney Channel star Selena Gomez to make one of the best shows of the year, I would have struggled to believe them, but sometimes it’s the unexpected combinations that prove to be the most memorable. Only Murders in the Building stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam, an...

Dune By Calum Whitfield Beautiful to look at and spectacular to listen to, Dune builds an intriguing universe and large cast of characters but ultimately fails to do much with them. 3/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥 Directed by: Denis Villeneuve Written by: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, et al No Copyright Infringement Intended Frank Herbert’s Dune is one of the most popular and influential science fiction novels ever written, one I will confess now to having never read. Numerous attempts have been made to adapt it, most famously a 1984 take by David Lynch that gets a mixed reception at best. Denis Villeneuve has now stepped in, fresh from a successful Sci-Fi-spree with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, to give his own take. Dune centres around Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), son of Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) who has just been placed in charge of the desert planet Arrakis, the only known source of Spice, a ...

Venom: Let There Be Carnage By Emily Hubbard and Calum Whitfield Tom Hardy returns for a fun sequel that's more rom-com than superhero  3.5/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥.5 Directed by: Andy Serkis  Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, and Naomie Harris  Where to find it: In Cinemas Now  No Copyright Infringement Intended  2018’s Venom divided critics and fans alike, with critics generally panning the anti-hero origin story, and fans having more of a positive reaction. It’s safe to say that the 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is likely to receive a similar, if not more polarising, response. Venom: Let There Be Carnage once again follows Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the alien symbiote that inhabits his body, Venom (also Tom Hardy). In an attempt to reignite his journalism career, Eddie interviews notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Things take a turn, however, when Venom’s impulsivity leads to the creation of Carnage, who latc...

No Time to Die By Calum Whitfield Daniel Craig signs off with a film that manages to overcome a weak villain and a by-the-book plot to be a fun ride for fans. 3.5/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥.5 Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch et al.  Where to find it: In Cinemas Now  No Copyright Infringement Intended James Bond has been a cinematic mainstay for almost 60 years. In that time he’s been portrayed by six people, most recently Daniel Craig who’s come back to see if he can send his time in the role off with a bang. The film initially forgoes the traditional opening action set-piece that almost every other Bond film goes for, opening with an almost slasher movie-style scene, as a mysterious masked figure stalks a mother and child in the 1990s. This quickly opens up to a more traditional bond pre-credits sequence, picking up from shortly after the en...

  Our Favourite Directors  To celebrate hitting 1000 views, we thought we would each dive into our five favourite directors. With so many great choices available there’s a good chance these lists could change day to day, but right now, here are each of our favourites! 1. Taika Waititi Taika Waititi is undoubtedly one of the most in-demand directors in current cinema, but I’m going to be honest, like a lot of other people, my first introduction to Waititi’s work was through 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi’s ability to completely revitalise the Thor franchise, which was otherwise bland and largely considered to be the worst of the MCU titles, into a vibrant comedy that embraced the craziness of its source material within the first five minutes of its’ runtime is something to be marvelled at (excuse the pun). His work outside of the land of superheroes, however, is even more impressive. Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit is a touching, yet absurd, film set in Nazi Germany that highlights t...

CODA By Emily Hubbard A poignant, heartfelt, and funny coming-of-age story that could easily be the first Oscar contender of the year 5/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥 Directed by: Siân Heder Starring: Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant Where to find it: Apple TV+ No Copyright Infringement Intended In a world where streaming services have arguably oversaturated the coming-of-age genre with needless sequels to already poor original titles (The Kissing Booth franchise I’m looking at you), you could be forgiven for thinking that the glory days of a genre that produced classics such as Mean Girls and Clueless was long behind us. Every so often, however, a film pops up that piques the interest of movie lovers with the touching, unique, and funny ways they bring their stories to life. Siân Heder’s CODA joins Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart in the increasingly exclusive list of films that have begun to revitalise the genre. An English language adaptation ...

Free Guy  By Emily Hubbard Ryan Reynolds stars in the surprise hit of the summer  4/5 Cameras 🎥🎥🎥🎥 Directed by: Shawn Levy Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi Where to find it: Disney + and in cinemas  No Copyright Infringement Intended  Surprises are great, no matter how big or how small they may be. It could be a visit from a friend you haven’t seen in years, or just simply getting 10 chicken nuggets in your meal instead of 9. No matter the magnitude, a surprise is always great, which is partially what makes Free Guy so enjoyable. I have to confess, from its’ trailers I had low expectations of this film, expecting a low brow, cringey, run-of-the-mill Ryan Reynolds movie, but the end result could not have been more of a welcome surprise that resulted in a film that will almost definitely finish near the top of my year-end list. Directed by Shawn Levy, the man behind Night at the Museum, Free Guy follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds), an ex...