English, baby!

B Movies

Date: Nov 07 2007

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

There is a whole kind of American movie you probably never see. Hollywood is famous for making big blockbusters that are shown all over the world. Those movies cost millions of dollars. But there are lots of movies made in the US without big budgets or great ambitions. These are called B movies.

A lot of people love B movies, but they’re an acquired taste. They don’t look as pretty as major motion pictures, but they’re often very funny, scary and over the top. A lot of horror movies are B movies.

Some famous filmmakers started out making B movies. Listen to Beren and Mason talk about some of the most well-known B movies.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Beren

Mason: Did you…You saw Grindhouse a few months ago, right?

Beren: No, I totally didn’t. I missed it. I totally missed it. I’m a little bummed out. Is it good? I heard it’s awesome.

Mason: Yeah, I mean, it’s like a very good recreation…

Beren: It’s like an homage to B movies.

Mason: ...of yeah, this B movie experience. And I haven’t seen a whole lot of B movies, but some of my favorites are like the kinda B horror flicks. Like Army of Darkness and Dead Alive. Have you seen that one?

Beren: Yeah yeah yeah, totally. That’s uh, brother who directed Lord of the Rings...

Mason: It’s Peter Jackson, I know. Isn’t it like really funny, that two of the most successful pop film directors got their start doing these terrible B movies.

Beren: Yeah totally. They’re totally cult hit films now. Everybody loves them.

Mason: It’s like there’s something to it.

Beren: It’s so funny, though, Army of Darkness, like Bruce Campbell, he is directing a movie in Medford, Oregon, right now.

Mason: Really?

Beren: Yeah. I’m serious. He took over the whole town of Medford, and it’s like the set. I was down there with a band and we met all these locals and they were like, “Oh yeah, we just got done making a movie with Bruce Campbell.”

Mason: They were like, “Oh yeah, we were hanging out with Bruce Campbell.”

Beren: Yeah. He lives there. That’s like the B movie capital of the world.

Mason: Like, “I rubbed his chin for good luck,” you know.

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Discussion

Mason asks Beren if she’s seen Grindhouse, a B movie double feature by famous directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. She hasn’t seen it yet, but she’s heard it’s the ultimate B movie. “Grindhouse” is actually a slang term used to describe a theater that specializes in B movies.

Beren and Mason discuss how it’s rather amazing that the director who made Lord of the Rings also made one of the biggest B movies of all time, Dead Alive.

Another B movie star, Bruce Campbell, happens to live in a town in Oregon, the state where Mason and Beren live. If you go to that town you can see him on the street and you can be in his movies. That’s how low-budget B movies are!

What’s the worst movie you ever liked?

Comments

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ayouub

Morocco

who want to prove his english we can help each other this is my email

Vjollca

Albania

I Like B Movies

yas-0612

India

Get the person you love the most
Someone said,”It’s hard to live alone
It’s harder to choose someone to love
but the hardest part of loving
is to admit that you have fallen in love
with someone who can never be yours

Wjd

Saudi Arabia

WHERE ARE YOU FROM

Wjd

Saudi Arabia

HI….........how are you

Ali Imran

Pakistan

I wish i was there hanging out with Bruce. :(

spacedragon

Brazil

B movies r cool too i like it the worst r the C movies ;P

tiger_bagira

Greece

NICE

sheha

Egypt

maitrang88

Viet Nam

Some B-movies have too much gore I don't dare see them. But I will prepare my stomach and watch Dead Alive one day :D

abbasachlaf

Algeria

HI HOW ARE YOU

aur

Canada

Sometimes, A movies are boring, and the producers spend a lot of money to make them just hiring movie stars payed with millions of dollars for acting in them ,so B movies are really boring. On TV they make a rating with stars(** for the best ones, * for A movies a.s.o.)