Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1078, Watching Action Movies.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1078.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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On this episode, we're going to listen to a dialogue between Gene and Claude regarding movies that have a lot of excitement in them.
Let's get started.
Oh, no.
This isn't another action movie, is it?
Of course not.
I know you like thrillers, and this is a thriller.
This definitely seems like a brainless action movie to me.
That's the second fight scene, and we're only 15 minutes into the film.
And car chases?
We've had three of those already, too.
Like any good thriller, it has a hero in a life-threatening situation and an evil villain in hot pursuit.
That sounds like a run-of-the-mill action movie to me.
This movie is full of visual effects and stunts It's not what I would call a psychological thriller.
Maybe it straddles the line between an action film and a thriller, but it's good, isn't it?
I'll let you know once this ultra-violent fight scene is over.
Claude begins the dialogue by saying, Oh no, this isn't another action movie, is it?
An action A-C-T-I-O-N movie is a movie that has usually a lot of fighting, a lot of car chases, often a lot of violence.
Action movies have a hero, a good guy, and then one or more bad guys that the good guy, of course, fights.
Gene says, of course not.
I know you like thrillers, and this is a thriller.
A thriller.
T-H-R-I-L-L-E-R is also an exciting movie, but instead of having a lot of fights or violence, it involves a lot of surprise, or even fear.
Now, sometimes there can be violence in a thriller as well, but a thriller would be a movie, that during which you are waiting to see what will happen.
You're going to be surprised at what happens.
In an action movie, you're often not surprised at what happens.
You kind of know what's going to happen.
The good guy is going to win.
But in a thriller there's more what we would call suspense S-U-S-P-E-N-S-E, when you don't know what's going to happen.
Claude says this definitely seems like a brainless action movie to me.
Brainless means that it isn't very smart.
It isn't very intelligent.
Your brain, B-R-A-I-N, of course, is what's in your head, or at least what's in most people's heads.
I'm not quite sure about my neighbor's.
Brain-less, L-E-S-S, would be someone who didn't have a brain or not a very big brain.
The term brainless is an insulting one to describe something you think is stupid or not very intelligent.
Claude says that this is a brainless action movie that Gene is watching.
He says that's the second fight scene, and we're only 15 minutes into the film.
A fight scene, S-C-E-N-E, is a part of a movie where, of course, people are fighting.
When we talk about scenes in a movie, we're talking about different parts or sections of the movie with the same characters or people in the same place.
Claude says, this is the second fight scene and we're only 15 minutes into the film, meaning we've only been watching the movie for 15 minutes.
Gene says it's a thriller that's supposed to keep you on the edge of your seat.
When we say something keeps you on the edge E-D-G-E of your seat, we mean that there's a lot of excitement, a lot of suspense, a lot of anticipation.
Everyone is eager or very much interested in finding out what's going to happen next.
A thriller keeps you on the edge of your seat.
If you're sitting on a chair on the edge of your seat seat is another word for chair.
You are just about to get up or you are leaning forward towards the front of the chair.
If you're relaxed, you would be sitting back against the back of the chair.
Gene says of course it'll have some fight scenes, meaning the movie will have some fight scenes even though it is a thriller.
Claude doesn't seem to agree with Gene.
He says, and car chases?
We've had three of those already, too.
A car chase.
C-H-A-S-E is when one car tries to catch another car, both of them usually going very fast.
Action movies typically have lots of car chases in them.
Claude is saying that this isn't really a thriller because it has all of the elements or parts of an action movie, such as car chases.
Jean disagrees.
She says A hero H-E-R-O is a good guy, the person, man or woman, who is the main character of the movie and is the one that is going to beat or defeat the bad guys.
If you're in a life-threatening situation, you're in a situation where you could die.
And of course, in movies, that is often the case.
The hero always fights against a villain, V-I-L-L-A-I-N.
A villain is a bad guy in the movie, the opposite of the hero.
Gene calls him the evil villain, but villains are always evil.
Evil just means bad.
Gene says that this movie has a hero in a life-threatening situation and an evil villain in hot pursuit.
The word pursuit, P-U-R-S-U-I-T, comes from the verb to pursue, P-U-R-S-U-E.
To pursue means to run after or chase after someone, to try to catch someone who is escaping from you or who is trying to get away from you.
To pursue can also mean simply to go on a certain path, to try to obtain some goal.
We talk about students pursuing a degree in history.
They are trying to get a degree in history, just like me.
What do you do with a degree in history?
Well, you become a podcaster.
Anyway, back to the dialogue.
We have a villain in hot pursuit.
If you say someone is in hot pursuit of another person, the person is chasing someone very closely, almost catching him or her.
Claude says that sounds like a run-of-the-mill action movie to me.
Run of the mill is an expression that means ordinary, not very interesting, not unusual.
It's usually used as a way of describing something that isn't special in any way.
It's just like perhaps a thousand other types of that thing.
This is a run-of-the-mill microphone.
It's not a great microphone.
It's an average microphone.
There's nothing special about it.
Claude says, Visual, V-I-S-U-A-L, refers to something you can see.
In movies.
When we talk about visual effects EFF ECTS, we're talking about things that usually involve using computers or some sort of trick with the camera to make something look real when it isn't, when it isn't actually there.
Special effects are often used to show buildings blowing up or planes crashing to the ground, even though the people who made the movie didn't actually blow up or destroy a building.
They used often computer software nowadays or other special tricks to make it look as though that were happening.
Stunts, S-T-U-N-T-S, are dangerous actions that one of the characters in the movie performs.
Here in Hollywood, here in Los Angeles, there are people who are what are called stuntmen or stuntwomen.
And they go in and do these dangerous actions so that the actor or actress doesn't have to.
Some actors and actresses however, like to do their own stunts, meaning they don't like to have a stunt person doing the dangerous actions in the movie.
They like to do their own stunts.
Claude says that this movie is all about the adrenaline rush.
When we talk about someone having an adrenaline rush, we're talking about someone who has a sudden feeling of excitement, a sudden feeling of extra energy, often in response to stress or danger.
Adrenaline is a chemical, a hormone in your body that is released when you are in a dangerous situation.
Often,
Claude says, it's not what I call a psychological thriller.
A psychological thriller is a thriller that focuses on the emotions and thoughts and ideas of the main character in order to create this suspense, this anxiety.
Think of the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, the great English director of the 20th century.
He created a lot of interesting psychological thrillers.
Gene says maybe it, meaning the movie, straddles the line between an action film and a thriller.
To straddle S-T-R-A-D-D-L-E.
The line means to have characteristics of two different things, so that you can't really tell what it is.
Is it one thing or is it another thing?
That's what Jean is saying about this movie.
It's both a thriller and an action movie.
She asks Claude if the movie is good.
Claude replies, I'll let you know once this ultra-violent fight scene is over.
We already know what a fight scene is.
If you describe a fight scene as ultra-violent, you mean it is very violent.
The term ultra, U-L-T-R-A, is sometimes added in front of a word to mean it has a lot of something.
It's a way of saying it is very much this thing.
So if we say something is ultra-violent, we mean that it is really violent or very violent.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Oh no, this isn't another action movie, is it?
Of course not.
I know you like thrillers and this is a thriller.
This definitely seems like a brainless action movie to me.
That's the second fight scene and we're only 15 minutes into the film.
It's a thriller that's supposed to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Of course they'll have some fight scenes.
And car chases?
We've had three of those already, too.
Like any good thriller, it has a hero in a life-threatening situation and an evil villain in hot pursuit.
That sounds like a run-of-the-mill action movie to me.
This movie is full of visual effects and stunts.
It's all about the adrenaline rush.
It's not what I would call a psychological thriller.
Maybe it straddles the line between an action film and a thriller, but it's good, isn't it?
I'll let you know once this ultra-violent fight scene is over.
Our scripts don't have a lot of ultra-violent fight scenes in them, but we think they're pretty interesting all the same.
Thanks to Dr. Lucy Say for writing them.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
