How to Talk About Movies and TV Shows in English
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you like to watch movies and TV shows?
Do you know how to describe them in English?
Let’s talk about it.
If you like watching movies and TV shows,
you’re in the right place.
Honestly, I don’t really enjoy watching them,
but I do enjoy helping you with English, so
it’s my pleasure to share this lesson with
you.
A popular topic in conversation is talking
about the latest movies or maybe the latest
TV show.
So today I want to help you describe TV shows
and movies naturally in English.
Before we get started, I want you to think
about your favorite movie or maybe your favorite
TV show.
As I talk about different ways to describe
movies and TV shows, I want you to be thinking
about how you can describe that movie or TV
show.
Because at the end of the lesson I’m going
to ask you to write a comment describing your
favorite movie or TV show so you can prepare
throughout this lesson and think about the
different sentences that you can use.
Let’s get started by talking about seven different
types of movies.
If someone has never heard of your favorite
movie, you need to start by giving it a type
or a genre.
So you might say it’s an action movie.
A typical type of action movie is a superhero
movie like Superman, Spider-man, The Avengers.
These types of things are action movies, or
you might say it’s a comedy.
Some popular comedies are Mean Girls, Mr.
Bean, or one of my personal favorites, Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off.
You should check it out.
It’s a classic.
There are some words we use to describe comedies
because not all comedies are the same type
of humor.
So you might say it’s slapstick humor or it’s
a slapstick comedy.
That means they use a lot of physical humor
like Mr. Bean.
It’s physical humor, not verbal humor, or
you might say it’s a parody, so that means
it’s making fun of something else or another
concept, or it might be a romcom.
This is short for romantic comedy, you often
say it’s a romcom or it’s a chick flick.
Chick is a slang term for women and often
women more than men like romcoms, like chick
flicks, so if you’re talking about a movie,
you might say, “Yeah, it’s a chick flick,
but I still like it,” or, “It’s a chick flick.
Yeah, it’s pretty good.”
So you could use those terms to describe different
types of comedies.
I think the biggest category of movies is
drama or suspense.
It could be like historical fiction.
It could be a biography.
It could be a mystery.
Some popular movies like this are movies,
older movies made by Alfred Hitchcock.
Those are classics.
I recommend them.
Or it might be Pride and Prejudice, Titanic,
Into the Wild, Forrest Gump, The Terminal,
Edward Scissorhands.
All of these are drama or suspense.
The fourth category is horror, fantasy, sci-fi.
I know there’s a lot of differences here,
but I just put them all together because they
all include some level of imagination beyond
reality.
Some popular movies that fit into these categories
are Minority Report, E.T., Star Wars, The
Prestige, Avatar.
All of these fit into that category.
When I was growing up, I really enjoyed watching
musicals.
A lot of these are older.
They might be Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music,
or it could be more modern like a movie called
La La Land.
All of these feature music and the actors
are singing as an essential part of the plot.
The sixth type of movie are westerns.
These are, I imagine, more popular in the
US than elsewhere, but if you’ve ever seen
a Clint Eastwood movie, these are westerns.
They were popular or they were mostly made
during the ’50s to ’70s, and some top westerns
include High Noon, which is one of my favorites,
or The Magnificent Seven.
These are some classic American movies.
The final category of movies are children’s
movies.
There are two types of children’s movies.
You could say it’s an animated children’s
movie like Toy Story or Totoro, or it might
be live action like Harry Potter or The Sandlot.
That means that it’s not featuring drawings.
It’s featuring real people.
So there’s two types, and you could use this
for other categories as well.
It’s an animated film or it’s a live action
movie.
These types of words.
If you’d like to watch three movies that help
you learn more about American culture.
I made a movie about my top three movies up
here so that you can gain a deeper insight
into American culture and movies are a great
way to do that.
Next, I’d like to talk about some different
categories of things that you might talk about
in movies.
The first one is the trailer.
You could say they gave away everything in
the trailer.
To give away everything means that they told
too much of the story in the trailer and maybe
they spoiled some important points.
Or you might say Toy Story is coming out on
May 1st, 2020.
Or Toy Story is going to be released on May
1st, 2020.
I don’t know if that’s actually true.
I just made that up.
But that means that it is the first time that
you can see the movie.
That’s when it’s going to come out.
Usually come out in theaters.
You could say it’s going to come out in theaters
on May 1st next year.
Excellent.
There are a lot of expressions that we can
use to talk about the plot of a movie.
This means the story of the movie, but we
use the word plot to talk about what happens
during a movie.
Or of course a TV show, but I’m just saying
movie because it’s simple to just say one
of those.
So you might start by saying The Terminal
takes place in JFK Airport or The Terminal
is set in JFK Airport.
That means that the location of the movie
is in JFK Airport.
Even though this movie is set in the JFK airport,
they didn’t film it there.
The terminal was filmed in LA.
For some movies there are special effects.
So you could say Titanic is filled with really
cool special effects, or in my opinion, the
dialogue in the Titanic is a little weak.
This means that the things that they say,
the dialogue, isn’t normal or natural or convincing.
It was a little bit shallow and that’s just
an opinion.
On the other hand, the score is incredible.
I used to listen to it all the time.
The score means the music, the music in the
Titanic is really capturing and you can just
picture exactly what’s happening.
So, even if you weren’t a big fan of certain
parts of a movie, you could say, “Well, the
score was absolutely incredible.
They did a great job.”
Have you ever watched Avatar?
It’s two and a half hours long, which is ridiculously
long for a movie.
But for me, when I watched Avatar, even though
it was two and a half hours, I was on the
edge of my seat.
You can picture sitting on the edge of your
seat because you want to know what’s going
to happen next.
You’re not sitting back and bored.
You’re tense and ready to know what’s happening
next.
I was on the edge of my seat.
Talking about the plot.
You might say the premise of High Noon is
simple, but the plot keeps your attention.
Here the premise is the general idea.
So the general idea is that at noon some bad
guys are coming to the city and the sheriff
has to fight them.
Simple idea, not too complex, but it’s the
action or the plot or the characters, whatever
you choose, that keeps your attention.
It might not be a super complex premise or
idea of the whole story, but that action keeps
your attention.
Have you ever seen a Mr. Bean movie?
They’re always hilarious.
At least it’s my type of humor, but because
Mr. Bean movies don’t have much dialogue,
they aren’t hard to follow.
To follow means to understand the plot, understand
what’s going on.
You can just watch and you can see exactly
what he’s doing.
It’s easy to follow.
On the other hand, you might say, “That was
so complicated.
I couldn’t follow it.”
I couldn’t follow it means I had no idea what
was happening.
It was way too complicated.
If you watch a movie in another language,
they might be dubbed or they might have subtitles.
If you have never watched a Miyazaki movie,
these are animated Japanese movies for children,
but also for adults.
And when I watch these movies, say like Totoro.
Totoro is one of the most popular.
When I watch Totoro, I want to watch it with
subtitles because when you watch it dubbed,
this means that you’re hearing English voices
and you’re not hearing the original Japanese
voices.
I feel like it loses some of the magic because
you’re listening to it in a language that
isn’t the original and maybe that’s why you’re
wanting to watch movies and TV shows in English
so they can get that original sense for it.
So I’m curious, in your country, are movies
often dubbed?
You’re hearing your native language even though
the actors aren’t speaking your native language,
they might be speaking another language.
Are they dubbed or do they usually have subtitles?
And what do you prefer?
I have this sentiment a lot, Into the Wild
was an okay movie, but the book was better.
If you read the book before you watch the
movie, you will almost always feel like this.
It might be a common expression for you to
use.
The book was better.
Almost always true across the board.
The book was better.
Or I can’t believe that they cut out my favorite
parts of the book.
Most movies are based on books, so if you
read the book, you know everything about the
story and you might be disappointed if the
director decides to cut out or take out or
not include some important parts that you
liked from the book.
I can’t believe that they cut out my favorite
part of the book.
Now that we’ve talked about the trailer and
the plot, what about the ending?
There are a lot of great expressions you can
use to talk about the ending.
For example, you might say there is a big
twist at the end of The Prestige.
I won’t spoil it for you.
There’s a twist.
That means there is a surprise that happens
at the end of the movie The Prestige, and
I’m not going to tell you about it because
I don’t want to spoil it or I don’t want to
spoil it for you.
If someone is telling you about a movie and
you think they might give away some things
about the plot that you don’t want to know
yet because you haven’t seen it, you could
say, “Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Don’t spoil it for me.
Let me watch the movie myself.
Don’t spoil it.”
Or if you’re disappointed in a movie, you
might say, “Titanic was pretty good, but the
ending just ruined it for me.”
Ruined it means the movie.
It means the movie was ruined because of the
ending.
There was definitely room for Jack on that
piece of wood.
What were they thinking?
So for you, if you’re disappointed in the
ending, you might say, “Ugh, the ending just
ruined it for me.”
A simple expression, you might use is just,
“In the end, the good guys win and the bad
guys lose.”
This is a general idea.
In the end, this is what happens.
Another way to talk about the ending is the
climax.
This is when there’s the most suspense.
You might say the climax in most Alfred Hitchcock
movies, which are older, amazing suspense
movies that I really recommend.
The climax of most Alfred Hitchcock movies
is when the audience thinks they know what’s
going to happen, but the characters don’t
know.
So you’re sitting there watching and saying,
“No, don’t go into that room.
You know what’s in that?
No, don’t go in there.”
Because we know what’s going to happen, but
they have no idea, so there’s a lot of suspense
that’s built.
Next.
Let’s talk about how to describe the characters
in the movie or the actors themselves.
You could say the movie Love Actually has
a star-studded cast, but I wasn’t a big fan
of the movie.
When there are a lot of famous people in a
movie, you could say a star-studded cast because
someone who’s famous is a star.
It’s a star-studded cast.
Brad Pitt had a cameo role or a guest appearance
on the TV show Friends.
He made a brief appearance, maybe for one
episode or just one scene in the TV show friends,
a cameo role or a guest appearance.
They mean the same thing.
The main characters in Harry Potter are now
internationally famous.
If you talk about Harry, Ron, Hermione or
even some of the other main characters, most
people know who these are and they can connect
them with Harry Potter.
Star Wars has a lot of supporting actors,
because they visit so many different planets
and so many different places.
Supporting actors aren’t the main actors,
but they’re still important for keeping the
plot moving, for making sense of that world.
They’re the supporting actors.
If you’ve never seen the amazing musical The
Sound of Music, I would definitely say to
you, I can’t believe you’ve never seen The
Sound of Music.
It stars one of my favorite actresses, Julie
Andrews, or you could say, “Have you seen
the movie with Julie Andrews?”
She’s the actress, so it doesn’t mean that
you went to the movie theater with her.
It just means that there is a movie that features
her.
She is the star of that movie and it is absolutely
incredible.
The music brings me back to a great place
in my childhood and I still love singing it
today.
We talked about main characters, supporting
actors.
What about people who are in a movie but they
don’t have a speaking role, they’re just kind
of in the background?
You could say, “My brother-in-law was an extra
in an Emma Watson movie.”
That’s true.
He just was in the movie because they were
filming in his city and they needed people
to be in the background and he thought, “Okay,
I’ll make a little money for one day and just
be in the background of this movie.”
So he was an extra in the movie.
There are a lot of people involved in movies
who aren’t actors.
For example, Steven Spielberg directed Schindler’s
List or we could switch that sentence and
say Schindler’s List was directed by Steven
Spielberg, another excellent movie.
Now let’s talk about sequels or series.
There’s often more than one of a movie that
seems to be kind of the trend nowadays.
If there’s one movie, there’s probably going
to be a sequel and maybe there’ll be more
in the future.
So let’s talk about how you can use that.
Star Wars has several sequels and prequels.
Here we need this prefix sequel or pre, pre
means before.
So a sequel comes after and a prequel comes
before.
So we have the original movies and some of
them take place afterwards and some of them
take place before.
It doesn’t matter which order they were filmed
in.
But this is the chronological order of the
universe or of the story.
Lord of the Rings is a trilogy.
Trilogy.
Here the prefix is tri or tri and that means
three.
So there are three movies in Lord of the Rings.
There are plenty of other trilogies.
This is kind of a common concept for telling
a complex story or maybe telling a simple
story, but drawing it out so that they get
more money from people watching more movies.
And there are often trilogies for a story.
It seems like Disney has been making some
remakes recently of some of their classic
movies like The Lion King, The Jungle Book,
these classic animated movies they are remaking.
So you could say, “I loved the original, but
I didn’t really like the remake.”
Or you could say, “I loved the original and
I thought I wouldn’t like the remake, but
it was actually pretty good.”
It’s the original and the remake.
And finally, let’s talk about the reception
of a movie.
This means how it was perceived by audiences,
how much money it made, how well it did.
You could say for the movie Forrest Gump.
“Forrest Gump was a hit from the moment it
came out.”
To be a hit means that everyone loved it.
It was instantly popular and famous.
It was a hit.
You can use this expression actually for other
things as well.
Same as some of the other expressions we talked
about, but let’s say that you bake a birthday
cake for your friend.
You bake this amazing chocolate birthday cake
and you bring it to her party and everyone
loves it.
You could say, “I’m so glad that my cake was
a hit.”
It was instantly loved.
What’s the opposite of a hit?
You could say that, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory was a box office bomb in 1971.”
This is the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory.
Not the one with Johnny Depp.
That’s the remake.
But you could say, “It was a box office bomb.”
Or you could say, “It was a flop.”
It made no money.
There was a lot of hype and excitement about
the movie and then when it came out … people
didn’t really like it.
It was a flop or it was a box office bomb.
That was a lot of expressions, right?
Well, now you are armed and prepared to talk
about movies and TV shows in daily conversation,
right?
I want to give you a chance to practice.
In the comments, I want you to tell me about
your favorite movie and TV show.
Use some of these expressions that you learned
today to give it more depth and detail.
You can talk about the trailer or maybe the
plot or the characters or the reception, but
don’t spoil it for me.
Don’t tell me the ending.
You can also read other people’s comments
to get some good suggestions about movies
that you should watch.
It’ll be a great way to expand your knowledge.
Thank you so much for learning English with
me and I’ll see you again next Friday for
a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.