M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name isMarco. 
E: And I’m Erica. 
M: And today we’re gonna go back to the movies, but this time we’re gonna do it a little bit 
different. 
E: That’s right, uh, we’re gonna be listening as two movie critics offer their opinion on the 
latest release. 
M: Right, so, we’re gonna be learning how to criticize or give your opinions about 
something. 
E: That’s right and, uh, here we’re talking movies, but a lot of this language can be used to 
offer your… your criticism or ideas on literature, um, or art or other artistic pursuits. 
M: Okay, so, before we listen to this dialogue for the first time, let’s take a look at 
“vocabulary preview”. 
Voice: Vocabulary preview. 
E: Well, we’re gonna look at one word here that we will hear in the dialogue and it 
is erudite. 
M: Erudite. 
E: Erudite. 
M: Okay, so, this word erudite, some people pronounce it Erudite. 
E: That’s true and, basically, it’s an adjective, describing someone, who has a lot of 
knowledge about a subject. 
M: Okay, so, an erudite in engineering. 
E: Yes, or an erudite professor. 
M: Okay, very good, so, that’s the word that we’re gonna preview today and now let’s listen 
to our dialogue and find out what movie they are criticizing. 
A: Welcome back movie lovers to another ” Premier
Movie Review”. My name is Richard Clarke and I
am joined today by the very erudite David Watson.
B: Thank you Dick. Today we are going to talk about
the movie ” Lion King”. Tell me Dave, what is your
impression of this film?
A: Well, I think this film is simply a fable, depicting
man’s eternal greed for power, and in my opinion,
it’s a very fine film. Even despite the accusations
of plagiarism traditional folk tales from other coun-
tries. The musical score was amazing, the anima-
tion was very well done, and the story was simply
enchanting.
B: I think otherwise. Even though the animation was
technically strong, and as you say, the score and
songs performed by Elton John were great, the
film lacks a certain originality; it lacked heart. And
I would dare to say, it was too predictable.
A: Predictable! How! Come on Dick, It’s a G-rated
movie! It’s for the kids! It’s not a thriller!
B: Well, that’s just it. It did have some very dramatic
and intense scenes For example when Mufasa
dies, or the dark, grim portrayal of Scar. Even so,
the film is linear. Mufasa dies, Simba runs away
thinking it’s his fault. Falls in love and returns to
retake what is rightfully his. It’s just too cliché.
A: How can it be cliché? It’s a fable! It’s telling
a time-honoured story! The movie make a point
of how the hunger for power leads to corruption,
and teaches children the value of respect, life and
love.
B: You have always been so soft, Dave!
A: Open your heart Dick. Don’t shut us out.
B: Anyway... That’s all for today folks! Join us next
time as we talk about "How to lose a guy in
10 days" I’m sure you’ll love that one Dave!
E: Alright, so, The Lion King, one of my old time favorites. 
M: A very good movie and, well, mixed feelings about it, right? Some people think it’s good, 
other people th… other people think it’s not that good. 
E: Um, I’m in the good camp, as you know, um, but anyway there’s tons of really useful, 
um, and quite difficult language here, so, why don’t we look at that now in “language 
takeaway”? 
Voice: Language takeaway. 
M: Alright, on language takeaway today we have five words and we can start with the first 
one. 
E: So, the critic… the first critic said that this was a movie, depictingmen’s eternal greed 
for power. 
M: Depicting. 
E: To depict. 
M: Alright, so, this word depict, it sounds a little bit strange, so, before we explain it, let’s 
take a look at some examples. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: I don’t really like the way that novel depicted the role of women in society; it was pretty 
sexist! 
Voice: Example two. 
B: The film depicts the realities of war very accurately. 
Voice: Example three. 
C: See, this image here is depicting some of the most well-knownscenes from Australian 
history. 
E: Alright, so, depicting, um, I can basically understand that this means to show something. 
Now, If… now, we can notice, uh, that the word depict has th… this short and little word –
pict in there… 
M: Uhu 
E: That… that sounds like picture. 
M: Uhu. 
E: And when we think about, um, depicting, we’re often thinking about “in a picture” or “in 
a book”, um, or “in a painting”. 
M: So, in his case the story is depicted in a movie, right? 
E: That’s right. 
M: So, you can see it, it’s a picture, basically. 
E: Exactly. 
M: Alright, very good, so, to depict. Well, moving on, the critic also talked about the grim 
portrayal of the villain of the movie - Scar. 
E: That’s right, so, grim portrayal. 
M: A grim portrayal. 
E: Okay, let’s look at the word grim first. When something is grim, it’s really unpleasant or 
uncomfortable or even shocking to think about. 
M: Okay, so, something that is grim. Now, what about portrayal? 
E: Really close to depict. A portrayal is something that shows or describes something, 
especially like in a book or in a picture or in a play. 
M: Okay, so, a portrayal. I guess we can relate it again to a portrait. 
E: That’s right. 
M: Alright, so, portrayal. 
E: Now, we can also use this as a verb – to portray. So, this movie portrays men’s eternal 
greed. 
M: Okay, so, we can use this as a noun or as a verb. 
E: That’s right. 
M: So, moving on with our third word today we have an enchanting movie. 
E: That’s right, the story was simply enchanting. 
M: Okay, so, if something is enchanting… 
E: It’s really, um… it’s really attractive and beautiful and interesting and it holds your 
attention. 
M: Okay, it holds your attention. So, it’s something very nice, something that is enchanting 
has to be nice. 
E: That’s right, and it has this sense of magic around it. 
M: Okay, very good, so, an enchanting moment. 
E: Or an enchanting woman. 
M: Okay, and now, what about our next word? It’s very… And what about our next word? 
It’s French, actually, but we use it in English. 
E: That’s right, so, the… the critic said that this story was cliché. 
M: Cliché. 
E: Cliché. 
M: Okay, so, we hear this all the time, what is a cliché? 
E: Well, basically, a cliché is a phrase or an idea that is used so often, um, that it loses its 
meaning or importance or interest. 
M: Okay, so, can you give us some examples of a cliché moment or maybe, uh, a phrase 
that’s cliché? 
E: Okay, well, how about this one? When you’re breaking up with your boyfriend, then you 
say “honey, it’s not you, it’s… it’s me”. 
M: Okay, that’s cliché, it’s typical. 
E: Yeah, or maybe, um, a cliché portrayal of a Frenchman would be a guy, riding a bike with 
a baguette, smoking a cigarette and with aberet on his head. 
M: Okay, that’s a cliché portrayal, very good. 
E: Yeah. 
M: So, it’s common, it’s even to a certain point a little bitstereotypical. 
E: That’s right. 
M: Alright. And what about our last word? 
E: Well, they described this story as a fable. 
M: Fable. 
E: A fable. 
M: Okay, so, when we were small, we all read fables. 
E: That’s right, uh, they are stories, um, about animals that are used to teach 
people a lesson. 
M: Okay, so, a fable teaches you a lesson, I think the most famous one is the one of “The 
Tortoise and the Hare”, right? 
E: Yeah, and another good one would be “The Three Little Pigs”. 
M: Okay, that’s also a fable. 
E: Yep. 
M: Okay, so, we’ve looked at these five great words and now it’s time for us to move on to 
“putting it together”. 
Voice: Putting it together. 
E: Okay, here we’re gonna look at some phrases that you can use in a bunch of different 
ways to help you criticize or give you opinion about a piece of art like a movie or a book or 
whatever. 
M: Okay, so, let’s start right away with our first word. So, the film critic asked “what is 
your impression of this film?” 
E: What’s your impression of. 
M: What’s your impression of something, right? 
E: That’s right. 
M: Alright, so, before we get into explaining impression, let’s listen to some more 
examples. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: I don’t know where, but I have the impression that we’ve met before. 
Voice: Example two. 
B: I get the impression that he’s a very organized person. 
Voice: Example three. 
C: Somehow Jim got the impression I was gay; did you tell him that? 
E: Okay, so, I can see that this means, basically, what’s your opinion or how do you feel 
about something. 
M: Okay, so, you can have an impression of something or of someone. 
E: Yep. 
M: Alright. And what about the next word? 
E: Well, the critic Richard Clarke said that it was a really enjoyable film, even despite 
the accusations of plagiarism. 
M: Okay, so, now we have an interesting phrase here – the accusations of plagiarism. 
E: Accusations of plagiarism. 
M: Okay, so, accusations is a noun, right? 
E: Right, it’s the action of accusing. 
M: Okay, of blaming somebody. 
E: Yeah. 
M: Alright, and what about plagiarism? 
E: This is an academic term. If you, uh, plagiarize, you copy someone’s work and take 
credit for it. 
M: Okay, so, if I copy somebody’s book and I say I wrote it, then that’s plagiarism. 
E: Yeah, that’s pretty bad, so… 
M: Alright. 
E: Accusations of plagiarism. Now, we can use this phrase,accusations of something, in a 
bunch of different ways. So, Marco, what… let’s have an example. 
M: Alright, so, for example, we can say “he was cleared of all accusations of tax evasion”. 
E: Okay. He denied accusations of cheating on his wife. 
M: Alright, very good, so, accusations. And now, moving on to the final part of putting it 
together, we have this word – lacks. 
E: The film lacks a certain originality. 
M: Okay, so, the film lacks a certain originality. What does he mean by that? 
E: It doesn’t have enough of. 
M: Okay, so, if you’re lacking something, you don’t have enough of it. 
E: Or you don’t have it at all. 
M: Alright, so, can you give us some more examples of how we can use lack? 
E: Okay, the same way it’s used in the dialogue – “our team lacks the… appropriate talent 
to complete this project” 
M: Okay or I can say “our school lacks infrastructure for so many students”. 
E: Or we can also say “infrastructure is lacking at our school”. 
M: Okay, so, you can use it in those two ways, right? You can use it as a gerund or as 
a verb. 
E: That’s right. Okay, lots of great language here and why don’t we hear one more time in 
context with the dialogue? 
A: Welcome back movie lovers to another ” Premier
Movie Review”. My name is Richard Clarke and I
am joined today by the very erudite David Watson.
B: Thank you Dick. Today we are going to talk about
the movie ” Lion King”. Tell me Dave, what is your
impression of this film?
A: Well, I think this film is simply a fable, depicting
man’s eternal greed for power, and in my opinion,
it’s a very fine film. Even despite the accusations
of plagiarism traditional folk tales from other coun-
tries. The musical score was amazing, the anima-
tion was very well done, and the story was simply
enchanting.
B: I think otherwise. Even though the animation was
technically strong, and as you say, the score and
songs performed by Elton John were great, the
film lacks a certain originality; it lacked heart. And
I would dare to say, it was too predictable.
A: Predictable! How! Come on Dick, It’s a G-rated
movie! It’s for the kids! It’s not a thriller!
B: Well, that’s just it. It did have some very dramatic
and intense scenes For example when Mufasa
dies, or the dark, grim portrayal of Scar. Even so,
the film is linear. Mufasa dies, Simba runs away
thinking it’s his fault. Falls in love and returns to
retake what is rightfully his. It’s just too cliché.
A: How can it be cliché? It’s a fable! It’s telling
a time-honoured story! The movie make a point
of how the hunger for power leads to corruption,
and teaches children the value of respect, life and
love.
B: You have always been so soft, Dave!
A: Open your heart Dick. Don’t shut us out.
B: Anyway... That’s all for today folks! Join us next
time as we talk about "How to lose a guy in
10 days" I’m sure you’ll love that one Dave!
M: Alright, so, a good movie. What do you think about The Lion King? What do you think 
about his critique? 
E: Well, I am with Dick on this one. Um, I think that this is a great film, it was one of my 
favorites and I’ve seen it about five billion times. 
M: Really? 
E: Yeah. 
M: You really liked it? 
E: But I’m not interested in my opinion. I wanna hear criticisms and film criticisms from our 
users. 
M: Right, so, come to our website at englishpod.com, where you can leave your questions 
or comments and also any criticisms on this particular movie or maybe the other one that 
we mentioned, uh, “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days”. 
E: Personally, not so fond of that one, but looking forward to hearing from our users. 
M: Alright, or maybe any other movies you might like. So, uh, come to the website and until 
next time… 
E: Good bye! 
M: Bye!