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B Movies

B Movies

Date: Nov 07 2007

Themes: Hobbies, Pop Culture

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.

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

Mason

Mason

Beren

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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luvbutterfly

Jordan

the most interseting thing in this topic is how  peter jackson become agreat director of a great movie; as lord of the rings. that gives me hop that one day i may hit my biggest dream

08:21 PM Nov 07 2007 |

maria_85

Morocco

acually i do not like as this films even if i've seen one of them wich is seven,and lord of the ring…i have just a film if you want to watch it  (braquage d'italien)...have fun with this action movie

08:18 PM Nov 07 2007 |

Sabu

Sabu

India

Most of the B movies reflect the real life. This is the success secret of B movies. I enjoyed a B movie named The Indecent Proposal. Wow!! superb movie with excellent script.

06:44 PM Nov 07 2007 |

chocolate0909

China

Currently Peter Jackson is reknowned for his fantasy movies and exceptional cult remakes. But once upon a time, he was better known for splatter-gore horror movies, like the "Dead Alive," a bizarrely hilarious movie full of zombies, rat-monkeys and messy death. Glorious!

Lionel (Timothy Balme) is a downtrodden young man, who has the unpleasant honor of caring for his nasty mum (Elizabeth Moody). Then he meets store clerk Paquita (Diana Peñalver), and the two young people fall in love. Unfortunately, during a date to the zoo, his mom follows them so she can wreck his date.

She succeeds, sort of - she gets bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey from Skull Island (the same one where Kong came from?) and dies. But poor Lionel can't get off that easily - because of the bite, his mom comes back to life as a flesh-eating zombie. Soon zombies are running amok, and Lionel and Paquita must find a way to get rid of them. Can true love triumph over the undead?

Be forewarned: this movie is gross. Very disgusting. Lots of fluids and body parts, and zombies eating people in detail. And the whole movie climaxes with hundreds of zombies crashing a party, and a spectacularly gory sequence involving a, uh, lawnmower and chainsaw.

But gore alone doesn't make a movie a cult hit - any idiot can make a zombie movie. This one is special because of Jackson's twisted sense of humor; "Shaun of the Dead" definitely owes a stylistic debt to him. How many movies do you see where a character tries to clean up the blood after Zombie Mom has lunch?

Jackson sprinkles his 1950s setting with all sorts of weird characters -
a kung-fu reverend and a Nazi vet among them. He takes every weird zombie scenario and runs with it, whether it's Lionel babysitting a hyper zombie baby or the Reverend McGruder announcing, "I kick ass for the Lord!" or "Stand back boy! This calls for some divine intervention!"

But the movie is also notable for a very touching love story, between Lionel and Paquita—and like any good hero, Lionel has to overcome obstacles (the zombies and Mum) before they can live happily ever after. Both actors do very solid jobs, and Balme really makes us like his downtrodden mama's boy, especially once Lionel picks up that lawnmower.

"Dead Alive" is a delightfully stomach-turning ride through a town full of zombies, body parts, and those ugly little buggers from Skull Island. Although it's not for the faint of stomach.

06:34 PM Nov 07 2007 |

chocolate0909

China

it's primarily reputation is for it's gore. Which is deserved, even in the more widely available slightly-tamed down version that's more commonly available in the US, by the end of the film nearly every inch of the screen is covered in blood and guts. But don't neccesarily expect something frightening because of this, the movie is overall more funny than scary, from the ridiculous premise for the zombies' origin (a cursed Samarian rat-monkey imported to New Zealand) to the myriad bizarre and quirky characters and of course a lot of gross-out humor. At times it almost resembles what would happen if Monty Python made a zombie movie and ran as far with the blood and gore as they possibly could. enjoy this movie if the following apply to you:

1) the phrases "karate priest", "baby zombie", and "rat-monkey" piqued your interest.

2) You liked Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness, and are definitely not in the camp that the series went downhill once Sam Raimi started adding in comic elements

3) You're not at all squeamish about blood and relish completely over-the-top bordering on implausible gory death scenes.

4) You have a general taste for cheesy b-movies.

06:31 PM Nov 07 2007 |

icingblue813

China

I like B movies,In China,I think most of the B movies are better the the big blockbusters.

04:11 PM Nov 07 2007 |

weili

China

good show,it is perfect.but ,seldomly  i see films as a result of studay bussiely

02:37 PM Nov 07 2007 |

weili

China

Having not see it,but moved by what somebody siad.thank u.I think it is worth whatching,and I will see it one day.

02:30 PM Nov 07 2007 |

weili

China

Having not see it,but moved by what somebody siad.thank u.I think it is worth whatching,and I will see it one day.

02:30 PM Nov 07 2007 |

Jennycui

Jennycui

China

I seldom go to cinema after graduating from college, but sometimes I download movies online and try to learn English. It is interesting to learn from watching movies.

02:07 PM Nov 07 2007 |

dwxsandy

dwxsandy

China

I am not so clear about it.May be it is great!

01:52 PM Nov 07 2007 |

fjoan

fjoan

China

This is my first lesson on this web,I haven't seen B movies till now.But I would like to see it,as it may be fuuny.

12:48 PM Nov 07 2007 |

mero tito

Egypt

I think most of the B movies are great due to they are not very ambitious such

11:53 AM Nov 07 2007 |

ya3qoup

ya3qoup

Egypt

I think most of the B movies are great due to they are not very ambitious such as any other kind of movies; it means that they are not made for commercialization just for a special kind of public who enjoy their content.

10:59 AM Nov 07 2007 |

kaushalyats

Sri Lanka

I believe that why most of the B movies are not good is that their concentrating on lowering cost than quality, anyway i have seen very few good B movies and most of them are comedies. But i like to watch block buster dance movies like Dirty dancing and Step up

08:30 AM Nov 07 2007 |

kaushalyats

Sri Lanka

I believe that why most of the B movies are not good is that their concentrating on lowering cost than quality, anyway i have seen very few good B movies and most of them are comedies. But i like to watch dance movies like Dirty dancing and Step u

08:30 AM Nov 07 2007 |

alanblue

alanblue

China

i have never seen thses films ,but it looks wonderflu, maybe i will look them after!

06:28 AM Nov 07 2007 |

jekim

jekim

South Korea

In Korea, B movies made in other countries were little imported. so I have to find those on the internet. I can't go to theater because of my children. they are too young to go out with. If i have a chance, I'd like to see Army of Darkness and Dead Alive.

04:24 AM Nov 07 2007 |

Steelheart

Indonesia

I like all of the films directed by Stephen Spielberg, also all of the 007 films. I don't like the horror movies. These movies, I felt to be stupided. I like The Lord of The Rings. I also like The Love Affair movies

03:14 AM Nov 07 2007 |

babyfaceding

China

I love B movies, some of them are really good, they got good story and originality, even better than the blockbuster ones~~

02:48 AM Nov 07 2007 |

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