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STUDY AND WRITING SKILLS
65
6.5
WRITING SKILLS
AN ONLINE REVIEW
8
Work with a partner to discuss the questions.
1
What sort of films do you like to watch at home?
2
What films have you watched recently?
3
Do you read online reviews before you buy/see
movies. Why?/Why not?
9
Which of the following do you think it is a good idea to
have in an online review?
•
information about the story
•
information about the acting
•
how much it costs to buy
•
the genre
•
whether it is a good idea to watch it or not
•
the special effects
•
names of the actors/director
•
the music
•
what happens at the end
10
Read the customer review. Is it positive or negative?
11
Read the review again. Match the following
aspects of a film with the correct paragraph A–D.
1
the cast
2
the director
3
the background
4
the music
5
the writing
6
the plot
7
the setting
8
the recommendation
12
Adjectives
Change the highlighted adjectives in
the review to make the review more interesting and
improve the writing. (Look back through the unit or
use a thesaurus to help you.)
boring
dull/tedious
exciting
thrilling/dramatic
13
a
Adverbs
Look at the ten adverbs in bold in the
review. Put them in pairs of adverbs with a similar
meaning.
completely – totally
13
b
Match the pairs of adverbs with meanings 1–5.
1
in every way
2
without doubt
3
in most cases
4
more than usual
5
extremely
14
Write a review of a film/DVD you have seen.
Use the
Skyfall
review as a model. Use some of the
adjectives and adverbs you have learnt.
C
U
S
T
O
M
E
R
R
E
V
I
E
W
S
SKYFALL
Bond is back (again)
MaƩhew Drake (London)
A
I was surprised to learn that
Skyfall
is the 23rd
James Bond film, and Daniel Craig is the 6th actor
to play 007. This new adventure came out on the
50th anniversary of the first film. It is an original
screenplay and not adapted from one of the James
Bond books by Ian Fleming. In the film we learn a bit
about James Bond’s past, and his relaƟonship with his
parents. There are also many clever references to past
Bond films. Directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes
(
American Beauty
,
RevoluƟonary Road
), he has made a
film which is boring in parts, but exciƟng in others.
B
The writers have created a script which is
interesƟng and also funny in places. Of course, as you
would expect with any James Bond film, the acƟon
sequences are
generally
exciƟng and well done, and
it’s good to see there are no
completely
stupid special
effects like in some previous Bond films. The opening
chase is
parƟcularly
exciƟng. As always with Bond,
there are a variety of nice locaƟons such as Istanbul,
Shanghai, Macau and Scotland, although much of the
acƟon takes place in London.
C
The
really
good thing about the film, though, is once
again Daniel Craig as Bond. He is
definitely
the best
since Sean Connery. His acƟng is always good and in
some scenes he is very funny. His co-stars, especially
Javier Badem as the baddy, are also good. The Ɵtle song
by Adele is very powerful, as is the rest of the music.
The film is very long, at over two and a half hours, and
some scenes are quite boring,
especially
the last 30
minutes when the acƟon moves to Scotland.
D
The worst thing about the film was the product
placement which was
truly
bad. I don’t want to see
brand names everywhere when I watch a film. This is
a shame as other Bond films are
usually
good in this
respect. The last part of the film was for me
totally
uninspiring. The ending of the film was too over the
top even for the usual exciƟng Bond-style conclusion.
Overall, however, it is great cinema and I would
certainly
recommend this to any Bond fan or film lover.
