Movie Reviews – Film Reviews – DVD Reviews

Take their vocabulary above ‘It sucked!’

Task:

With a partner, you must either – go to the movies, rent a DVD or decide on a movie on free to air TV and present a review of the film as a 3-minute entertaining play for our class. The movie you chose must be rated either G or PG (I know… fun sucker) and you must gain parental permission to watch it.

In this task one reviewer is to use nothing but superlatives to sing the praises of the film whereas the other reviewer is abhorred by the film and demonstrates this with a passion.

A Little Inspiration:

These two Australian film critics are quite famous for their disagreements. Often one critic will love a film and the other hates it. Try using Youtube for a little inspiration.

David and Margaret Review The Castle

The Task Continued:

The dialogue of the play must contain the name of the film, a brief introduction to the film’s plot, the director, the producer, who the main characters are & a little about their personalities. The play must also comment on the actors’ performances, the setting, the major complication, the film’s message to the viewer, a comment as to why students should see this film & a star rating out of 5.

The dialogue should aim to contain a few of these words where appropriate: plot, sub-plot, script & atmosphere.

I also find I like to challenge the children by doing a little ‘enforced creativity’ in relation to vocabulary 🙂

You must also include the words:

• for a negative review – pedestrian, abhorrence, mundane,
• for a positive review – accomplished, exceptional & world-class
• words the teacher wants to focus on
• three new words you have learned for this task
• To help develop vocabulary and to have the children ‘rise above the mundane use of words’ I insist that some words are not to be used.

Words definitely not allowed: got, fun, sad, happy, sux, crap, garbage, good, or any other mundane terminology.

Teaching Point:

The trick with a film review is to tell the audience enough about the film to convince them to see it or not, but not enough to ruin the experience for them.

Presentation:

Create videos of the performances for inclusion on a class CD or broadcast over the school intranet. The ‘best’ (play that covers all requirements and is entertaining) could be performed at a school assembly.