Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 350, A Movie Review.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 350.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com and download a learning guide for this episode.
That 8-10 page guide contains...
Much information to help you improve your English even faster, including a complete transcript of this episode.
This episode is called A Movie Review.
It's a conversation between Sally and Marcus about a new exciting movie that they saw.
It includes a lot of vocabulary that you might read or hear about in a movie review.
Let's get started.
Did you see the new movie, The McQuillan Story?
I'm writing a movie review for the school paper.
I went to the premiere last week.
I liked it.
I thought it was entertaining, although it wasn't groundbreaking by any means.
You thought it was entertaining?
I thought it was awful.
I almost walked out.
The acting was wooden and uninspired, and the direction was amateur.
Aren't you being too critical?
It was the director's first movie, and I thought his directorial debut wasn't bad.
If there was a problem, it was with the screenplay.
Don't get me started on the screenplay.
The story was so predictable and the dialogue was pretentious.
This movie is going to bomb for sure.
Oh, I don't know.
I think some people may enjoy it.
If you want to do your readers a favor, you'd tell them to skip this movie and save their money.
The dialogue begins with Sally saying to Marcus, Did you see the new movie The McQuillan Story?
Not a real movie, of course, although it should be.
Sally says, I'm writing a movie review for the school paper.
A movie review is an article in a newspaper or magazine or a website where someone gives their opinion about a movie, whether it was good or bad.
Marcus says, The premiere is the first time that a movie is shown to the public.
In Los Angeles there are many movies that have premieres a few miles from where I live.
There are movie theaters where, the first time the movie is shown in that particular theater, they have a big celebration outside of the theater.
Usually in the premiere, the main actors, the stars of the movie, show up.
They go to the premiere.
Sally said that she likes this movie.
She said, I thought it was entertaining, although it wasn't groundbreaking by any means.
She thought it was entertaining, meaning amusing, interesting, but it wasn't groundbreaking.
The adjective groundbreaking means new thing or modern or revolutionary, something completely different than how things were done in the past.
She says it wasn't groundbreaking by any means.
The expression by any means means at all, in any way possible.
It has a couple of different meanings, this expression.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Marcus said, you thought it was entertaining, meaning he doesn't agree with her.
I thought it was awful.
It was terrible.
It was horrible.
It was very bad.
Remember, Marcus is not very intelligent, however.
He says I almost walked out.
To walk out of something, usually a movie or a play or some performance, means to leave the theater before it has ended, usually because it is so bad.
It is not very good.
Marcus says the acting was wooden and uninspired. and the direction was amateur.
The acting is the way the actors talked and moved.
When we say acting is wooden, W-O-O-D-E-N, we mean it's without emotion.
Another word we may use is stiff acting when it's not showing enough expression, when the actors are not showing enough emotion.
That would be wooden.
Marcus thought it was wooden and uninspired.
Uninspired is the opposite of inspired.
Uninspired would mean dull, uninteresting, not exciting, not original.
He says the direction for the movie was amateur.
The direction is the actions that the director of the movie takes.
The director is the person who tells the actors what to do and how to act usually.
Something that is amateur is something that is not professional.
Here it means not very good.
Sally says, aren't you being too critical?
Critical here means negative.
Always saying something bad about something.
Critical has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more explanation.
Sally continues, it was the director's first movie.
And I thought his directorial debut wasn't bad.
Directorial is just an adjective from the word director, the person in charge of the movie.
Who's telling people what to do in the movie.
A debut...
D-E-B-U-T, is the first time that someone does something for the public.
The first time you do something in front of other people, if it's a performance, for example.
So this is the first time the director has directed a movie.
Sally thought it was pretty good.
If there was a problem...
Sally says, it was with the screenplay.
Screenplay, one word, is the script.
It's the words that are written down and the instructions that the writer of the movie has put on paper and that the director uses and the actors use to produce, to make the movie.
Usually the person who writes the screenplay is different than the person who is the director.
Sometimes it's the same person.
The joke here in Los Angeles is that everybody is writing a screenplay.
When you go to the local cafes, you see people working on their laptop computers and everyone seems to be writing a screenplay, including me.
Sally says that the problem was with the screenplay.
Marcus says, don't get me started on the screenplay.
Meaning, let's not talk about that because I have even more negative things to say.
When someone says don't get me started on something, they mean let's not talk about it because I have bad things to say about it.
Marcus says the story was so predictable and the dialogue was pretentious.
Something that is predictable is something that you know is going to happen.
It's obvious.
There aren't any surprises in the movie.
When we say something is pretentious, we mean that it's trying to appear more important than, or better or bigger than it really is.
It's a negative adjective.
When you say someone is pretentious, you are criticizing them.
You are saying they're trying to be more important than they really are.
Marcus says this movie is going to bomb for sure.
The verb to bomb here means to fail, to be a disaster.
In American English we often use this to describe a movie or a play or a television show that is not successful, that does not do very well.
Marcus says, you would tell them to skip this movie and save their money.
To skip something means to decide not to do something or see something.
I'm going to skip the news tonight.
I'm not going to watch it.
Of course, if there were a movie called The McQuillan Story, it would probably be quite successful.
So I think Marcus doesn't really know what he's talking about.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you see the new movie, The McQuillan Story?
I'm writing a movie review for the school paper.
I went to the premiere last week.
What did you think of it?
I liked it.
I thought it was entertaining although it wasn't groundbreaking by any means.
You thought it was entertaining?
I thought it was awful.
I almost walked out.
The acting was wooden and uninspired and the direction was amateur.
Aren't you being too critical?
It was the director's first movie and I thought his directorial debut wasn't bad.
If there was a problem, it was with the screenplay.
Don't get me started on the screenplay.
The story was so predictable and the dialogue was pretentious.
This movie is going to bomb for sure.
Oh, I don't know.
I think some people may enjoy it.
If you want to do your readers a favor, you tell them to skip this movie and save their money.
The entertaining, groundbreaking, inspired script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
