📕 Part 1: Going to the Cinema

This episode's vocabulary

A shambles (noun) – A state of complete disorder or chaos. → The film's plot was a complete shambles; it was impossible to follow.

Money grab (noun) – An activity or project designed to make a quick profit without concern for quality. → Many critics considered the sequel to be a cynical money grab.

To set foot in (idiom) – To go into a place. → I haven't set foot in a cinema for over five years.

Seldom (adverb) – Not often; rarely. → It's pretty seldom that a movie lives up to the hype.

From the comfort of one's own home (phrase) – In one's own house, where one feels relaxed and comfortable. → I prefer watching movies from the comfort of my own home.

Blockbuster (noun) – A film that is a great commercial success. → The latest superhero movie is expected to be a summer blockbuster.

In a matter of months (phrase) – In only a few months; used to emphasize a short period of time. → The film will be available on streaming services in a matter of months.

Movie buff (noun) – A person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about films. → As a movie buff, he can name the director of almost any classic film.

Genre (noun) – A style or category of art, music, or literature. → My favorite film genre is science fiction.

Get together (phrasal verb) – To meet in order to do something or spend time together. → My friends and I get together every Friday to watch a film.

Streaming services (noun) – Online platforms that deliver video content to users over the internet. → I subscribe to several streaming services to have a wide variety of shows.

A lot less than I used to (phrase) – Significantly less often than in the past. → I go to parties a lot less than I used to in college.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What films do you like?

Rory: I'm a big fan of science fiction and horror, but I'll watch anything really as long as it's well done and not an absolute shambles or a money grab or something like that.

Maria: How often do you watch films?

Rory: To be honest, it's a lot less than I used to. I can't even remember the last time I set foot in a cinema. So I suppose it must be once or twice a year. It's usually only if something really good is on, which is pretty seldom these days.

Maria: Do you prefer to watch films at home or at the cinema?

Rory: Definitely from the comfort of my own home, or my friends' homes, since we usually get together to watch things. It's just easier and cheaper. We might not get the latest blockbusters or anything like that, but they're usually out on streaming services in a matter of months, so it's not exactly a big deal.

Maria: Do you often go to the cinema with your friends?

Rory: No, not really. It's normally once a year, if that. We don't really go out like proper movie buffs or anything.

Discussion

Maria: Films, films, films. Movies or films, dear listener.

Rory: And there are many types of films.

Maria: Oh, absolutely. Types, we call them genres.

Rory: Yes, not genres.

Maria: Genres.

Rory: Because it's French.

Maria: And we have genres, sub-genres. But usually we talk about action films. So action genre. And action films, they include fights, drama, danger, car crashes, stunts. Stunts like when a person jumps from a helicopter on top of the mountain, then they kill 10 people on the way in the air, in the mid-air.

Rory: It's all very realistic ways of performing.

Maria: Yeah, you can get very specific, this action films include heroic bloodshed. This is a sub-genre. Or military action, about wars, espionage. Well, disaster, adventure, superhero, they are all action films. But we just say action films. Animation is becoming more and more popular. Animation genre. Or you can say I like animation. I don't like animation. Or I like animated movies, animated films.

Rory: Yes, animated films.

Maria: Then we have comedy. I love comedy movies. Haha, haha. Dark comedies also a sub-genre. Romantic comedy. I like romantic comedies. About couples, love.

Rory: And the drama that happens in them.

Maria: Yeah, what are sitcoms? Situational comedies, sitcoms?

Rory: Yeah, that's more of a kind of series, though, isn't it? I think that's more like Friends or something like that. You don't really get sitcoms in the cinema. Although, The Simpsons was a sitcom, and they have a movie, so it's not unheard of.

Maria: Right, dear listener. So you can talk about Netflix. I watch, I don't usually watch films, but I like series. Series. Okay? Like Friends, sitcoms, series. So if you watch series, then you say series. I watch series. Crime. I like crime genre, crime gangster movies, detective films. Drama. I like drama. Melodrama, all right. Medical drama, legal drama, political drama. These are sub-genres. Oh, there's a religious drama.

Rory: Ooh.

Maria: Interesting. Fantasy. Fantasy, like Harry Potter. Okay? And Rory told us that he enjoys sci-fi. So science fiction. I'm a big fan of science fiction. I'm a big fan of horror. I'm a big fan of comedies, series. Okay? Well, not a film, but like many films. Shambles.

Rory: Well, okay, a shambles is two things. It can describe the floor of a butcher's or an abattoir, which is where animals are killed for food. But it's usually used to describe something which is a disaster. So if a film is a shambles, then it's terrible, it's not very good.

Maria: The film is shambles. Do you need an article? Yeah, actually you need an article.

Rory: You do, yeah. Or if we want to use it as an article, the film is shambolic. Ooh.

Maria: Ooh. It's interesting because shambles has an S, so you might think it's plural, but actually it's a state of confusion, bad organization, untidiness. So it's a shambles for some reason. So you can say that this film is a total shambles. This house is a complete shambles. Like disorganization, it's dirty. Our economy is in a shambles. In bad situation, bad organization. Rory, could you give us another example with the word shambles?

Rory: Yes. So if a classroom is messy, then you could say it's a shambles. Or maybe if something is disorganized at work, like a presentation, the presentation is a shambles.

Maria: Other genres include historical genre, historical events, biographies. For example, there's a nice movie about Queen.

Rory: Oh, yeah.

Maria: Biography.

Rory: You didn't say the Queen this time. That's good.

Maria: Yeah, I like

Rory: You learned your lesson.

Maria: Yeah, I like the Queen is Elizabeth II, the Queen is the band, all right, so. Yeah, Rory told me off of that. Horror, like ghost movies, monster movies, movies about werewolves. So it's a wolf, but a human wolf. So wolf-like creatures, werewolf. That's a very nice word to use. Dear listener, you can say, ooh, I enjoy movies about werewolves. Werewolves. If you don't know what a werewolf is, werewolf, just Google. w e r e w o l f. A super important word for you.

Rory: But either way, it'll be movies about something.

Maria: Yeah, vampires.

Rory: There we go.

Maria: Zombie. Oh, yeah, this is sub-genre. Zombie movies. I'm a big fan of zombie movies. I often watch films. I watch films every day, every winter. For example, you can say, a lot less than I used to. So I used to watch films regularly, often every week. Now I do it less, so a lot less than I used to. Band nine. And the last time I set foot in a cinema was last year. Set foot in. You kind of you put your foot in the cinema. So the last time I went to the cinema was a year ago. The last time I set foot in a cinema was a long time ago.

Rory: Although, at the time this goes out, that will be a lie because we are recording the day, no, two days before I go to the cinema. I'm going to see Disclosure Day, which is an alien movie. It's a science fiction film.

Maria: Ooh, but I remember you told me about Avatar movie.

Rory: Oh yeah, but that was at the very beginning of this year. So that was my one time.

Maria: Yeah, January.

Rory: And then Disclosure looked good. So.

Maria: I seldom go to the cinema. Rory here used a bookish word, seldom. Rory, seriously, do you often use this seldom? I seldom go to the cinema? Seldom?

Rory: Well, I don't use those words often. So it's just to emphasize the point, which is pretty seldom, or pretty rarely these days. Collocation will go with pretty. It's pretty seldom, pretty rarely.

Maria: Pretty rarely. If you can't pronounce rarely, then say seldom. So it's almost never. I prefer watching films from the comfort of my own home. From the comfort of my own home.

Rory: I don't think that's an idiom, but it's definitely a collocation or a fixed expression, surely.

Maria: Sometimes we get together to watch things, but usually I watch films at home. Get together with my friends. Sometimes we get together and go to the cinema. The latest movie I saw was ta-ta-ta. It's not the last, it's the latest, the freshest. The latest film, the latest movie I saw was a blockbuster, was a horror movie. And usually I use streaming services. Like Netflix, the N word. Right, Netflix, if you feel like getting in touch with us, go ahead. McDonald's, Nike, Gucci, Apple, Amazon, you know where to find us.

Rory: It doesn't even have to be an English-speaking company. It could be a foreign company, a Chinese company.

Maria: Get in touch. So we go to the cinema. Go to the cinema. I sometimes go to the cinema with my friends. Or Rory, what do you say? I watch films at the cinema or in the cinema?

Rory: I think it can be both, really, but I would say at the cinema, but you do watch films in a cinema as well.

Maria: Yeah. So we watch films at home, that's always at home. We watch films at the cinema. So that's okay.

Rory: But you could say I watch films in my home or in my friends' homes. But again, that's specifying about the location specifically here.

Maria: Exactly. Now we are ready for a joke.

Rory: Are we? We've missed things.

Maria: We've missed things?

Rory: Yes, I talked about movie buffs. That's a collocation, first of all, and they're people that like film, my word.

Maria: Oh, a movie buff. Yes, dear listener, that's a bad nine word, buff. So a buff is a person who knows a lot about something and is very interested in something. So for example, an a film buff, a computer buff, knows everything about computers, an opera buff knows everything about operas. Yeah, so you can say, oh, I'm not a movie buff, but I enjoy horror films, comedies, and historical dramas. Or I'm a movie buff. I go to the cinema every week, for example.

Rory: And also, when you talk about something in a short period of time, it's a matter of something. So a matter of months, which is to emphasize that it's only a few months until something is available on streaming. It could be the film only takes a matter of minutes to watch or a matter of hours as well. I can't believe you tried to con people out of the great vocabulary.

Maria: I'm horrible. I'm truly dreadful. I'm a horrible person, dear listener. I'm so sorry.

Rory: We'll make it up to you in part, oh no, no, no, now we're going to make it up to you with a joke.

Maria: The joke, right, yeah. But Rory, you need to teach a piece of vocabulary. So, we have films and in the past, we used film rolls. So what is a film roll?

Rory: Oh, wait, now, do you mean the material or the people?

Maria: Not the people, not the people, material.

Rory: Okay, so if it's a film roll, then this is like, it's like a disc of film that the movie is recorded on. That's why films are called films.

Maria: Yeah, they are black and it's kind of a round thing, a piece of film, paper, this black paper and on this paper we have a film. So a film roll. Like sushi roll, yum, yum, yum. So the joke, the joke, dear listener. Two mice, we have a mouse, one mouse, and another mouse, this little animal, so two mice, one mouse, two mice. So two mice are eating a film roll. And one says, mmm, I liked the book better. Oh, okay, yeah.

Maria: So, two mice are eating a film roll, a film roll, yum, yum, yum. And one says, ooh, I liked the book better. Because usually we read a book, then we watch a film and you say, oh no, the film is horrible. I enjoyed the book better. But in this joke, mice are literally eating a film roll, they're eating a film. And one says, I liked the book better because they ate the book as well. They are mice.

Rory: This works on other levels as well because a roll in my country is a kind of bread that you eat as well.

Maria: Oh, a film roll. Yeah.

Rory: Yeah, so it's working on many levels. That's a clever one. I like that.

Maria: Oh, that's a nice joke. Haha, haha, haha. Right, dear listener. Thank you very much for listening, sending you love, joy and super grammar with vocabulary. Bye.

Rory: Bye.