Movie Discussion - General Statements

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In this movie section, we are going to have discussions about movies that we already saw. This is useful because whenever we come out of a movie theatre, we always ask our friends what we thought about the movie. Sometimes, it's a simple answer such as, 'It was alright.' But sometimes, a good discussion can arise from a great movie. Let's get started...

Every time I finish watching a movie, I either ask someone, or someone asks me, "What did you think about the movie?" For the most part, the answer is a simple one line sentence:

"It was alright."
"It could have been better."
"It was pretty good."
"I liked it."
"It was entertaining."
"It was so stupid I almost fell asleep."
"Lame"
"Boring"
"Too unrealistic"

I can go on for a long time describing movies. I have listed a few so you get an idea how to answer simple movie questions.

Besides simple one line answers, there are a few reasons we need to say other things. It is because either we didn't understand something, want to describe a scene we liked, want to describe a scene that was stupid, or simply go on and on about how great the movie was.

Movie Discussion - Describing a Movie

Didn't understand:

"Do you remember the scene when Mary walked into the dining room? Why was she carrying a knife? She didn't use it and the cameras focused on it."
"I can't understand why she betrayed him. The whole movie concentrated on her trust and loyalty. It just doesn't make sense."

Good Scene:

"I love the scene when Russell Crowe showed his face to the emperor after the first gladiator fight."
"What did you think about the last fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith in the rain?"
"The courtroom scene between Jodie Foster and Richard Gere was absolutely amazing."

Great Movie:

"That was such a cool movie. It was the best movie I've seen in a long time."
"Anytime I see a great movie I tend to look at my watch often. That's because I don't want the movie to end."
"The movie was great. I liked everything about it. I'm definitely going to buy the dvd."

Situational questions:

"What would you have done? Would you have taken the million dollars and give up your wife for a night?"
"Would you choose money and fame, or family and stability?"

Some movies are known to be 'based on a true story.' These types of movies are very interesting because they actually happened. The only reason they are not considered to be a non-fiction movie is because the director or writer will add some scenes that didn't happen, or change some facts around so the movie is more appealing to the masses.

A conversation can start from movies such as Schindler's List. When coming out of a theatre, I heard a couple talk briefly about this.

"What did you think about the movie?"
"I thought it was great. It was very powerful."
"How much of it do you think was true?"
"I learned about Germany and World War II in one of my classes, and this movie showed everything I learned from class."
"Wow. It's amazing that these things have happened in our history."

Movie Discussion - Example Dialog

As of this writing, the latest movie I saw was The Last Samurai. After the movie, I had a meal with a couple of people. We had a good discussion due to this movie. It is difficult to specifically teach what you will need to know about movie conversations because every movie will require different words and sentences. The only thing I can do here is to give ideas and couple of examples about movie conversations. So this is not really going to be a practice section, but a chance to hear a real conversation from a movie. You can click on each individual sentence, or you can click on the link provided below to hear a real life conversation.

Listen to the conversation

A: "Did you like the movie?"
B: "It was better than I thought."
C: "I liked it."
A: "The movie didn't have many cheesy or stupid scenes."
B: "Yeah. I'm glad that they didn't have any love scenes. Sometimes a love scene destroys a good movie."
C: "I thought the scene where the girl was washing her hair and Tom Cruise came to say good bye was stupid. Why did they have that there? It didn't make sense."
B: "I agree. They didn't need that scene."
A: "I don't see the harm in that scene. They didn't do anything or show anything. What's the big deal?"
C: "When you are talking about good movies versus great movies, each and every scene counts."
A: "That's true."
B: "But besides those one or two scenes, the movie was great."
A: "I liked everything about it. I really liked the samurai that was beating up Cruise in the beginning of the movie. The guy second in command. He was cool too."
B: "Every movie has a guy like him. They try to make him awesome even though they don't say much."
C: "I don't understand why Tom Cruise went back to that village. If he was the only survivor, wouldn't that make everyone suspicious about where his loyalty lies?"
A: "It was clear in the movie that he loved the place and the samurais. Clearly everyone knows that he isn't a traitor. I would have done the same thing in his position."
B: "I think so too."
C: "But isn't it suspicious that he is the only survivor."
A: "Well, all the samurais were looking for a death in battle. Cruise wasn't."
C: "But only the boss received the satisfaction of being killed with the sword. Nobody else did."
A: "True."
B: "What are we going to order?"
C: "I am going to have a chicken burger because of the Mad Cow disease."
A: "Me too."
B: "I'm just having a soup and salad."