Jon Negroni

Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts. He hosts the podcasts Thank God for Movies, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn't sleep, essentially.

Incredibles 2 Review: Not Every Pixar Movie Can Be Super

incredibles 2

From my official review of Incredibles 2 on The Young Folks:

These are the clearest shortcomings of Incredibles 2, as it fails to be as strong an ensemble piece as The Incredibles, where every main character (even the villain) had a defined, cohesive arc. But in virtually every other respect, Incredibles 2 is just as wonderful, gorgeous, and thrilling as the first, to the point where most super fans of the original likely won’t care about these flaws.

Overall, I liked the movie. It even exceeded some of my expectations, particularly with some of the clever writing surrounding the infant Jack Jack and how he creatively factors into the super family’s heroic antics.

Go on…Incredibles 2 Review: Not Every Pixar Movie Can Be Super

Cinemaholics Review: Hereditary and Ocean’s 8

hereditary

This week, we handed the podcast over to an all-female cast of awesome film lovers to review Hereditary and Ocean’s 8. Kimber Myers hosts this week with special guest Alisha Grauso and newcomer to the pod Candice Frederick, and they kick things off with a lively conversation about the year’s breakout horror hit from A24, plus the spinoff to the Ocean’s 11 franchise starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and many more.

For mini reviews, Kimber and Alisha discuss Upgrade, the sci-fi action darling we did our for our feature review last week, and then Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the Fred Rogers documentary that has been warming the hearts of even the coldest critics.

Question for you: what’s the scariest movie you’ve seen in recent years?

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Hereditary and Ocean’s 8

‘Incredibles 2’ Is Beating ‘Finding Dory’ at Ticket Pre-Sales

incredibles 2

From Entertainment Weekly, which has a more dramatic headline – Incredibles 2 on track to be biggest animated movie of all time:

According to Fandango, Disney’s highly anticipated superhero family sequel is tracking to be the biggest animated movie ever in pre-sales.

The film is out-pacing the previous record holder, 2016’s Finding Dory, which went onto become the highest-grossing animated movie ever with $486 million in domestic sales (followed by Shrek 2 with $441 million, The Lion King with $422 million and Toy Story 3 with $415 million).

We don’t know for sure if this will translate to an equally strong opening weekend (Solo also had good pre-ticket sales), but this falls in line with my prediction that Incredibles 2 will be one of the biggest movies of the summer, probably just below Avengers: Infinity War in terms of worldwide box office, or perhaps Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It also helps that this new Incredibles sequel is about as good as everyone is hoping (I saw it yesterday, and I expect most of you will be more than pleased).

Go on…‘Incredibles 2’ Is Beating ‘Finding Dory’ at Ticket Pre-Sales

‘Incredibles 2’ Just Premiered: Here Are The First Reactions

incredibles 2

Pixar’s Incredibles 2 premiered in Hollywood last night, which means the social media reactions are already rolling in. The embargo for Incredibles 2 doesn’t lift for most critics until Monday, and I won’t see the movie myself until tomorrow (Update: saw it, agree with a lot of stuff below), so if you can’t wait until then, here are the earliest (spoiler-free) takes.

Let’s start with the most positive:

Go on…‘Incredibles 2’ Just Premiered: Here Are The First Reactions

Pixar Delayed ‘Toy Story 4’ Because They Threw Out Most Of The Script

toy story 4

From RadioTimes:

It’s been a long wait, but Toy Story 4 is getting close. Well, closer: Although we originally expected the toys back in town last year, changes in personnel – most significantly with the departure of writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack – saw Pixar rework the animation, pushing it back to a June 2019 release.

Part of me has always suspected that the movie was delayed in order to stagger Pixar’s next few movies coming out through 2019. At the moment, Toy Story 4 is the last officially announced Pixar movie with a release date and title. The rest are still under wraps, including “Untitled Suburban Fantasy,” but Pixar has confirmed that their next wave of releases will be original stories, not sequels.

Go on…Pixar Delayed ‘Toy Story 4’ Because They Threw Out Most Of The Script

Cinemaholics Podcast Review: UPGRADE

upgrade

Last week, we asked you (the listener) which movie we should do for our featured review. And it turns out Upgrade was the clear winner, and we couldn’t be more thankful. Upgrade turned out to be a blast of a movie with plenty for us to discuss. If you haven’t checked out this sci-fi action horror from Blumhouse (and director Leigh Whannell, one of the minds behind the Saw and Insidious franchises), consider giving our spoiler-free review a listen and seeing this one for yourself.

In addition to our main review, we opened the podcast this week with our reactions to Solo: A Star Wars Story getting trounced in the box office, plus my recent experience at Pixar Fest, a seasonal celebration of all things Pixar at Disneyland in California. And as always, we did some mini reviews, which include Adrift (the movie we almost did for our featured review), Disobedience (an indie gem), The Tale (an HBO film that premiered at Sundance), and Arrested Development Season 5 (on Netflix).

If you’re not sure what to check out in theaters next week, stay tuned for our Coming Soon segment, where we briefly discuss what’s about to release. And next week, we’re giving the entire show over to a guest cast to review Ocean’s 8. For more info on that, be sure to listen to our Off-Topics segment at the top of the show.

Question for You: should Star Wars make more spinoffs of characters we’ve already seen? Why or why not?

Go on…Cinemaholics Podcast Review: UPGRADE

Cinemaholics Review – Solo: A Star Wars Story

solo

Special guest Catrina Dennis joins the podcast this week to help us unpack the latest Star Wars anthology prequel, Solo: A Star Wars Story. It’s a movie with just as much drama taking place outside the context of the movie, with production problems galore and an unfolding narrative surrounding its underperformance at the box office as of opening weekend. But as for the movie itself, we chat at length about whether or not it’s simply “fine” or perhaps a bit better than some are giving it credit.

We only did a few mini reviews, but the first one absolutely makes up for it. Maveryke and I go on a tear about 13 Reasons Why Season 2, now on Netflix. Will talks about the new Adult Swim show he can’t stop watching, Joe Pera Talks With You, and I finish things out with my tribute to New Girl in light of its series finale.

Question for you: What should we review next week? Adrift, Action Point, Upgrade, or something else?

Go on…Cinemaholics Review – Solo: A Star Wars Story