How to Break Bad?

The movie critic John Podhoretz once recalled a woman coming out of a movie saying she didn’t want to see any more movies she hadn’t previously viewed. Given the dreck coming out of Hollywood these days, that’s a sentiment I feel. It’s also perhaps a reason I was up for going with two of my kids to see the newest in the Hunger Games franchise: “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” If the need to make prequels and sequels is, per Ross Douthat, a sign of decadence and dead imaginations, the willingness on the part of viewers to see them is a sign of resigned rationality. If the originals weren’t too bad, perhaps this won’t be too bad either. It will be almost like watching a movie I’ve seen. This might help explain the movie’s success. Released on November 17, it has grossed almost $300 million at the time of this review, very profitable considering its budget was reported to be around $100 million.