Back Issue #2

Magazine: Neon
Issue: No 1 Dec 1996/Jan 1997


Initial Observations
Neon was my favourite movie magazine during its brief existence. It was to Empire magazine what Select magazine was to Q, targeted at a younger, hipper audience. Neon was funny, irreverant and looked at a much broader range of film culture than its sister publication. Plus it had the greatest movie column ever in the form of Graham Linehan's Filmgoer's Companion.
This is issue number one and the first thing that must jump out to contemporary eyes is the cover feature, 'How Hollywood ate Robert Downey Jnr alive', this being written when he was talented but self-destructive and not one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

What's Inside?
Almost too much cool stuff to mention. Regular features included 'it's not what you think' where film-makers picked ten favourite, usually bizarre and random, things. For example, in this issue we have the Coen brothers picking their ten favourite underwear movies. '100 reasons why' would take the piss out of list-making with usually hilarious results. 'Flashback' would look at the (usually chaotic) production of a film from yesteryear.  Plus you would have the usual news, reviews, features etc that you would expect in a movie magazine but with a Neon twist. And the middle pages would have a gallery of movie-related images you could take out and put on your wall.
Features in this issue include: the now legendary making of The Island of Dr Moreau; a look at WW2 movies; the Downey Jnr article; a Jack Nicholson profile by those who know him; a profile on Ian Hart and a look at the films of Tony Scott.

Old News
David Cronenberg's crash may finally be getting a release in the UK.
Robert De Niro trys to hire out the Acropolis in Greece for himself and some pals.
The question of whether Sleepers is based on truth or fiction is discussed ahead of the film's release.
It Happened Here is finally screened uncut in the British isles.
Kevin McClory is attempting to remake Thunderball again.
George Lucas preparing to film the first of the Star Wars prequels.
American Psycho may finally be adapted for the screen.

Commercial Break
'Give me 5 - Britain's new free tv channel is coming in the Spring. In addition to drama, comedy, news, chat and sport - 5 will broadcast more movies than any other terrestrial channel' - shame the majority of films they seemed to screen were DTV fodder.
An advert for a VodaZap! pager features an amateur photo of a dog and the promise that 'you can leave Boot a message on his owners VodaZap! pager'. I really don't understand what they are getting at with this ad.
'The Greatest Action Trilogy Of All Time', 'For The First Time This Christmas...And The Last', 'Buy Them Now While You Can' - The Die Hard trilogy and the attempt to create demand.

Whoops!
'Due for release in 1999, Episode One: Balance of the Force, focuses on the do-gooder Jedi Knights, who are being hunted down and rubbed out by the Empire as it gets its first toe-hold on the ladder of Galactic tyranny'. How much cooler does that sound?
"We're not making any more movies about making movies". Louis Pepe, director of The Hamster Factor, next made Lost in La Mancha about the making of Don Quixote, so I suppose that he is technically correct in that he made a movie about not making a movie.

Spooky!
Back to Louis Pepe from the article on The Hamster Factor: "We wished for disaster, sure. But we were making a film about Terry Gilliam. We knew something would go wrong". They certainly got their wish with Lost in La Mancha.

(Anti)Promoballs
The feature on Tony Scott is ostensibly to promote the release of The Fan, his film with Robert De Niro. Its somewhat refreshing then to hear him deride his own film: "I knew that I hadn't made it work".

Re-review
The main review is for Neil Jordan's Michael Collins written by none other than Graham Linehan. Elsewhere we have positive reviews for Beautiful Girls and The Long Kiss Goodnight, so-so reviews for The Fan and I Shot Andy Warhol and negative reviews for Chain Reaction and The Crow: City of Angels.
The video reviews remind me that I still haven't seen Nadja, that Heavy sucked ass and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead might be worth a re-watch.

And finally...
Graham Linehan's Filmgoer's Companion closes out the issue with an imagined pitch for Mission:Impossible.

While doing a bit of research online I came across this website dedicated to Neon magazine which contains scans of the magazine. Well worth a look if you get the chance.