Pre-Listening Exercise
What movie rating systems or guidelines are used in different countries to determine the appropriateness for different audiences? In the United States, the classifications of “G,” “PG,” “PG-13,” “R,” and “NR-17” (See Motion Picture Association of America for more details). What rating systems are used to rank the quality of movies?
Idioms
“a flop” = a bad movie
“Don’t see that movie. It was a real flop. The acting and the special effects were terrible.”
“catch a movie” = watch a movie
“I plan on catching a movie if I get bored over the weekend.”
Listening Exercise
A. Listen to the recording and answer the questions.
Daughter: Dad, Dad, Dad!
Father: Uh, what, what, uh, uh!?!?
Daughter: The movie is over. You slept through the best part.
Father: Ah, ah, I must have dozed off during the last few minutes.
Daughter: Right. You were gone for so long you should have brought your pillow and blanket. So, what did you think about it?
Father: Well, overall, I’m a little disappointed with the movie. I mean, the story was a little bizarre, you have to admit. I mean, really. How believable is a plot about a captain who navigates his spaceship to the far reaches of the galaxy and encounters a race of frog people. I mean, come on.
Daughter: Ah, I thought it was fantastic [Uhhh]. I mean, you have to admit that the special effects were awesome, and the acting wasn’t bad either.
Father: Ah, come on. What about the ship’s communications officer? I mean, what did you think about him? [Well . . .] Wasn’t he a little weird to you? He was always talking to himself, and he had that funny hairdo?
Daughter: Well, he was a little . . . unusual [Yeah, yeah], but the ship’s doctor was amazing. It was so cool when he brought the captain back to life during one of the battles.
Father: That was pretty realistic, but then the rest of the movie just went from bad to worse. And the photography was so fake!
Daughter: How do you know? You were snoring so loud the neighbors probably had to close their windows. It was that bad.
Father: Ah, well, let’s go to bed
Vocabulary and Sample Sentences
- doze off (verb): to fall asleep
– The little girl began to doze off after spending the whole afternoon at the park. - bizarre (adjective): strange, absurd, weird
– His behavior was so bizarre that he lost his job because of it. - plot (noun): the story of a book, play, or movie
– I was fascinated by the movie’s plot and sound track. - admit (verb): accept or acknowledge
– You must admit that the ending of the movie was a little weak. - awesome (adjective): fantastic, great, wonderful
– The movie was awesome. It was the best I have seen in a long time. - weird (adjective): strange, absurd, unusual
– The book’s plot was too weird for me, so I returned it to the library. - fake (adjective): not real, not authentic
– The scene where the doctor was killed by the shark was so fake. You could easily tell that the shark was just a plastic model.