Let's Discuss Movies! 🎥 How to talk about the cast, the plot and more!

Think quick. Name popular movie genres based on my hints. It's the kind of movie that makes you laugh.

Comedy. It's full of chases, fights, and big explosions.

Action.

This kind of movie might be really serious and it's full of dialogue and character development.

Drama.

These kinds of movies are set in the future. They usually have aliens and really cool technology.

Sci-Fi, which is short for science fiction.

This genre has scary movies that are full of blood and death.

Horror.

It's all about love and laughs.

Romantic comedy. Sometimes you'll hear the short form rom-com.

These films dramatize events in history.

Historical films.

These are old movies, especially in black and white, but people still watch them because they're considered really good.

Classic movies. Some people say, "It's a classic!"

In this genre, there's a lot of singing, and the music moves the story along.

Musicals.

This is the kind of movie that takes place in another world, and often there's magic.

Fantasy.

How often do you watch movies in English? Do you have the chance to discuss the movies that you watch?

I've highlighted some American movies in past videos here, but there's a new place to get my movie recommendations.

It's called Kiki.

I'm inviting you to join Jennifer's Movie Club. It's free.

You can download the Kiki Time app, or if you're on a computer, use the URL

kiki time.com and find my page,

Jennifer's Movie Club.

There are two tabs in my movie club.

The first tab has my posts. You can read my reviews and reactions to movies that I've watched.

The other tab is the community tab. That's where you can post movie reviews for others to enjoy.

Stick around to the end of this video, and I'll tell you about an exciting offer

for those who want to post on the community tab of my Movie Club.

In this lesson, I'd like to go over words and expressions you can use when you discuss movies with other people.

Let's start with questions you can ask about seeing a movie. Have you seen The Upside?

Did you ever see Scent of a Woman?

Do you know the movie Gran Torino?

Those last two questions are especially useful when you ask about older movies.

When someone mentions a movie, you may have heard of it,

but you need more information to recall it. You can ask about the actors in the movie.

Who's in it? Who stars in it? Who stars in that movie?

If you just want to remember the actor in a movie you can ask, "Who played Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody?"

"Who's the actor that played Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody?"

Note we say "actor" for a man, and for a woman, what do we say?

It's kind of a trick question. We can say "actress." If we're talking about a mixed group,

it's a group of actors.

But some women today prefer the word "actor" as a gender-neutral word,

so don't be surprised if you hear people talking about

Julia Roberts or Kate Winslet as actors.

To ask people's familiarity with a certain actor you can ask, "Do you know Kate Hudson?"

"Do you know the actor Alexander Skarsgard?"

Some people are really good with the dates. Are you? I'm not.

I often have to remember where I was in life and what I was doing in order to recall when a movie was released.

If you want to know the release date of a movie, you can ask:

When did the original Star Wars movie come out?

When was the first Star Wars movie released?

When did they make the first Star Wars movie?

Of course, movies aren't just about the actors. You can also ask about the people off-camera.

Who directed Gran Torino?

Who wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting?

Who were the producers? Who produced that movie?

Who wrote the music for Jurassic Park?

Some movies are known for having great music.

If you want to comment on a musical film score, you can say, "I love the soundtrack."

That movie has a great soundtrack.

I love the music in Indiana Jones.

I downloaded the soundtrack. I have the whole soundtrack on my playlist.

Often a good movie has the whole package: a good cast, a good screenplay, a good director, and a good soundtrack.

If you want to comment on a movie in general and praise it, you can use words like: good, great,

amazing, awesome,

unbelievable.

But sometimes the opposite happens. A movie is so bad that you wish you had never spent them money on the movie ticket.

That was so stupid. That was awful.

That was such a waste of money.

The movie was a flop. Was a total flop.

I was completely disappointed.

Have you ever heard about a box-office bomb?

If a movie bombs at the box-office,

it means it's so unsuccessful. People don't like it, and it doesn't earn a lot of money.

When you read a good movie review, they often give credit to the actors with descriptions like this:

a strong cast, a strong supporting cast,

a talented cast, and all-star cast.

By the way, do you know the difference between A-list and B-list actors?

It's probably what you think. A-list actors are at the top. They're the most popular.

These are big names, and these actors earn the most money. They get the lead roles in movies.

B-list actors are also popular, also talented.

But their names aren't as big, and they can't headline a movie all by themselves.

There needs to be...other actors or a really good director to draw an audience.

Some movies are here today and gone tomorrow.

Other movies are remembered for a long time, and they earn descriptions like these:

a hit movie,

a blockbuster movie,

the top grossing movie of 2018.

If someone mentions a movie and you want to know more, what can you ask?

Keep it simple. You can say, "What's it about?"

"What's the basic plot?"

Do you know the movie Jurassic Park, the first one? What's it about? What's the basic plot?

Here's what I'd say:

It's an adventure movie.

It's about this wildlife theme park on an island where they've reproduced real dinosaurs using

fossilized DNA.

And everything goes wrong when park security fails and the dinosaurs take over.

This is a good speaking activity. Think about a movie that you've watched and try to summarize it in just a few sentences.

Even if you're studying by yourself,

speak out loud.

If you're interested in writing practice, I have a good place for you to go to share movie reviews.

Jennifer's Movie Club. It's one of my pages on the new app Kiki.

You can download the Kiki time app, or if you're on a computer, use the URL KikiTime.com and find my page,

Jennifer's Movie Club. It's free.

And did you know that Kiki is a very special app?

It's a place where you can actually earn a little bit of money.

If you post a good quality review, your post will earn a little bit of revenue.

As more and more people like it and fire it up, your post will grow in revenue.

Let me give you another reason to join Jennifer's Movie Club on Kiki. The first two people to post

quality movie reviews of at least 100 words will receive a free 15-minute Skype call with me.

Let's see who those two people will be!

Well, that's all for now. Please remember to like this video and subscribe to my channel here on YouTube.

I also hope to see more of you on Kiki, so join my Movie Club there.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

Become a member of my learning community. Click the JOIN button to become a member of my YouTube channel English with Jennifer.

You'll get a special badge,

bonus posts, on-screen credit, and a monthly live stream.

Note that YouTube channel memberships are not available in every country at this time.

I'd like to say a very special thank you to the current members of my channel.

Hopefully, more of you will join us for the next live stream.

Follow me and gain more practice on Facebook and Twitter. I also have new videos on Instagram.

If you haven't already,

subscribe to my channel so you get

notification of every new video I upload to YouTube.